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Hello! It’s hard to believe I’ll be 36 weeks tomorrow! Since this will most likely be my last pregnancy I really wanted to do a maternity photo shoot. I didn’t do one with the last two pregnancies and wanted to take some photos to always remember this time in life. Just when I was about to start looking for a photographer COVID hit and all my plans went out the window. Typically most people take these pictures around 7-8 months and as I was approaching that time I started to get really sad about not getting to be able to take these pictures when I just decided I would try without a photographer. It wasn’t perfect and I went in with low expectations but I’m so happy we did them! Here’s what I learned!
- Prepare, prepare, prepare: I have two kids and I know once the camera comes out there is a very limited amount of time that they will take pictures. I bought and tested out the tripod at home and also found out that the bluetooth remote I had got was a bust because my camera was not bluetooth enabled. If I had found that out right before I was trying to take pictures it would have wasted so much time. Instead we knew we would have to use self timer function on the camera, which was not ideal but got the job done.
- Pick your poses ahead of time: I am not a professional photographer so I did not know the most flattering poses for maternity shoots. Before we went to take pictures I went on Pinterest and did a few searches for maternity photo shoots to find poses I thought would work for our family. I then saved them and showed them to everyone right before we did the pose so they all knew what they were supposed to do. An additional tip on this – practice extra beforehand with your husband. He likely doesn’t take a lot of pictures and even if you show him the pose he might not know the best way to stand. This was definitely a learning for us! 🙂
- Get dressed up: We usually have professional family pictures taken about once a year and when we do I coordinate our outfits, make sure everyone has their hair done and is feeling good for pictures. I did the same thing for this, I bought a new dress, picked out everyone’s outfits beforehand, spent time on my make up and the whole thing.
- Know when to give up: You have to move pretty quickly with kids and while I wanted to stay and try a few more pictures I also knew when they were done and it was time to call it quits. All in all in about 30 pictures I think I got three that I love, which considering our set up and having small kids I was proud of!
Taking these pictures was hard and I give kudos to all the professional photographers who make it look so easy.
We were not willing to break social distancing at the time we took these so while they are not perfect, I love them. There’s also the fact that that there’s such a story behind these pictures of what we were going through during this time that adds extra meaning to them.