beautiful momma to be crystal! presque isle, maine maternity photographer

Crystal is goooooorgeous. and pregnancy agrees with her SO much better than it would with me. I'm pretty sure I'd end up eating my weight in kettle cooked chips and peach rings every week and gaining a ton of weight.

she's 30-something weeks at this point (I'm not that good with numbers, and adding that to the whole fact that I don't get pregnancy math makes it even worse.) and doesn't it look like she just ate a basketball? mmmmhm. some people are just too lucky! ;)

for a while I had stopped doing maternity sessions, cause I felt like they weren't my best work and I didn't feel right doing them if I didn't like them. it was the best thing I could have done, even if it was just for 3 months! With this session I realized why I didn't like maternity sessions and why I thought my photos weren't that great. it's cause I wasn't staying true to me. I was doing things that everyone else was doing - baby blocks, the heart hand on belly - everything trendy like that, I did it. and hated it after. (no offense to anyone who does those things, I'm just not a fan! like selective color.. but that's a totally different subject.) when Crystal and I met up for her session I didn't do any of those things. and you know what, they are my favorite maternity sessions ever. (except for army wife Kelly's - you can see one of her maternity photos here in my post about her husband's homecoming.)

I never realized how important it is to not copy other photographer's work/ideas/inspiration. for real. it's really hard, but it's SO SO important. now, I take inspiration from old films, or some old photographs (like super vintage stuff!), my fave tv shows (The Walking Dead has some insanely awesome imagery) and other things that probably would sound super tacky, so I'm going to leave it at the Walking Dead inspires me.

and since that makes me sound crazy - here's a peek at Crystal's gorgeous self and her adorable baby belly! there are some more on my facebook - album is here. this was also my first session which I shot on fully manual mode! eeeek!

by the way, I decided to do Crystal's maternity session partly to see if I would like them after I gave them a second chance but it was mostly because Crystal's husband booked the session for her. yes, you read that right. her husband wanted to do something special just for her and knew how much she'd love it. how sweet is that?

and Crystal had her baby boy today - Congrats Crystal + Shaun! can't wait to meet him!

need more beautiful baby bellies? see more here!