I specialize in empowering women through photographs. Branding has allowed me to empower women in their careers, and boudoir has allowed me to empower women to love their bodies, but Motherhood sessions are all about empowering mothers. Moms sacrifice their bodies, their finances, and their freedoms to do what many take for granted. It’s time to celebrate the motherhood experience. Often moms are the last ones to get in front of the camera. Many children will grow up with hundreds of photographs of themselves and their siblings, but only a few of their moms. Let’s turn that around and photograph mom in a way that makes her feel good and give little girls like Giana beautiful photographs with her mom that she will cherish one day. Imagine taking photos with your children every year, imagine being able to see how you all grew up together over the years.
It’s always good to get family pictures too, but it’s especially nice to have pictures of this relationship we have with each child.
In this first set, I had a really strong desire to reflect on what I’ve learned from old masters such as Leonardo Davinci. Not to say that I am anywhere near the precision and skill that it took to create The Mona Lisa, but I have been inspired by it. The more I learn about how we perceive shapes, colors, and light, the more I appreciate the old master’s work. I wanted to combine color, light, and symbolism together with rich texture. The styling was planned to be very simple, this gold set is using a long strip of velvet fabric. I’m always happy to highlight simple styling to show that anyone could do this. The downside with wearing a piece of fabric is that you don’t have as much movement as you might with other wardrobe choices. This is pretty apparent when you pair it with a wiggly baby. I think this works out great for one or two specific poses. It’s easy enough to add on a look such as this to a session. The draped fabric look is great for those traditional poses, but it’s nice to have something that is easier to move in for more interactive poses. I’m sure Hannah would agree. The headdress Hannah is wearing in this set is one of my wardrobe pieces. It’s a piece I crafted with hot glue and some paint.
Hannah and her little girl Giana were so patient with the flashes and slipping fabric. I think this set turned out really well. I love how the colors worked out together. Hannah has a very peaceful and relaxed energy and we just had fun getting different expressions from Giana. Little Giana is probably about to grow a bunch of teeth because her focus was on the gums! She’s adorable in all of her expressions, of course, so we got her attention away from chewing on her hands for a few, but didn’t stress it too much.
Hannah in many ways is a mom just like most mothers, but to Giana, she is her world. Our mothers are our first teachers, they teach us how to give and receive love. This is probably one of the most important things we can learn to prepare for a lifetime of relationships. That sounds like a lot of pressure, but the interesting part about it is that moms don’t have to be perfect. Moms don’t have to be perfect, they don’t even have to spend all their time with their children, their role is at its core about love and acceptance. It’s that unconditional love, no matter where you are at, or what you’ve done, you know that one person loves you.
These sessions are designed to celebrate Motherhood, so I thought it only fitting to style a look with the headdress.
We did two sets, the first focused on color and the second on black and white. I love black and white images and will often add a set just for black and white. The styling was really simple, Hannah wore a black V-necked body suit and Giana was comfy in her diaper with a piece of black stretchy jersey fabric wrapped around her. In this set, they were able to move around more and I focused on their connection. I really love how these turned out. We still kept the poses pretty simple, some of my favorites were just sitting on the floor. These were especially fun to photograph and the interaction possibilities are limitless. Little Giana is going to be on the move, she’s super sweet and curious. The studio was full of cooing and giggles with this little one around.
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