This session was a great new experience for me, and I learned so much while having a great time!

This was my first ever maternity shoot, but thankfully our good family friends (check our their gorgeous holiday mini session here!) were flexible and trusting enough to just go with the flow and give it a shot! The original idea had been to find a field of wildflowers and get some bright and airy shots there, but timing and weather didn't cooperate for us so we had to come up with a new plan.

I had sent Natalie a list of potential locations based on suggestions from friends, and we settled on a rustic county park in Almaden, just south of San Jose, with beautiful white barns and fields of high grass--not quite wildflowers, but gorgeous nonetheless!

With location out of the way, now we just had to watch for the weather. Thankfully, the sun and clouds cooperated perfectly with us all day! The sun had been going in between clouds, but for the first series of images it stayed out just long enough for beautiful backlight to give that light, airy feel that we'd been looking for with the family group shots.

Then, as soon as the soon-to-be-big-sister got antsy, the clouds came out and gave us perfect, even lighting to get these images along the pathway and then some solo shots of Natalie in front of the barn.

Walking back toward the car, Natalie noticed this fun antique farm equipment and we stopped to get some sitting poses against the white barn.

My final takeaway from this session was to always be open to working with my clients and capturing those special impromptu moments whenever they pop up. The best example of this is right at the end of the first series of images in the tall grass field. Olive was done sitting still and decided to make a run for it! I saw her briefly pause, all alone in the middle of this waving grass field, and just HAD to grab this photo. Of course it’s not a typical maternity photo, but it’s certainly one of my favorites from the session!

Thanks for sticking around and reading! I'd love to hear in the comments your favorite shot, location, pose, or all of the above!