A Maternity Photo Shoot is a wonderful way to capture and remember a truly magical time in your life. As first-time parents, we really wanted to use our photo shoot as a way for us to make our connection stronger before baby gets here and have some beautiful photos to look back on what has been the most exciting part of our relationship.
The most important part of a photo shoot is finding the right photographer. You don’t necessarily need to pay an arm and a leg for one who specializes in maternity photography, just someone whose portfolio you like and who is willing to take your suggestions and try new things.
In your planning you will need to consider the following to make the most of your photo shoot:
- Location
- Consider what season of the year it is.
- For outside photos choose a location that offers a variety of backdrops: buildings with different textures, parks with benches or bodies of water, trees, flowers, etc.
- For inside photos focus on the nursery or a common room in the house where you will spend a lot of time.
- Outfits For You And Your Partner
- Again, consider the season.
- Are you able to change clothing?
- Choose a completely different look for your second outfit. Think one more casual/everyday look and one that is dressier.
- Make sure that both of your outfits compliment each other in color and style.
- Don’t forget to accessorize!
- Props
- Are there any special props or baby items you want to feature in the photos?
- We chose a small tiara for our little girl. You can choose a sentimental item from when you were a baby, an ultrasound photo, or think small baby items like shoes, clothes, blocks that spell baby’s name, a ribbon/bow, small truck, or doll. Get creative here!
- Bring a blanket in case you want to take any photos on the ground. A solid color would probably work best.
- Use what your location has to offer. Look for bridges, arches, benches, trees, rocks, etc and use them in your poses.
My photographer and I used Pinterest beforehand to get ideas for poses. During the shoot she used her creative judgement to pull the ideas that we liked together and use the scenery to our advantage.
I couldn't agree more – I treasure my maternity photos now more than I EVER thought I would. Thank you so much for sharing these tips! I especially like the one about choosing a special prop or memorabilia to add to the shoot 🙂
I'm so glad to hear you are still enjoying your maternity photos! I hope to have an album put together with them and place it with our wedding one.
We did some of those same shots for ours with my daughter. I love the crown one, that is cute!
Thank you, I love how the crown photos turned out!
I've never had a maternity shoot. I would love to next time.
Definitely go for it, Alix. It was fun and I love looking at them.
Very cute. When we did ours, they said to bring blocks so we could spell out the baby's name. We had an alphabet puzzle and my oldest held it for the pic. So cute!
That is also a really cute idea, but we are stuck between two names right now so that wasn't an option for us, haha!
I love maternity shoots! did you get any of your bare belly for yourselves?
No, I didn't get any bare belly. I wasn't sure how I would feel about them for myself but there are some really beautiful ones that I have seen!
great tips here… many Mums never get around a photo shoot and then… then it is simply too late
Thanks! So true, there is definitely a time when it needs to be done. I say go for it when you have the chance so you don't regret not doing it!
Your pictures turned out great!
Thanks Rachel! We are really happy with them.
I love maternity photos! Thank you for sharing these great tips. (Facebook:TJ Sims)
Thanks Taryn!
I love maternity photos!
I wish I had done these when I was pregnant.
I love the idea of a maternity photo shoot! We want to do a gender reveal photo shoot, as you might have seen pins for on Pinterest! 😀 Not sure if either will get done, but I hope to do some sort of photo shoot to commemorate things, before baby is born!<br /><br />Your photos look lovely by the way! 🙂
Thanks Jennifer! Gender reveal photo shoots look so fun. We found out the gender of our baby by biting in to cupcakes. I agree you should try to fit in some type of photo shoot, I think it will bring us some great memories.
thanks for the helpful tips. w two pregnancies come and gone, maybe a third time will be a charm. I took NURSING photos w my last LO. And I am loving those. I hope I get another chance to do a shoot like this.
i didn't take maternity photos with our little girl, and i wish i had! yours are so beautiful!
Thanks so much, Jen! It was a really fun day!
Your photos are beautiful and thank you for the great tips.
These are some great tips! Your pictures are beautiful!
Lovely pictures! I actually did mine using self-timer at home.lol Although, it would be nice to have someone take the pictures for me. So far, my pregnancy update pics have turned out okay.
I really want to do a maternity photo shoot but I am running out of time 🙁
I love your maternity pictures!!! Could you tell me where you got your tiara?
I didn’t do professional maternity photos last time, but this time around I would love to, especially since we can involve our daughter (who will be three when baby gets here). Thanks so much for the tips!
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, great post! This will be a great reference once we reach that stage.
Ive been trying to decide if I wanted to spend the extra money for the maternity shoot. I think I will try to save the extra money 🙂