Behind the Scenes at a Maternity Photoshoot at Ham Hill, Somerset

Winter is not the usual time to have an outdoor photoshoot. The bare leafless trees, potential for mud and precipitation and general lack of daylight can put a lot of photographers off. When you’re on a deadline though (and when I say deadline I mean due date!) sometimes you have to overcome those hurdles and make magic happen anyway.

Read on to find out how I helped create a dreamy outdoor maternity photoshoot for my clients in a Somerset park in the middle of winter with a pinch of creativity and a lot of vision.

It’s All in the Planning

The Birch Family are expecting their beautiful baby in the Spring which meant that Mum-to-be Maya was going to be at the 32 week mark (the perfect time to have your maternity photos taken) in the last week of January. We had opted for Ham Hill Country Park as the perfect location for the session with its lovely open spaces and natural light, easy parking and endless trails and quiet spaces.

Choosing a date and location meant that I could then create a mood board of colours that would work with similar locations at a similar time of year. The winter light meant we could go with a rich deep colour palette for Mayas dress and the winter grass and trees gave warm tones and soft textures so we added a hat and a blanket with some of the earthy tones to compliment the backdrop. After sharing these with Maya she was over the moon with the aesthetic we were hoping to achieve and was then confident to go and choose her families outfits accordingly.

Before the Photography Session

The two things I like to do before any photoshoot is have a nosey around the location. Whether it’s an in-home shoot, in a garden, a park or just a field it’s always important to see the lay of the land. I’m checking for a few different things including what spaces are looking like, how the light is falling or how it will fall during the 90 minutes of the session. I’m also making sure that the route is clear to our location, especially in winter and with a Mama carrying precious cargo. I want to make this experience as relaxing as possible and wading through a muddy path or having to carry a pushchair up lots of steps is never something I want my clients to have to deal with during their session.

The other thing I do before the session is make sure that families have an understanding of how the session is going to go. I always explain my basic plan for our route, my expectations for the shoot, a reminder of what we can do if children are getting tired or cranky and some of the basics of great relaxed poses.

For this shoot I wanted to tell Maya and her family about the ‘Hands On’ rule. This is a really easy way to make sure everyone in an image looks connected. By ensuring that whatever pose or shape they get into for an image everyone is touching someone else, no one is left looking awkward at the edge of the group. It can be as simple as placing a hand on a shoulder, an arm round a waist or, specifically in the maternity photoshoot case, a hand on the bump.

Getting Under Way with some Family Photos

No matter the age of the children involved I always start a session with a group photo where everyone is looking at the camera. The reason for this is that for the first ten to fifteen minutes families tend to feel a little awkward and self conscious. Once we have the first few shots out the way they begin to relax. Thats when we can begin to play some games, start to explore the location and I can take those more candid lifestyle pictures.

The first of the three locations I had picked for the session is a small open space on the edge of the park. This spot is calm, quiet and secluded making it the perfect place to start the session if clients are feeling self conscious. Once Maya had changed into her dress we began with some family shots and then some posed shots of the couple using my 50mm lens. The sun was setting quickly behind them so I was keen to work quickly directing the positions to block out too much flare and getting some lovely intimate moments between Mum and Dad.

Mother Daughter Moments

Next we moved onto a slightly more open space in the park where I could use my 85mm lens to stand further away and get that lovely blurred background. I introduced the hat and shawl for styling and directed Maya into some maternity poses that felt comfortable and natural. A general rule of thumb for posing pregnant Mum’s is to ask them to bend the front knee and place the hand closest to camera below the bump. I was super pleased with the results and love the combination of the backlighting and the colours. We used this location to get some beautiful mother daughter images too. These are some of my favourite images from the shoot as they really capture the love and genuine emotion of the day.

I also chose this time to get some close up shots of the families hands on Mums bump, I like to include these in a Maternity Gallery to break up the different scenes and provide a bit of diversity to the images.

The Final Location

On my location scouting I had spotted a field with some long grass towards the end of our route back to the car park. I knew this would be a great spot for a few walking shots so we set up the shot and had some fun walking about through the long grass. This is always a chance for me to get creative and let clients chat and interact naturally as they walk.

Finally as the session winds down and families are feeling more relaxed I introduce the blanket. This is where I invite the Mums and Dads to sit down first (for some reason men always forget how to sit down at this point so it takes a little bit of directing) then kids can crowd in around getting snuggled up and cosy.

Get in Touch

If you would like to commemorate your pregnancy with a Maternity Photoshoot get in touch via my contact page and we can chat about how to capture the magic of your journey.

Or if you need a little more convincing whether this is the photoshoot for you why not check out my blog post Motherhood Memories: Why Outdoor Maternity Photography is Perfect way to Celebrate your Growing Family