Cam and I don't have children but we are at the age now where family members and friends all around us are adding to their family of 2, so we have been lucky to witness the transformational journey pregnancy clearly is. From the physical changes a woman experiences, to the deeper-than-skin, inner changes they both experience. The fears, hopes, and excitement they have imagining what life will be like +1. These may be conversations they openly share, or they may be held only in the quiet spaces of their own mind and heart; but wherever they are, they are happening.
Yet during those rollercoaster months, one thing always appears to remain constant - the overarching feeling of immense joy. Joy in it's largest most complete sense. The joy that fills you from the tips of your toes and overflows through your crown. And, because of this, no matter what anxieties they may have, and no matter how bloated her ankles may be, they will always be glowing and she will always look beautiful.
Shelly is most definitely a case in point (although she doesn't have bloated ankles). I know her last weeks at work were hard and she was tired and stressed and very pregnant. But I also know she is blissfully looking forward to being a mother, and they are over-the-moon happy about starting a family. So I knew no matter how she felt physically, the joy she felt inside would shine through. And it did. Oh it really did.
One of the things I have learnt through this shoot is that photography is about your client trusting how you see them. This is what attracts you to each other.
Shelly and Simon, like most people, don't particularly thrill to having a camera pointed at them; but for 60 minutes they trusted us to capture images of them to reflect this new adventure they are about to embark upon. And, we captured moments of two people very much in love, full of laughter and tender expectancy. We caught gentle kisses, fingers intertwined and bellies stroked. We witnessed joy.
