M Maternity

I’m really late to the game on the blogs because Mama M has already had her sweet Baby B and she’s a few months old now but this session is too good not to share! I was fortunate enough to do Maternity photos when Mama M was still pregnant with Baby (Now big Sister) S and we thought it would be really hard to top! We both racked our brains for a creative theme or unique location, what color dress to use, anything to make this time around more memorable than the first, and after Mama M looked through my galleries a few times and picked a session that was her most favorite and we went with that!
The downfall of the look we were going for… this time of year, Nashville weather is super unpredictable. I don’t think we’ve had a proper sunset in a long time because by the end of the day it’s always gloom and doom and no chance of catching golden hour. Plus, if we did somehow catch golden hour, that’s when all the instagramers are out cruising the streets and they will fight you for a spot for photos (it’s not that big of a deal guys, there’s plenty of room for all of us, and if not I’m definitely stronger than you). So, we had to plan on sunrise! Sunrise this time of year is about 6:40AM, and about 6:40AM in the morning it’s about 30 degrees. We were also in one of the most open patches of land in that area and it was extra windy. Needless to say, it was freezing cold. Mama M handled it like a champ though and, despite feeling out of the ‘modeling game’ and not much like herself she looked like a supermodel for her session and gave me some of my favorite maternity photos ever!
Sadly Papa D wasn’t able to make it to the session because he was working but Baby S was wide awake and Coco (never known as Grandmother) was a great cheerleader and kept Baby S happy! Also, despite looking just like Daddy, Baby S has her Mama’s modeling skills!

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B Family Tea Party

Over the last few months I’ve been expected to keep lots of big secrets but this one might have been one of the hardest!!! It took about 15 weeks for Mama M & Papa D to spill the beans that they were expecting again but dang was the payoff worth it!!!!! Mama M & I struggled for a little while trying to pick the perfect theme for their gender reveal and after going weeks of thinking Baby #2 was going to be a boy Mama and having that planned in our minds, she finally got the great news that it was another girl and we just had to bust out the pink frill!

With her first pregnancy she took away the joy of me being able to share in all the splendor (just kidding guys) so throughout this pregnancy we’ve made the plans to go all out!

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S & T Maternity Session

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of marking something off my bucket list that I never thought I’d get the chance to because, one, horses and their giant people teeth freak me out, and two, no animal ever listens like you need it to for photos. When S told me her horses would do everything we needed them to and were very well behaved I didn’t believe her and just figured we’d wing it but boy was I wrong!!! This session exceeded every expectation I would have ever had and I am soooo thrilled and in love with every images!

Like seriously, this session is something out of a fairytale and everything just fell together so nicely I am still amazed that some of these images are even mine! Mama S and I had been discussing her session for weeks but her Sister in law, my friend B, had been planning her session for much longer and had contacted months before! I had met Mama S and her soon to be husband T at the beginning of her pregnancy and she was just as cute as could be and I knew from that first meeting I wanted to do her maternity photos (No one actually books me, I just go out scouting people and bully them into a session). Seven months later I was driving around the Harpeth trying to figure out where the hell she lived. We were already about 30 minutes behind seeing as I lost track of time at my previous session (which was easy to because they were so wonderful) and THANK GOD her ultra sound ran over, so it wasn’t totally fault. After calling her ten times in a panic, because I hate getting lost, I finally found her house and we immediately headed towards her grandmothers. I was at the tail end of the line of 3 cars we had created and fell behind. For some reason the undercover cop that I passed decided to flash me (though Papa T was going WAYYY faster than I was) and if he had actually turned around to come get me, I’ll never know, because right when I went into the turn I saw the back of B’s car going down a driveway and immediately sped in behind her.

S’s grandparents home was incredibly beautiful, there were wild flowers growing everywhere, tons of horses, dogs, and two cats so I was in animal heaven. Mama S has such natural beauty that B only had to spend about 10 minutes fixing her hair and Papa T was so handsome he didn’t even have to take off his hat and sunglasses…. but we made him anyways.

I had the exact opposite problem I thought I would have for this session, I thought we’d be having to chase the horses down to make them stand still for two seconds but I was literally having to make horses leave because they kept getting into everything! I turned around at one point and one of them was in my camera bag and took a few steps back throughout our session and bumped into a horse that was standing very close by. They were all so amazingly sweet and kept nuzzling up to Mama S the whole session. Their dogs were just as bad and were literally on our heels the whole shoot! They even chased us down to the creek whenever we got on the golf cart and were into everything. I kept thinking that I would just edit them out of a lot of the shots when I got home but them being in the photos is what makes a lot of the shots!

The big horse in the photos is her prize horse and the other horse is their daughter, who mind you, hasn’t even been born yet, pony!!! Growing up we all dream of having a pony, hell I still want one, but soon to be Baby R already has one!!!

For a couple that never has their photos made I barely had to direct the two, they made my job soooo incredibly easy and if it wasn’t getting dark I would have kept them out all night! S was just beautiful no mater what she did and all of her movements with T were so natural it made for some incredibly genuine photos, which are hard to fake. You always know how much a couple truly loves each other based on their interactions together and seeing S & T together will make any girl hate her boyfriend! T and S are going to make amazing parents and not only did Baby R win the genetic lottery but she’s lucky enough to have born into a family where she’ll grow up knowing her parents were truly made for one another! I so look forward to doing her newborn photos and seeing this family again!

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A Maternity Session

M, D, & W Maternity Session

There have been an awful lot of babies born the last two months but I have to say I'm most excited for this little family to welcome their baby girl! Unlike most girls these guys know exactly when their little lady is coming so they've been counting down the days for months and it's the cutest thing!

N & D Maternity Session

I've yet to share my last two trips from NOLA however I somehow managed to get this session finished and blogged in just a few weeks!!! Maybe that's because a beach maternity session has been on my bucket list for some time now and I couldn't have asked for a better couple to check this off with!!! Those of you who follow me on any social media account have had to deal with me sharing N & D's couple/maternity photos off the last few weeks and you'll continue to see them... until I share them all.  

I could write paragraphs about these two and how much I loved this session BUT I can also write the same amount about how perfect these two are together, so much so it's almost sickening! They were also the kindest, most hospitable, most willing couple and I adored every second with them. I initially told them I'd stay far out of their way because I didn't want to interfere with their 'Baby moon' but I ended up spending every moment with them. I do believe these two were truly made for one another and I'm so thrilled that their little lady is going to be able to be a part of their wedding, which will be the following year!

I also gotta say I'm so amazed at how dedicated they were to their session! We woke up one morning before the sun came up in order to get our pastel beach photos, made a fool of ourselves in public, they acted out every scenario and pose I asked them, no matter how silly it seemed and I will forever be grateful! As I'm writing this we've got just a few more weeks till their little lady arrives and I look forward to being part of her birth and part of her and parents lives for years to come!!!

Besides the awesome time I had with these guys I had I also had an incredibly relaxing and completely undeserved trip. I was wide awake at 4am every morning and I would generally go right outside and sit on our designated beach (I'm surprised I wasn't murdered) chairs with my fleece blanket and just watch the sun come up and listen to the ocean... very 'tumblr' girl I know, but I can defiantly see why people retire to Florida!!! We had umbrellas too, which I've never had at the beach, I've always just hidden under my towels because I don't tan... I burn... I'd rather just be pasty white! When we weren't shooting or under the umbrellas the soon to be Papa A, who was such a hoot to be around, and I went snorkeling while Mom watched us on the beach and told us not to go out too far. I'm not accustom to not being the 'mother', it was actually pretty funny being watched over the whole time. I don't think I've ever had such a fun time at the beach and there was never a dull/awkward moment! We talked about everything and I truly look forward to spending more time with them in the future!!!

I of course found a stray beach cat but he looked like he was being taken care of... his ear was tipped and he wasn't too nervous about being around people! He had two to three cans of wet food every day though!

G Maternity Session

Now that Mr. S is a month old I GUESS I can finally share photos from his Mamas Maternity Session...

I can no longer just call the G family children 'some of my favorite girls' because they now have a little brother! Sadly, Papa R is still greatly outnumbered... This awesome family has basically become family over the last few years and my portfolio can't contain enough photos of them! Mama J handles pregnancy along with raising three other children so gracefully, I'm in their house and just get tired watching her & Papa R wrangle everything and everyone! We picked one of the unfortunate days of being out in the cold, where the wind was blowing like crazy, but these ladies & Papa toughed it out, as always!

J Maternity Session

Working with other photographers is always so nerve wrecking, especially when they're as talented as Ms. Jessica Elvir! Her and her amazing family have always been so wonderful to work with and I looooove her boys so much! She's blessed me the opportunity to work with her and her growing family so many times and I feel like both of us have grown together so much over the last few years! Her Hubby to be is always such a hoot to be around too, he always laughs at all my jokes, is such a good dad to his boys, and is always such an awesome sport, even though I know he probably hates being photographed!

As nerve wrecking as it is, photographers are probably the easiest to work with, they know how to pose themselves and the ones they're being photographed with... She made me feel like I wasn't doing my job at all! She made pregnancy with two (Three if you include John) rowdy boys look like it was nothing, but we all know better! This is this families last child and they're getting a girl out of it this round! All the boys are already smitten and Ms. M isn't even here yet. If she's as pretty as her Mama they all better watch out!

Despite shooting outdoors on ANOTHER chilly day this whole family did so well enduring the cold and the hike to our location. This is a location another one of my most favorite ladies introduced me to and I'm glad I was able to break it in with Jessica and her Wolf Pack! 

O & K Maternity Session

My longest days working, besides weddings, are when we do 'destination locations' but they are by far the best! I'm down for driving two hours every day for the perfect spot, trying to run around said park to find service because GPS takes you to the wrong place, panicking when you can't find each other, seeing your phone is about to die and you have no idea where you are, and seeing that bear in the woods eyeballing you because you look like a tasty snack... all of these things happened on my maternity shoot with Mrs. O & Mrs. K, except the bear thing. Bears know I probably just taste like Cauliflower and coffee, not a great combo to start your day as a bear. 

Mrs. O & K have gone through in vitro fertilization and were at the time expecting a little boy in the following month (Baby O has since been born and looks just like Elvis!) so we were all a little worried about making her endure the hike to our location! She was a trooper though and both K & I couldn't say a thing about being exhausted from the rock climbing and hiking because O was doing it at 8 months pregnant! We were all kind of hoping it would send her into labor so we could all head right to the hospital and we could photograph him making his big debut! Plus this shoot was mid December so we were thinking that they had already hit their deductible for the year so...! O handled the cold so well and still somehow looked so elegant and beautiful during the whole session, I always get so jealous of women who look 10 times better than I do on a normal day 8 months pregnant. K was so helpful helping me get those super flowy dress shots and despite not wanting to be photographed she was also such a great model, and almost sickeningly sweet and caring to her wife! K & O were both so excited about their pregnancy and have worked so hard and done so much to get to where they are! They're already preplanning their next child and I am dying to snuggle their handsome little guy! 

Mini Snow Maternity Session

Happy 2018 y'all! Yes, I know it's almost February...  I've been waiting to post blogs till I completely updated the website and now that that is done I've got a lot of catching up to do! Thankfully we've all been snowed in the last few days which has given me nothing but time to work on business, so I feel like it's appropriate to share one of my first snow shoots of the year! As much as I hate being cold I absolutely adore winter, but you can't truly enjoy winter unless you have snow, which we have gotten plenty of the last week! Most of my clientele includes young children so this normally limits what I can do outside however when adults can tough it out I jump at the opportunity! I haven't been able to leave my house for about a week because I live up a very steep driveway, that leads to a steep hill, and then you to have to climb another hill to leave the neighborhood. However Ms. J has a very dedicated man who was willing to come pick me up and drive all of us to a location some miles away to get some killer photos! J is also a very talented photographer so it's always a pleasure getting to work with her and as a fellow photographer she knows all her best angles so it makes my job so much easier! When we got to the location she had a thick jacket on so I was very surprised when she removed it and saw her almost sheer dress and lack of sleeves! It sure did look good though...

This beautiful woman toughed it out though and I'm so thrilled that J & J both convinced me to come out with them! We probably only spent 20 minutes out but I am in love with all the photos and can't wait for little Ms. M to be born! 

Thank you J, J, & D for another awesome play date together!

E Family Maternity Session

Maternity Sessions might be my favorite... I think I say all sessions might be my favorite, BUT, that's because they are all awesome! Maternity sessions though mean that I will have a little one to snuggle and photograph soon!!! Judging by this handsome Dad and Mom though my next baby is going to be a doll!

Though we had only briefly spoken through sporadic text messages (on my behalf!) it was like meeting old friends and we spent the whole evening telling jokes and me keeping them much longer then necessary! If darkness wasn't creeping up on us these two might have been stuck there an hour or so longer! Mama E made being 8 months pregnant look so easy. She somehow managed to hike trails that I got winded on (but I also get winded rolling out of bed), scale rock walls, and looked like a super model all while doing it! If you were to see her from behind you would never have known she was pregnant, she was all perfectly round belly! 

I don't know if I've ever met anyone as organized as I like to think I am. Mama E knew everything she looking for from her session, how to pose, the best spots to shoot, and was willing to wear just about anything I brought! She, much like myself, has a flair for the dramatic! Though I'm always overly excited about any session I have she had me ready to bring half my closet for her to try on before it was over! Surprisingly we ended up being able to narrow it down... Thankfully her husband was just as stylish and photogenic as she was. Unlike his brother who I don't think owns more then 3 shirts, Papa J had a large selection to choose from and made narrowing down outfits that much harder! He looked so good I even made him step aside and let me get a few shots of him by himself! They looked so good I even cut the belly out of a few of the shots and focused exclusively on them! 

I already consider these guys more friends then clients and I'm so thankful this awesome couple was able to get to me before Mama C has her little lady. I'm more excited for this session newborn session then I have been in a while because of the AWESOME concept and color scheme these guys have picked out! 

Bre & Drew Maternity Session

This Evening Mama Bre finally gave birth to her little lady!!!! I've tried to keep from harassing her all day but I am over the moon that Baby C has finally made her big debut & it seems that Momma & Baby are doing just fine!!! (Which means I'll get to see her within the week) In honor of Baby C's birth, today seems as good a day as ever to share Bre's maternity photos! Though we did our session some time ago we were holding out for another day to add to her gallery, but sadly time just didn't seem to be on our side, especially with this lady working her butt of almost every day! We shot at an amazing location at sunset that  Bre & Drew's maternity session took place at sunset, which gave us some beautiful lighting at an amazing location (even though we were horrified every time a car drove over the bridge!)

I can't even begin to tell you how excited it makes me that I'll be starting off 2016 with a newborn session, I've already seen a few photos of Baby C & I'm already trying to color match all my props & accessories for when her Mama, Papa, & brother come to visit me. This small family has already been so wonderful to work with & nothing but wonderful to me that hopefully you'll be seeing these guys more than once over 2016! Happy Birthday Baby C & congrats to Mama Bre & Papa Drew! (Also big brother E)

See you guys soon!

Tessa & Noah Maternity

Mama Tess & Papa Noah came back to visit me the other week!

Over the last two years my clientele has changed to primarily being under the age of two & that’s totally okay with me! As a result, everyone always assumes I have crazy baby fever! This isn’t entirely true, however, when the time comes Tess is the type of pregnant woman I want to be!!! Everything she does is just so full of enthusiasm & she just radiates style & beauty. Almost full term & still gorgeous!

We all managed to somehow travel through the tall grass & somehow not get eaten. Noah did however step in a yellow jacket nest half way through the session & somehow managed to tough it out despite being stung in his leg several times & keep his lovely lady happy & comfortable.

I can’t gush out too many feeling about this awesome couple because I won’t have anything to say when they come back to me for their newborn session! Noah & Tessa are such a happy couple & Baby R is so lucky to have a mama & papa that are not only so in love with him already but that genuinely enjoy the company of one another.

DW Materinty Session

Happy Second Birthday Baby M!

See how long it took me to get myself together? Though Baby M’s birthday was a week ago I’m happy to be able to share these photos! I always love getting to work with new clients but it’s even more special to get the opportunity to continuously work with ‘old’ clients! Not only do I get to see watch my work develop through their photos but I also get to watch the families grow!!! I’ve seen babies when they were just a couple of days old, I’ve got to capture them taking some of their first steps, & I’ve even gotten to see some as they went to their first day of school!

I first met the DW family at their wedding in 2012. If I remember correctly it was the 4th wedding I had ever done & my first out of state wedding! Despite me 'Lack of Experience’ Tricia & Keith blessed me with the privilege to capture their special day. You would never know just how cold it really was by looking at the photos!

To my surprise Tricia contacted me just seven months later to do maternity photos! This was my second maternity shoot!

A few months afterwards Baby M & his family made a trip to my home in Nashville, where I did my first ever newborn session! Baby M spoiled me, he didn’t use the potty at all throughout our whole session, which was something I wasn’t even thinking of when I set him on my fur coat!!

Now, almost three years after our first session the cycle starts once again as I work with this growing family!!! There family has grown from two, to three, & now they’re expecting their fourth, who will be here any time now!!!  I’m always amazed how far this family drives to meet with me & how well behaved Baby M ALWAYS is. As soon as the new Big Boy M was out of the car he was running away from the car & through the field, Papa K & I hot on his heels! While Mama T got ready Baby M showed me just how much of a Daddy’s boy he really was.

Trish has thing she seems to unintentionally do with her maternity sessions… at Baby M’s maternity session she wore a pink dress, despite being pregnant with a little boy, & this session she wore a blue dress even though baby RED is defiantly a girl!!!

Keith was deployed while Trish was still pregnant with Baby M so you can only imagine how excited the two were to be able to experience every step of their second child’s growth together!

I’m always appreciative of all my clients but this family I must say takes the cake. I started with them when they were first starting their lives together & now that they’ve grown & flourished it’s given me the opportunity to do the same. This family has had so many first & I’ve been so honored to share all of them with them & despite how old some of their photos might be I still love having this gorgeous growing family in my portfolio!!! Even if T wasn’t pregnant I’d still find a way to swindle them down to TN for a visit! Being able to work with them is just as good though!!!

I’ve got my phone volume constantly up & check it in the wee hours of the night waiting for this mama to let me know she’s having RED, so her face will defiantly be gracing my blog & portfolio soon!!!

Words can’t describe how much I admire & appreciate this family & once again a huge THANK YOU to the DW family for keeping me in your lives!!!