Alejandra's Golden-Hour Maternity Picnic in Royal Palm Beach
A picnic blanket, a teddy bear, the ultrasound, and the last hour of light.
Alejandra texted me on a Thursday with a short-notice question: did I have an opening that weekend? She was 35 weeks pregnant and had one clear idea for her maternity photos — a picnic. We found a date for Monday evening, about an hour before sunset, in a park in Royal Palm Beach with tall palms, open lawns and an old wooden fence along the edge.
The picnic she had in mind
She came ready. A white blanket, a wicker basket with a teddy bear in a blue bow, a long strip of ultrasound prints and two big bunches of baby’s breath. Both of them in white. We set the blanket under a tree before the light turned gold, and that became the first scene of the evening: the two of them sitting close, the basket in front, the ultrasound hanging over the edge.
From there it was easy. Her hands and his made a heart over the belly. He knelt by the tree to kiss it. She held the ultrasound up next to her face and laughed like she was showing it to the whole world.
Then we just walked
My favorite part of a maternity session is usually the one with no pose at all. I asked them to walk across the field toward me, holding the flowers and the basket, and talk to each other. They did, and they didn’t stop laughing. As the sun dropped we moved to the tailgate of their pickup — one of my favorite frames of the night came right there, when he tucked a sprig of baby’s breath into her hair — and we finished along the wooden fence with the last warm light.
The whole session took about 45 minutes. The online gallery went to her that same night so she could pick her 25 favorites, and her retouched photos were ready the next day.
If you are expecting and thinking about a session like this one, everything about how I work, where we can go and what is included is on my maternity photographer page for Royal Palm Beach. For ideas on outfits, the what to wear for a maternity session guide helps, and the real numbers are in the maternity session pricing guide. En español: fotografía de maternidad en español.
Alejandra, thank you for trusting me with this one. It was a joy to photograph the two of you.