Whimsical maternity session with Star and Carlos Palacious
The more I shoot maternity sessions, the more I fall in love with this type of portrait work. My approach after a client contracts me if to create something different and I usually try to start away from the traditional pregnancy sessions I’ve seen before.
When Anastarcia aka Star approached me about shooting her maternity images, this was just the case. She wanted something unique and told me that she expected me to produce images that were whimsical beautiful and timeless. Even though my focus is the mother to be, Star insisted on including her toddler daughter Cairo and husband Carlos. That’s a lot of pressure for one shoot, right?
Star sent me a few images of what she wanted her and Cairo to wear. Seeing the dramatic dress sparked so much inspiration in me because I knew immediately after seeing the dress where I would want this to be photographed. We also selected a stylish suit and shoes for Carlos to wear which complimented the theme and then went on to think of ways to make the shoot work. We were coming off strict restrictions placed by our government due to COVID-19, so we had to take into account safety as well as her high-risk status.
In the photography world, there are ideas that you think of that are seldomly a “first”, and I googled for days under the search topic “Maternity shoot on a horse ranch.” After coming up with very little, my excitement grew even more, especially since the couple was one of colour. It took a few weeks to put together a mood board and shot list, and since I was quarantined at home, I had lots of time to perfect it. Ironically enough, we were supposed to shoot way before the country was shut down, on a much larger scale but COVID forced us to keep things simple.
We took the couple, their housekeeper and my PA and executed within our social distancing guidelines. Using one large modifier and one light, I was able to mix ambient light and an artificial strobe to create lighting that was effortless and natural. Star performed like a champ and Carlos was a good sport doing everything we needed him to do. Cairo, the couples two and a half year old gave us about 15 mins of her time before she retired back to her quarters, typical toddler behaviour!
We got beautiful shots of the family together, the couple and Mom to be, all in 45 mins before the sun went down. The location, lighting and styling all worked seamlessly together.
Please enjoy the images below.
Makeup and Hair: Anastarcia Palacios
Floral Arrangement: The Greenhouse Bahamas
Dress: Katharina Hakaj Couture
PA: Kenton Ferguson
Beautiful couple shoot whimsical maternity photos at Ocean Club Bahamas
Photography + Styling: Scharad Lightbourne
MUA: Regina McCook
Grip: Wayde Stubbs
BTS: Rayandra Nairn
Location: Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort
Heading into the latter part of December 2018, Brent and Kim Mayson approached me about doing a maternity session for them and immediately my first reaction was, “you guys already look like supermodels so that's half the battle!” After sharing that laugh, they were both over the moon with excitement and we began to hash out ideas, looks, concepts and location for this Mayson Maternity session.
I had an “ah-ha” moment and I asked Brent, “Do you think Ocean Club would allow us to photograph on premises?”
He confidently responded, “Bro-skee, if that's what you want, its a done deal!”
Photographers around the world go bananas for a beautiful location and I am certainly no different. At this point, I was literally a minute away from doing a triple back summersault! You have no idea how badly I wanted to do a shoot like THIS on THAT property. Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort would prove to be the amazing canvas on which I would photograph this session.
Now…Kim was beyond prepared bringing her girl scout mentality to our initial brainstorm meeting. She told me she’d already secured several looks, an MUA, made her hair appointment and only needed to know what my team and I ate on set so she could provide catering…talk about a superwoman!
Shoot day was nothing short of breathless, frame after frame, Kim (for the most part) served effortless and beautiful poses. Clearly, her background as a flight attendant helped. I helped put together a few looks for Brent as well and on the brink of becoming a new Dad, I wanted him to be in some of the shots just to validate his existence. We both admitted midway through our shoot that he was just a prop.
“These pictures are beyond amazing!!! We are so incredibly happy we have such beautiful memories and will value them forever ❤”
This was an incredible shoot for me. It took me weeks just to curate the images posted on the blog. It felt different, not the typical “maternity” session. I felt like it was my voice as I checked my camera’s display screen. That was important and I had great clients in Kim and Brent who gave me the creative freedom and the connections to shoot on this property to creatively execute this maternity session. I truly enjoyed working on this.
Please enjoy the images below.
