Most maternity shoots have a certain look. Glowing skin, soft light, flowy dresses, and that dreamy, earth mother vibe. I’ve photographed plenty of them over the years, and they’re beautiful in their own right. But this shoot was not going to be that.
Pregnancy is miraculous, yes, but it’s also messy, uncomfortable, and emotional. Especially at 38 and a half weeks, when your body feels stretched beyond capacity and you’re standing right on the threshold of a huge life change. That in-between place, where you’re waiting, swollen, exhausted, and ready to meet the baby already, that’s what we wanted to capture.
We’ve been photographing Hannah for years, and every shoot we’ve done with her feels like a new chapter in an ongoing story. The very first shoot we ever did with her, back in 2021, she wore this bright orange outfit. Later, we photographed her again in that same outfit, making out with her husband in the window of an apartment building as part of our Human Storage series. So when she told us she was pregnant, it only felt right to bring that orange outfit back as a continuation of her story, now with a whole new layer of meaning.
This was a last-minute shoot, so we had to work with what we already had in the studio. David built a small, cramped set using leftover pieces from other projects, a visual metaphor for how tight and uncomfortable Hannah’s body felt at this stage of pregnancy. We painted the walls a deep teal (Sherwin-Williams “Green Bay”) because it contrasted perfectly with the orange of her outfit. It’s a simple example of complementary color theory in action. If you want to dive deeper into how color relationships like this can strengthen your own shoots, check out our Color Course.
Once we started shooting, we focused on poses that embodied the physical and emotional discomfort of late pregnancy: the heaviness, the tension, the restless anticipation. The result is raw and honest. It’s not the typical soft-focus maternity image, it’s about that threshold moment right before everything changes.
Photographing pregnancy from this perspective felt refreshing. It’s a reminder that beauty isn’t always soft or easy. Sometimes it’s found in the chaos, in the ache, and in the waiting.
You can watch the full behind-the-scenes video to see how we assembled the set and directed the shoot.
