Motherhood

Creating Meaningful Pregnancy Portraits | Houston Maternity Photographer

Serving the Houston area, Sarah Borchgrevink Photography is a maternity photographer offering connected, meaningful and romantic pregnancy portraits for expecting couples and mothers to be.

Preserving your pregnancy with authentic and meaningful maternity portraiture

Greetings, friends! Howdy to you! Today's blog post talks about how to create meaningful maternity portraits for your expecting clients. If this is your first time visiting my blog, welcome! Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sarah Borchgrevink and I'm a Houston Photographer offering gorgeous, dynamic and lovely natural light pregnancy portraits. I adore working with couples, especially first time parents, because as a mother, I know how special this time is in your life. You're preparing to meet the greatest love: the unconditional bond you have with your child. From the moment you hear their heartbeat, or even see the positive pregnancy test, you're in love and cannot wait to meet baby! You envision their face, imagine who they'll look like, and cannot wait to hold them in your arms!

Before we begin, you may be interested in reading about the newborn collections I offer, too! These are a wonderful option once baby is here and most of my maternity clients choose to move forward with one of these collections. 

Sarah offers the following newborn collections consisting of high resolution, retouched digital files + a print release. These take place in the first 14 days of life. Click each link to see a sample gallery + more information on the newborn collection. The flat rate listed pays for time, talent, and your  high resolution digital gallery + released printing rights you may treasure forever.

This couple, for instance, ended up choosing the "petite" package, so you'll be seeing their baby boy on the blog in just a few short weeks. :-) 

Houston Maternity Photographer

The Importance of Pregnancy Portraits

Pregnancy portraits are a lovely option for new parents because this time is sacred! An outdoor and natural light maternity session is a beautiful way to honor and preserve your pregnancy while also celebrating your gorgeous baby bump! Through the use of radiant, natural light and breathtaking locations, I create dynamic yet meaningful photographs you're sure to treasure forever. You will never regret commissioning your portrait artist for these images. You'll fondly look back at the time in which you're expecting and remember feeling baby kicking and looking down at your belly, knowing you're carrying precious life. 

How to create meaningful portraits

In order to create meaningful pregnancy portraits, it's important for the photos to be timeless, classic and natural. These create a sense of validity, purpose, and significance. It's a time to connect with your spouse or partner and shows the love, commitment and bond you share. My favorite way to create dynamic images is to use an amazing location! When booking a maternity session, I have several options you may select from, all of which are located in the Greater Houston Area. They typically feature naturalistic elements, as this lends a softness to your images, but there are more urban options if you prefer the skyline or perhaps a trendy and hip location such as brick walls, busy streets, ect. 

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Naturally Pose & Encourage Connections

Taking beautiful maternity images has much more to do with how you interact with your clients than simply pushing a button on your camera. Part of connecting with your clients is creating stunning portraiture and I do this by naturally posing the parents to be and encouraging them to interact together. Sometimes they're a little unsure of the camera and that's okay! It's my job, as a Houston Maternity Photographer, to ensure they feel at ease. I do this by complimenting the client, showing them specifically what to do, and speaking to them throughout the entire session. I will reference exactly what I'd like them to do, but I will also take a step back and tell them to maybe think of their wedding day or how it will feel to meet baby for the first time. By being patient, you will create lovely images through authentic connections and natural poses in which no one looks stilted or awkward. 

Let there be light

Lighting is another important aspect when creating dynamic or meaningful maternity images because this sets the tone. All of my sessions exclusively take place at either sunrise or sunset, in a natural light setting, to ensure the photos are softly lit and exude a sense of warmth and peace. During the session, I place you where the light is typically lighting your from behind, or back-lit, and this makes sure your eyes are open. I don't like couples facing the sun because it's harsh and not very flattering. After all, these photos will be an important reminder of your motherhood journey so you should feel beautiful when you look back on them. :-) 

Houston Maternity & Newborn Photographers

Here are some of my favorite images from the rest of my time with this sweet couple! I hope you enjoy viewing more of their session. If you perhaps are expecting your own baby, I am currently booking for 2018 and onward; most maternity sessions take place when you are around 30-35 weeks along. This is when you have a cute baby bump, but are also comfortable enough to still walk and be posed. As a Houston mama, I can tell you I completely understand that pregnancy can seem daunting, but these photos will beautifully preserve this time for you. I have my own pregnancy portraits scheduled for just a few weeks from today so I am also looking forward to sharing these on my blog. :-) 

If you'd like to connect and schedule your own maternity session, feel free to get in touch. I'd love to work with you and chat about the maternity collection I offer, with digital files beginning at $550 + tax.

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Houston Maternity & Newborn Portraits

Sarah Borchgrevink Photography is a Houston Newborn Photographer specializing in gorgeous posed newborn sessions. Her studio is located in Northwest Houston. In addition to breathtaking baby portraiture, Sarah also offers stylish natural light family photography as well as dynamic outdoor maternity sessions for expecting mothers and couples. Sarah joyfully serves the entire Harris and Montgomery county areas including North Houston, Cypress, Tomball, Spring, Jersey Village, The Woodlands, Magnolia, Conroe, Willis, Montgomery, Humble, Kingwood, Porter, New Caney, Waller, Memorial & West Houston, Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, Pearland, Hempstead, Richmond, West University, Rice Village and Porter TX. Connect to chat with Sarah today! Please consider booking your session at your earliest convenience in order to secure your appointments on the calendar.

Here's Where Sarah's Studio Is Located

 

Shooting a Maternity Session on a Cloudy, Foggy and Overcast Morning

Located in Houston TX & serving the surrounding areas, Sarah Borchgrevink Photography offers lovely outdoor pregnancy and family portraits in an outdoor atmosphere. Check out some effective tips for creating dynamic images on cloudy, dark, or foggy mornings.

Photography a Family or Maternity Session on a Cloudy, Foggy & Overcast Morning

Hi, friends! Good morning to you! Today's blog post is an overview on photographing a family or maternity session on a day in which the weather is cloudy, overcast or even foggy, such as the early mornings. While most of the time, the warm golden light look is what is most preferred, sometimes sessions are time sensitive, such as maternity or family photos. For example, maternity portraits typically take place between 32-35 weeks, however, you may be limited on time frames because of things like high risk pregnancies, baby arriving early, or perhaps Dad travels often and of course, Dad is a vital character in all things maternity or family. This in mind, these tips and tricks are helpful in ensuring you can move forward with your session and provide stunning outdoor images despite the weather being gloomy.

Houston Maternity Photographer

Before we delve into the three tips I am going to list, please allow me to introduce the R family to you! They're a sweet family of three. They'll be adding a new baby girl to their family in just a few short weeks! They'll be on my newborn calendar for a studio baby session so I am excited to see them soon. We photographed this session in Houston, TX and began right at sunrise. I typically spend about 25-30 minutes with my outdoor family sessions so we will hit many poses and have a lot of fun, but not tire the little one out and expect too much of them. 

Be Inspired By the Scenery and Surroundings

When working outdoors in an on location setting, look around and allow yourself to be inspired. How do the trees frame your images? Where are the clouds? Ask yourself how color of the grass will photograph and where your subjects will look best. By checking out your environment, you can see where the light is most soft, even and dispersed beautifully so that you may place your subjects there.

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Open your aperture 

Since the light on a cloudy day is more soft and subdued since there is less sun, you can open your aperture, or use a wider f/stop, to allow more light to enter the image. You'll also want to compensate for subject movement, so make sure to keep your shutter speed fast enough to resist blurry movements, but also keep your ISO high enough to be properly exposed without too much noise. I use a Mark iii body and a Canon 135 mm f/2.0L lens when working outdoors so these settings are based on the equipment I use.

For these shots, my f/stop is at f/2.2, shutter speed is 1/500 and ISO is 800. My white balance is also set to around 7500 for the skin tones and I used spot metering so that their skin is illuminated properly. 

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Be mindful of where the clouds and sky are

While a beautiful blue sky filled with brilliant golden light is lovely during a sunrise session, during a foggy or overcast morning, the sky can look flat and grey, which may not add interest to your images. For this session, I choice to avoid using the sky and focus on connections and love between this expecting mother and her family. 

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Sarah Borchgrevink Photography is a Houston Newborn Photographer specializing in gorgeous posed newborn sessions. Her studio is located in Northwest Houston. In addition to breathtaking baby portraiture, Sarah also offers stylish natural light family photography as well as dynamic outdoor maternity sessions for expecting mothers and couples. Sarah joyfully serves the entire Harris and Montgomery county areas including North Houston, Cypress, Tomball, Spring, Jersey Village, The Woodlands, Magnolia, Conroe, Willis, Montgomery, Humble, Kingwood, Porter, New Caney, Waller, Memorial & West Houston, Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, Pearland, Hempstead, Richmond, West University, Rice Village and Porter TX. Connect to chat with Sarah today! Please consider booking your session at your earliest convenience in order to secure your appointments on the calendar.

 

Baby John & Parent Posing | Newborn Family Photography

Baby Boy John, at 10 days old, visited Sarah Borchgrevink Photography for a family newborn portraiture session.

6 pounds | Welcome to the world, John

Houston Newborn Family Photography

Greetings! Good morning to you! As always, I like to begin by thanking you for stopping by my blog. I'm glad you're here. If you've found your way here, chances are you're interested in perusing a newborn session and reading about a specific top to do with my portraiture work. Today's session is really fun because it focuses on parent posing in my studio. Let's get started.

FULLY INCLUSIVE NEWBORN COLLECTIONS

At Sarah Borchgrevink Photography, I joyfully offer fully inclusive sessions. There are three newborn collections on my pricing guide to reflect different budgets. You may be interested in viewing them here:

Fully inclusive collections mean there are no hidden fees or additional purchases required during our time together. Your investment is one flat rate for time, talent, session design, retouching of your high resolution digital files. Following your session, you're presented with a private, password protected gallery that is yours to download, share, enjoy and print on your own. 

Sweet, timeless & connected family posing

Gone are the days of formal, stiff or boring posing. Instead, sessions are lifestyle in nature, meaning they're about connecting, feeling natural, and focusing on your spouse or precious baby. As a mama, I can tell you that you will treasure your family images because this is a time when baby is so small, so sweet, so new to the world she literally fits in your hand.

When booking, you're also given a newborn prep guide. It contains all sorts of nifty instructions, information about my Houston Newborn Portrait Studio, outfit suggestions, and also a few suggestions for hair and makeup, should this interest you. I like you to feel fully prepared and know what's going to happen.

The following are some of my favorite poses from my time with this sweet couple. Congratulations on your beautiful boy. The D family is simply stunning! To see little one's individual portion of his session, see his sweet, neutral newborn session!

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