There are 2 ways you should show up for a portrait session-
1- As you are. But RAW. Don’t hide any part of yourself, be ready to release your true , natural self.
2- As a new side of yourself you’ve never seen before, experience yourself in a new way.
For Syme and Ryan’s Maternity Shoot they opted for number 2. When we first talked on the phone Syme told me she wanted to go all out for her Maternity shoot so she was breaking loose and doing everything she would never do for this moment in her life. She hates winter, she’s not one for dressing up... so of course she opted for a Winter shoot, in the snow, and she was even going to wear a floral crown.
Fun fact about the first time Syme and Ryan met- Syme was wearing sweatpants and a Tupac shirt. My day was made when I heard that, as she’s standing in front of me, polar opposite, looking like an Iceland Snow Mermaid in this red dress that fits her perfectly and also screams a lil Jessica Rabbit! She’s this little thing with a beautiful, bold personality to make up for her short height. Ryan is more quiet and sweet, but the way he looks at her and the way she smiles at him lets you know- these two are the real deal.
Our first meeting was hilarious, talking about how magical their shoot was going to be that all the forest animals would probably run out of their dens to circle around her like this woodland Goddess, which, yes, she’s not that big into nature, but if that happened, she said she wouldn’t complain. We got a bit carried away.
So, of course, the day of their shoot the snow melted. In a panic my creative brain kicked in and I knew I just needed something to mimic that whimsy feel. I found a hard pile of plowed snow in the corner of a parking lot and that’s what we used to create our magical snow mermaid shots. Sometimes you just have to trust the photographer’s vision.
They went from spinning and dancing in the pine trees, to elegantly swaying with the wind on the icy beach shores, to lastly cuddling up on top of a snow pile.
It was effortlessly stunning, it was true, it was love, and it was just in time bc that itty bitty, sweat pea of a baby came earlier than expected, less than a week after this!
