Modern Fine Art Portraits in the San Francisco Bay Area - Anna Myers Photography Blog

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Bay Area Fine Art Maternity Photographer - With Golden Child

I have not blogged in a while about maternity sessions - which is odd since I do so many of them. I love photographing pregnant women when they are nice and curvy - around 34 to 35 weeks.  A week before the session we meet to consult about the style of images they are looking. In the session I strive to create different moods using studio lighting.  I encourage women to incorporate fabrics or items that are significant to them into the session - sheer fabrics with some kind of iridescence work best. Sometimes it is a wedding veil, or just some beautiful fabric. Today, Lelma brought in some gorgeous fabrics that she got at a Sari shop and we created some beautiful images of her with the fabrics, which we will then follow up after the baby is born with the newborn wrapped in the same fabrics.

Here is one of my favorites from today - "with Golden Child"...

Bay Area Maternity & Newborn Photographer - Fine Art Custom Design Albums

Just got in another fabulous custom design album filled with fine art maternity & newborn photography that is ready to go out to a client!  I just loved this new cover combination so I had to grab a shot before it leaves the studio. I am also just in love with this baby! 

There is no doubt that I ADORE photographing newborns.  I find them fascinating and amazing AND I have the honor of doing it one or more times a week.  But when I was photographing Sejal for her newborn session, I had the strangest feeling - and such a strong reaction to this little one. In the middle of the session it dawned on me that this little newborn girl looked sooooo much like my first born daughter that it just really tugged at my heart strings and brought me back to that place of first being a mother.  Now for those of you that do not know me, by looking at my head shot it would not seem likely that I could produce offspring that resembles this little bundle of wonder - but I assure you that my oldest daughter Sula, who is half Jamaican (of African and East Indian descent) was part of the original mold for this beautiful little baby girl Sejal.  So today we are thrilled to be sending out Sejal's album for her family to enjoy for generations to come!

Super Duper Love Sale - Love in 2010, or Lovin' 2010!

Having just come back from a lovely holiday break, we are ready to jump in and get this Decade Started!  In preparation for Valentines Day we have a Lovely Special!

The Love Book

One of our most popular products is our albums – so we came up with a way to offer a special Valentines album at a Great Price that will be Priceless to whoever is the lucky recipient. The album is our ever-so-popular 8x8 coffee table book with your choice from several Valentines themes, INCLUDING your choice of Love Quotes or YOUR OWN CUSTOM Love Quotes. The Love Book can be used for Babies, Kids, Pets, *Boudoir*, even Maternity! 
Or grab someone you adore and come into the studio together - mommy and me, best friends, star-struck lovers - Bring on the Love! Now we know that some people are great at writing quotes, but for those of you that need some help we have a list that you can choose your favorites from.  And for those of you with KIDS – we have an EXTRA SPECIAL way of dong the quotes – we give you a set of questions for the child to answer and the question along with child’s answers are included in the book next to each image. How cute is that?

So here is the deal – for $295 you get a 30 minute weekday session with Anna, an 8x8 Love Quotes book with 6 images from the session and your chosen quotes or you child’s quotes. To make it EXTRA EASY, you bring your quotes with you to the session, and then after the session the images will be uploaded to a 3-day online gallery for you to select the 6 images, then we put it all together and ship your book to you! Additional pages/images can be added to the book for $50 each. Then you will have a fantastic custom Love book to give that special someone for Valentines Day!  But here is the catch – in order to have the books ready in time, we are only offering the Love Book Sessions between 9am and 4:30pm Jan 19th – Jan 22nd, and Jan 25th – Jan 29th .  Full payment of the $295 is due at the time of sign up for your session. 

And talk about EASY – as a special add on you can get your own unique, personalized set of 25 Valentine’s Day Cards + 1 Facebook image for $99!  Now that is some Super Duper Love! 

Call the studio at 510-748-8959 to book your session or email [email protected]!

Pregnancy Portraits with beautiful fabrics

I encourage my clients to bring in fabrics for their fine art maternity portrait sessions that they find beautiful to make their session extra special and personal.  Here are some of my recent favorites both with gorgeous fabrics from india...

Vintage Maternity Portraits - Veils and Orchids

I love including significant items into portraits to make them more special and timeless. For maternity sessions, I encourage women to bring fabrics and flowers that they love.  For this recent session, Maria brought in her *gorgeous* veil from her wedding as well as orchids which were her wedding flower.  Here are some of my favorite from the session with a vintage flavor...

Tattoo Maternity Follow-up - the babies are here!

Here are a couple of pics to follow up from my maternity tattoo session with the newborn sessions...

One from a newborn photography session in the studio...Meet Trulee

And this one done as a natural light newborn session in the home - Meet Carter and Isiah

Things to Consider for a Professional Pregnancy Portrait

This is an article I wrote for a series on maternity and newborn photography....

Professional pregnancy portraits have become very popular in the last ten years.  Women want to capture the pregnancy as a specific time in their life, and often include other family members in the photos as well to celebrate and document their family's evolution.  There are some key elements to consider when going about getting professional maternity photography, such as when to do the session and what to wear.

The timing of the maternity session is very important. You do not want to do the session too early and not have an impressive belly, but you do not want to wait so late so that the woman is swollen in the feet and ankles and miserable. Given these parameters, 32 to 36 weeks is a good, happy medium that usually works well. Of course if the woman is having multiples, then adjust the time accordingly.

Another consideration for the maternity session is who will be in the photos? The pregnant woman will be there of course, but should there be photos done with the partner? Are there already other children eagerly awaiting the birth of their sibling to be included in the session? This is a great time to do some family portraits before the family dynamics change with the new addition.  Some shots should also be done of the woman by herself as a more private study of the female form and the beauty of the new life growing inside of her.

Where should the maternity session be done? Most maternity sessions involve showing a good deal of skin, so the woman should consider whether she would be comfortable doing that in public space like the beach or a meadow or a more edgey urban city look, or whether she would prefer the privacy of a photography studio or home session.

The desired style of the resulting images should also be carefully considered. Should they be more moody and shadowy, or light and airy, more traditional, or sexy, or fun and funky? Figuring out the style or styles of the pregnancy portraits can be done by looking on the internet for examples of other maternity photography that you like.

After having figured out the location and the styles, figuring out what to wear should be a bit easier now.  For maternity sessions, the choice of what to wear includes; wearing clothes with the belly showing, doing semi-nudes with clothing, bathing suits or lingerie, doing semi-nudes with fabrics and sheers, or full nude maternity photography.

After having decided to do the session, another thing to think about is where to put the resulting prints from the session. If they are family portraits that are clothed, they may be able to hang  anywhere in the house. If they are more black&white nude pregnancy portraits it may be better to hang these in the bedroom.  Another great choice is to consider a fine art maternity album for the images.

Complementing the maternity portrait session with a newborn photography session after the baby is born is an excellent idea. Once you have professional photographs of the pregnancy, putting professional newborn portraits into the same room or album can really finish up the project and create a family keepsake that will be treasured for generations.

Anna Myers is a widely acclaimed Bay Area Pregnancy Photographer who specializes in artistic maternity photography.

Maternity Session with One Hot Mama

This maternity session was sooo fun. We laughed and laughed as we watched little Jordan changing shape in her belly during the session. We did some fashion, contemporary shots, shots with fabrics as well as fine art and black and white silhouette, and artistic nude maternity portraits.  Here is a sampling of some of my favorites...

Circling Back

It is always so exciting when my clients families grow. 

I love to be part of that time when they are going
from one number to the next, especially when I was there for the last time.  These images are some of my favorites that were assembled as framed pieces for Jen and Dan's new baby boy - the maternity session with their two year old, and the newborn collage featuring the new family interacting with the baby.