They weren’t looking for a maternity shoot. They were looking to remember today.
G and J found me the way a lot of people find me. Googling something specific, something that didn’t quite fit the usual categories. They were 29 weeks pregnant, living on the Surf Coast, and what they typed into Google was something along the lines of: wedding photographers for pregnancy photo shoot Fitzroy and Surf Coast.
That search told me everything I needed to know before I even met them.
They weren’t after the usual. The draped fabric, the soft studio light, the hands-on-the-belly pose as they gaze into each others eyes. Images that looks like every other pregnancy portrait you’ve ever scrolled past. They wanted something that felt like them. Something that represented today, exactly as it was. Not a version of it.
This is what a Your Story session actually is
A Your Story session isn’t a portrait session in the traditional sense. There’s no white backdrop. No structured brief that makes the whole experience awkward and staged.
It’s documentary. I come into your world and I watch, and then I start to see the things that make you, you. The way the morning light falls through your kitchen window. The shelf of books organised by colour. The dog who considers himself a full member of this family and would like that acknowledged – thank you!
For these guys, that world started at home.
The house
We started at 8am. The morning light was already bringing on the charm.
Being documented is not the same as being photographed, and most people need a few minutes to forget I’m there. So as they shared stories with me while we walked through the house, I notice the details within the space – The bookshelf organised by colour. The furniture that shouldn’t work together but absolutely does. The framed print on the living room wall that had clearly had a story behind it.
The details that tell the story
The wind chime swaying its melodic tune while sitting in the living room, sipping coffee as the morning sun bathes the room with its warm glow. To J propagating his fav suckling hoping for it to take over the garden, while G ‘subtly’ removes them 😝
These are the things that will make them stop, ten or twenty years from now, and remember exactly who they were in this chapter. Not what they looked like. Who they were.
Heading down to the beach
Their favourite spot was about a five minute walk from home. A point they’d been coming to since before they lived this close, where the rock shelf juts out and at low tide you can walk all the way out and feel like you’ve got the ocean to yourselves.
We timed it for low tide. We lucked out with the light.
The rock at low tide
There is something about this part of the Surf Coast that I never get tired of. The sandstone cliffs glowing amber in the early light. The tide pools still and mirror-flat. The way the whole place feels like it belongs to you at that hour of the morning.
G and J have been walking here for years. This particular spot is theirs in the way that a place can belong to a person without any paperwork. They know where to stand when the tide is out. They know the light. And at 29 weeks, with everything about to change, they wanted this era of their life documented as just be the two of them…. and their first child, the dog, obviously.
What this was really about
They mentioned at some point during the morning that the only photos they had of themselves were from other people’s weddings.
This is exactly what Your Story session is about. Not necessarily about the milestones. Or the big posed moments. Its the everyday. Having a coffee in your favourite chair. The morning walk. The belly at 29 weeks, on their favourite rock, in glorious morning light.
That’s the stuff worth preserving.
Thinking about a pregnancy photo shoot on the Surf Coast?
If you found this post the same way G and J found me, searching for something a little different, then you’re probably the right kind of person for a Your Story session.
These sessions aren’t just for pregnancy. They’re for any chapter worth remembering. New homes, growing families, the last summer before everything changes.
If you want images that represent your today, let’s talk.
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