Most of my clients who commission me for a newborn session also add on a maternity session as well. But there are a few who don't. Which is fine, of course, except when I hear "I would never have photos of me taken when I feel this huge." That breaks my heart. So if you're one of those who think that, read on.

These are the last few weeks that it will just be you and your husband. You will look different as a couple after your baby arrives. I can't put my finger on exactly what it is but it is noticeable when I walk into a client's home that first time after their baby is born. There is an exhaustion and a knowledge and a peacefulness and a quiet joy after the baby arrives that is a visible difference to the anticipation and happiness and energy I see in a couple in their maternity session.
 
And if this baby isn't your first child, it's still so important. Because it's the last few weeks that you will be a family of three - or four, or five, you catch my drift. And you will look back and remember how easy it was to get things done with just one. And how your first child was the centre of your family in a way that just doesn't happen when you add another one into the mix.


No matter how you think you look in those moments when nothing fits and you can't see your toes, there is a beautiful life growing inside of you. Sounds cheesy but really, think of all your body is doing right now. It's strong and beautiful. You will look back 6 months after your baby was born (when things still aren't quite fitting but you can look back with admiration at what you did) and wish you had the photographs. I guarantee when your kids are older they will want to know what you looked like when you were pregnant with them.
 
And a maternity session is something that a few snapshots by your husband or best friend can't really replace. Trust me, a professional photographer knows how to use light, angles and gentle posing to make you look your best. Something that will not happen in a straight on snapshot when you're wearing your husband's old t-shirt that he usually wears to wash the car and your old gym shorts because they're comfy and they fit under your belly.

 Your maternity session is an hour of you and your husband hanging out, laughing, talking about names and what that first week home will be like, and loving. And me capturing it all for you to treasure.  Celebrate it.

Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.

Since August has five Mondays, this week is a bonus week. If you've missed a week or two, now is a great time to catch up. Wherever you are in the project, or even if you're not participating, I hope you'll all join in this week.

Assignment 9: Print a photograph.

One of my goals for this project is to have a printed album at the end of the year that my family and friends can hold in their hands and flip through. And I'm pretty good about getting family images up on our walls. But there's just something about having a recent photograph up that makes me smile.

I love our home and I'm passionate about having artwork of the people I love most up on the walls. So there should be no excuses for leaving my images languishing on the computer where no one gets to see them.


I had three of these "frameless" frames left over from a project a year ago so I decided to put them to good use. I ordered some custom mats from Opus and then printed some 8"x10" photos from the past month.

The best thing about this is that I can swap them out regularly. I'll actually probably swap them out fairly soon as I'm not overly crazy about how these three look together but for now I'm just happy to have them up on my walls.

I've only had them up for 24 hours and every time the kids walk by they stop and look. I hung them lower than I would have so they'd be able to see them and yet Gracie still wants to be lifted up so she can point at the one of Angelo. Definitely happy I decided to get them up on the wall, and thinking of another project to display some photographs at their height.

I challenge you this week to print a photograph. You don't have to do anything fancy with it - you can pin it to a bulletin board, put it in an old frame you're not using anymore or even tape it to your computer screen - just print one.

Last year I started hearing more than ever about Community Sustained Agriculture (CSA). The idea is you pay a local farm upfront for your veggies for the year. This gives them capital to grow their crops in advance and you're guaranteed a weekly delivery of veggies for the 15 week growing season.

It also takes some of the risk away from the farmer and shares it with us, the consumer. If the farm has really great yields that year, you'll have a really large CSA share. If it's a year of tough weather conditions, your delivery might be smaller than expected. Yet by spreading the risk somewhat, we're insuring that the small local organic farms are able to stay in business from year to year and thrive.

Last year I was a bit late in registering for a CSA - they fill up fast! Last November, my friend Amber wrote about her visit to Skeeter Farms. I checked them out and quickly put my name on the waiting list. In February I received an email saying registration was open and mailed off my cheque.

Deliveries started July 13th and we are loving it!


This week's delivery included swiss chard, two different kinds of yellow squash, beans, cucumbers, yummy mixed salad sprinkled with edible flower petals, broccoli, beets, cilantro and purple peppers. I love all the colour!

If you average the total annual fee over the 15 weeks of delivery, this huge bunch of produce is roughly $25. We easily spend that on veggies each week and that's not even for produce that's local and organic.

If you're interested in joining a CSA next year, I highly recommend Skeeter Farm.  Here are my tips for making the most out of your CSA.

1. Check that the pick-up point is convenient as your veggies will be delivered to select locations, not your home. I emailed in advance and asked where the local pick-up locations were last year and if they expected they would be the same this year. 
2. Be adventurous. With most CSA's, you can choose 3 or 4 items you do not want to have in your delivery. I wanted to make the most of whatever was fresh and in season so the only thing we requested not to receive was spicy peppers - none of us enjoy anything spicy.
3. The internet is your friend. I have one great zucchini pasta recipe but it's not great enough to eat every week for 5 weeks straight. Last week I discovered an amazing chocolate zucchini cake recipe an we've been enjoying it all week.
4. Plan your meals. I've done meal plans for years but I think it's especially important when you are receiving veggies you're not used to cooking with. It would be a shame for the next week to roll around and you still have half your veggies going limp in the produce drawer of your fridge. We pick-up our delivery on Wednesdays and then I meal plan for Thursday through Wednesday once I see what's in the bag.
   

Apparently corn is coming soon and I can't wait!

It's not very often that I photograph older kids but every time I do I have the best conversations with them. This family in particular has some pretty amazing kids, or really, young adults.


The oldest is incredibly smart and has a heart of gold. Even though she's had some pretty major challenges in her life she has big plans for her future. On top of all her challenges and school work, she's raising money right now to go to Kenya to help build a school.

Her brother is a skateboarding whiz. One of my son's favourite things to do is to hang out at the skateboard park and watch the "big kids" doing tricks so I loved hearing about all the cool things this guy is doing - and how quickly he learned them all.

The youngest has a huge passion for dancing. You name a dance style, she does it. We are fellow SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance for the uninitiated) fans - my guilty TV pleasure.


Given the way this summer started it's no surprise that sessions have had to be changed up because of the rain. But this is the first time ever I've had a session taken over by mosquitoes. When I arrived early at our planned location I went for a fairly long walk, looking at the light and choosing some great spots for our session, casually swatting the mosquitoes as I went. I wondered why I was at a gorgeous location on a beautiful sunny evening and there wasn't another soul in sight.

I made my way back to the car deciding we'd probably need some bug spray for the session. I met up with the family and took mom and the kids back to the places I'd scouted while her boyfriend went on a bug spray run.

As we're walking, I noticed I'm swatting mosquitoes a little more frantically then before. A few mosquito jokes and we keep walking. We get to our location, I look at the kids and their jeans are completely covered with mosquitoes. Hundreds. So we turn back and literally make a run for the cars. Never in my life have I seen bugs like that!

I wasn't familiar with the area but mom quickly came up with a new location and we caravan-ed over there. Thank you all for a great session. I loved spending time with your family.

Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.

We're back to photographing the details of our life.

Assignment 8: Photograph summer feet.

Your kids, yours, all together, take your pick.

There's just something about kids feet in the summer. Angelo's feet are always a little dirty from running around outside with bare feet. And when we're at the lake it seems like they're always covered in sand.  Gracie has the funniest little feet ever. They're cute and pudgy and her little toes are always curled under. I don't remember Angelo's ever being like that and I'm sure Gracie's won't stay like this for long so all the more reason to capture them in a photograph today.


This week was a lot harder for me than I thought it would be. Everything I tried didn't really work - either grass or sand covered up their toes or I just couldn't get the look I was going for. At first I passed this photo right by but the more I looked, the more I realized it had just what I wanted.

I love how you can see her toes curling under. I love that it's first thing in the morning and we're outside in bare feet and the little pieces of grass and dirt are sticking to their feet. I love the rock that made it's way into the photograph. Both my kids have a thing with rocks - they're forever collecting them and stowing them away in pockets, carseats, wherever. I love how you can see all the scrapes and bruises on their legs that come from having a great time outside in the summer.

And I love how you can see the difference in their colouring. Both kids were born with my colouring but as Angelo gets older you can see his getting closer to Jim's, especially in how quickly and easily he tans. Both kids get the same amount of sunscreen at the same time yet Gracie's skin still looks just like mine while Angelo's is so dark.

If you're playing along, share your link below in the comments. I'd love to follow your project. And thanks to my Seattle photog peeps for all the in-person blog love last weekend. Loved spending the weekend with you all, my artist friends!

My sweet, strong-willed, independent Gracie.... at 16 months you are a girl who knows your own mind. When you see something you want to do, you don't stop until you're doing it. And though I might get frustrated with your stubbornness at times, you instantly make it better with the countless hugs and kisses you give throughout the day. There is nothing better than you putting your arms out for a hug and then, when I pick you up, the way you snuggle your head right into the crook of my neck and pat my back to make sure I know I'm getting a hug and not just a quick cuddle.

For some reason your favourite song is Happy Birthday and we hear it all day long. You also have a bit of a shoe thing going on. The minute you're in your carseat you take them off. And when we've been playing outside for a few minutes, you sit down and pull them off, walk around barefoot for a little while and then come back and do your best to get them back on.

I love you so much baby girl. We're so blessed to have you in our family and I'm so thankful for the way you keep all of us laughing.

Join me as I take one photo a week for the next year, each one capturing a specific aspect of our family life and my kid's childhood that I want remembered. You can read the introduction post here, an FAQ post here and all related posts here.

The third week of the month is either for taking a seasonal photograph or photographing part of our daily routine. Today we're going to start photographing our daily routine.

Assignment 7: Photograph your child sleeping.

Is sleeping part of the daily routine? I'd say so.

I love how each child sleeps so differently. Gracie used to sleep on her stomach with her bum up in the air and, even with all the photographs I take in a day, I don't think I have a photograph of that. So it's especially important to me to get a photograph of them sleeping today.


I had wanted to get one of her facing me but she woke up when she heard my camera clicking away. I decided I love this one anyway - the way she's totally stretched out with her right hand tucked up by her neck.


So then I snuck into his room to take his photograph sleeping. Except I remembered he had asked if he could nap in our bed today. He never asks so of course I said yes. He tried to give up his nap but every time he starts reading for his quiet time he falls asleep. I was going to retake this photograph in his own bed but he always sleeps this way which, in his room, means he's facing the wall. So I decided instead to be thankful he chose to sleep in our bed on the day I was taking the sleeping photographs.

And I specifically chose to do the sleeping photo while we still have long daylight hours. So if your kids are too old to nap (thank goodness mine still do!) you can photograph them first thing in the morning or at night before you crawl into bed.

If there's not enough light outside, turn on the hallway light and open up their door. Hopefully so the light hits their face. The orange colour of the light shining on them with the dark shadows in the rest of the room will really give a cool night-time sleeping feel.