Maternity Pics

Yesterday my boyfriend and I went to have our pics taken at a place in the mall. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about taking pictures in a studio. I mean, where I'm from, I have a few friends who do photography. *I* do photography. And we all like to do natural, outdoor shots. We go to beautiful places and take a LOT of pictures and edit them, and give our "customers" (more likely friends and family members) a CD with the edited pics and a release stating they can print them where-ever and however they like. All for about $100-$150--depending. Now, if we were doing a wedding, obviously we would charge a little more, but we do like 6hrs of pictures at their event and give them hundreds of pictures! Up here I am realizing that our way of doing things isn't the norm.

A few weeks ago, I started calling around to local places. I called JCPenny's, Sears, and a few other places around here, trying to get an idea of what to expect. Most places were willing to print me sheets of like 3-4 poses for a ridiculous amount of money. And NO CD option! A girl I work with has a neighbor who takes pictures, so I emailed her and asked about her pricing. She charged a $200 sitting fee (never heard of this outside of an established studio!) plus you have to order up $300 worth of prints. And she had an option for a CD--but it'll cost you at least $300!! HOLY MOLY!! Now, don't get me wrong. I looked at her pictures and they are GORGEOUS!! But I'm a southern girl. I can't imagine spending that kind of money on pictures.

Then we found a place in the mall. Their pictures on their website were cute and well done. I looked at their pricing: Not horrible. No sitting fee. A hig-res CD would only cost $150. So, almost like what I would get back home. But in a studio. That was a little tough to swallow, but everything else was good. So we booked a session (and rescheduled about FIVE TIMES, lol) and went yesterday. They say you should bring some props, things that were gifts from grandparents, memorabilia, etc. I took the blankets my grandmothers ' made me when I was born, the teddy bear my sister bought me at the ultrasound with Emma's heartbeat in it, the penquin my SO's mom and we made at Build-A-Bear back in November, a picture frame with a Hop On Pop pic in it, and some ribbon with baby foot prints on it.

I have to say. I still miss the way we do things in the south. While we ended up with some cute pictures, it always felt like the photographer was rushing us into the next pose. I understand: She has about half an hour to get us in and out. And that includes our "ordering" time. But still. She kept saying: "Is there another pose you want with [insert object we're using at that time]?" Eh, wasn't thrilled about that. When we sat down to look at the images, there were only like 20 to choose from. And there were quite a few pics she took I absolutely HATED! But then again, I am more critical of myself than most people are. In the end, we opted to go for the high-res CD so I could edit them when I got home. This also got us the "Membership." There's some free pics we can use, some $10 discounts, and the more times we go, the more free things we get. So hopefully we can go back there after she's born and get some studio ones of her, plus some of us as a family.

Here are a few pics we took:

This book means a lot to me because it is the very first book I ever read. Had to include it in our pics.

Family photo.

Some pretty significant things.

"Sandwich'd" between the two loves of my life: my daughter and my boyfriend.

"A mother stops becoming the picture, and starts becoming the frame."