Maternity Session at Studio Pastel

A family session that also is a maternity session with a family I’ve fallen in love with over the course of a few sessions together, oufff, my heart metls for this.

And these three…

(Well, these four, actually!)

OUUUFFF.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with these folks since the original days of the pandemic. Miriam followed me on Instagram a while back, and you know how those IG friendships start — seeing someone’s name all the time makes them seem quite familiar, and we started chatting. Then I did a family shoot with her, her husband Ainsley and their son Alex, and I just fell in love. Miriam and Ainsley are such a cool couple and shared their hearts with me during that shoot in a way that just had my whole heart. We had such a good time. It was one of those sessions where I walked away and was like, I’m gonna hang out with those people.

But this particular session was one I had to convince Miriam on a little. I find that a lot of pregnant mamas don’t feel like having photographs when they are pregnant and I know some that never take any (like even on their iphone or snaps from their partners) and it’s like that period of their life never existed! After this maternity session, she posted on Instagram about how she never thought she’d do maternity photos but she was so happy she did. It made me so elated to see that I was able to convince her of doing something she loved. I believe it’s so important to document your maternity — as you all know— because your body is literally growing a human. You are making another human while you do life. Making coffee, while making a human. Going for a walk, while making a human. Anything and everything that we do everyday, all while making a human. It’s wild! It only happens for 9 months out of your entire life and it’s such an adventurous and beautiful experience that I think it should be captured. In her post, she confessed that she never thought she’d do a session like that, let alone post the photos, but she was so happy she did. There isn’t a bigger honour than hearing that.

Another special part of the session was having her son, Alex, included. There’s something so beautiful about the realness of growing a new human inside of you while you also have this other little human crawling around on top of you. Being pregnant with your second is such a familiar experience, yet such a different one than your first. All experiences, while similar, can be so very different.

But, really documenting your experience by including your first born, well…it’s pretty special and I just melt when I see shots of mamas holding their babies with a beautiful belly propping their cute bums up. They’re my favourite. Wait till you see Miriam’s at the bottom of the page. That last one is one of my favs.

Ainsley and Miriam are a couple who just let me do whatever and are up for anything, so this session was full of creative freedom for me. We’ve shot in different places for their past shoots so with this one, we used a studio called Studio Pastel. It’s such a great place to photograph at. It’s owned by my friend Eryn Shannon (another wedding colleague) and is such a cool loft space. I did a blog post about studios in Toronto this summer and I included this space in the line-up. Click over here if you’d like to see the lineup of places I shoot at when not outdoors or in people’s homes!

The light in Studio Pastel is really fun to play with and it’s simple enough that it’s the perfect blank slate for anything you have in mind, but not so blank it’s boring — Eryn added some thoughtful, key little details and pieces that give it just the right lifestyle feel.

Ainsley, Miriam, and Alex — you make my heart melt and I love working with you guys so much. I’m truly so fortunate to work with families again and again, and you guys are one where it just keeps getting better and better with every session.

Big love XO