PREGNANCY IN REAL LIFE - ANN ARBOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

When I arrived bright and early first thing in the morning and started loading the film into my cameras preparing for her photo session, Lindsay sat on her comfortable green couch sipping her coffee and telling me about the night before. She and her friends had a "Let's Induce Lindsay" dance party. You know, much like this amazing couple did. Lindsay wasn't overdue at that point, but she is carrying twins and ready for the little babies to make their appearance. Her dance party buddies were still sleeping downstairs while we were visiting, so she made them breakfast. I took pictures.

A photographic portrait is a picture of someone who knows he’s being photographed, and what he does with this knowledge is as much a part of the photograph as what he’s wearing or how he looks. He’s implicated in what’s happening, and he has a certain real power over the result. - Richard Avedon

I love this quote. And it is what came to mind when I was photographing Lindsay. Going into her session, I had a different general idea of how the session was going to turn out. I was imagining a little bit more on the boudoir side like other pregnancy shoots I have done. But when I walked in and saw her sitting on her awesome couch surrounded by all of her quirky little decorations, I told her to just stay put because I wanted to photograph her just like that. And her reaction was to avoid looking directly at my camera because it made her feel awkward. I never asked her to look at the camera and I found it interesting that she chose to actively ignore and refuse to acknowledge the fact that I was photographing her by not making eye contact.