Gorgeous Mama-to-Be {Austin Maternity Photographer}

There is something so special about maternity portraits.

Maybe because it is the end of a journey (pregnancy) that in all actuality is just beginning with the birth and life of a baby.  Maybe it is because a year from now at her baby's first birthday, she will look at that and not believe that her sweet baby was that beautiful baby bump.  Bodies are amazing in what they can do, and I just love celebrating that beauty through maternity portraits.

I loved J's mini-session from start to finish.  And adding Ranger (her pup) to the mini-session made it even sweeter!  Her husband purchased a gift certificate for this session for their wedding anniversary several months ago.  What a sweet and thoughtful idea!  Enjoy a sneak peek into our evening together.

Love Letters: The B Family

Getting emails like this from my clients is one of the most amazing parts of my job.  I am so blessed to get to serve others with photography.   This family was a dream to work with.  Big Brother was so excited for his little sister to be born.  And Little Sis was the perfect baby... she slept almost the whole time.  I love watching families grow and being able to document that through my camera, and then create custom artwork for my clients' homes made from those sweet memories.  Best job ever. 

From The B Family: 

"We are so grateful that we happened to connect with Sarah Jordan at Miles of Smiles Photography!

I decided just a few weeks before the end of my second pregnancy that I wanted to do some maternity shots and after filling out over a dozen online request forms for local photographers, Sarah was the only one who took the time to call me back personally rather than bombard me with generic advertising emails. Her pricing was presented upfront and was very competitive to the other independent photographers I researched.

Over the phone, Sarah took the time to go over my specific requests for a shoot and was able to accommodate my (extremely inflexible!) schedule to find a time that would work for my family. We also booked a newborn session which gave us a pricing incentive and took the pressure off to already have it set up before I even gave birth!

Our family maternity shoot was great...my 4 year old son still talks about "that funny lady who took our picture" and any parent knows what a talent it is to get a genuine, looking-at-the-camera smile from a 4 year old! Even my husband was cooperative as Sarah skillfully moved from shot to shot without a bunch of wasted time in between thinking about what should come next. We were able to meet and go over my proofs before I delivered and I had a CD of images from which I was able to print and frame pictures that were on the nursery wall before my daughter was born!

The newborn session was also great...Sarah is clearly experienced at working with these little ones and provided a great 'checklist' to help us prepare. I think the best compliment I can give her is that literally every person who viewed our proofs (in an online gallery!) commented, "what a great photographer."

Overall, we enjoyed the sessions and feel we got a fantastic product for our money. Certainly you can get cheaper photographs at the mall but you get what you pay for. Any photographer who can make me look good at 36 weeks pregnant and even more impressively at 10 days post-partum is an artist! Creating beautiful family pictures of a 4 year old, a newborn, and 2 sleep deprived parents is obviously no easy feat. We look forward to working with Sarah many times in the future as our family grows."

~The B Family (click here for blog post from this session)

The C Family {Austin Family & Maternity Photographer}

I love maternity sessions, and celebrating the beautiful life growing in his/her mother's body.  I also love photographing the baby (that used to be that pretty little bump) once it makes it way into that family.  What a fun little guy E is!  He was super smiley, and such a little heart breaker.  Especially in the image below with the newsboy hat on.

It's hard to believe that not so long ago, he was just a pretty bump in his mama's belly.

To the C Family: It has been so fun working with your family and watching it grow!  You have such a little sweetheart in E, and I love the way you all laugh together.  Thanks for allowing me to capture some of those laughs through my camera!

Sweet Maternity {Austin Maternity Photographer}

I love maternity sessions.  I love everything they symbolize... The beauty of a baby bump, the miracle that a growing life is inside a woman's body, and the love the parents already feel for the baby even before it is born.

This maternity session was no different.  Beautiful mama-to-be, her loving husband, a sweet baby bump and lots of laughs during our session.  K is a nurse practitioner at the OBGYN offices I have my portraits hanging (in the exam rooms), so it was fun hearing some of the comments she's gotten from her patients there about the sweet images on the walls.  (And how they make waiting in the exam rooms a little more fun!)

It is a good thing we did this session when we did... as Baby E was born the very next day!  So glad that they will have beautiful maternity portraits to look back on as they cuddle their baby boy.  Congratulations, C Family!

I am loving the golden light from the setting sun!  This is why they call it "The Golden Hour!"

The W Family {Austin Newborn Photographer}

To say I enjoyed every minute of this session would be an understatement.  I was able to do this couple's anniversary portraits in early 2011, and then their maternity session in May (click here).  We wanted to get some "after" shots to go along with a few of the maternity shots we captured, so they scheduled a mini-session to get that done.

For true newborn photography, mini-sessions (30-minutes) are not a possibility, because in order to get those "sleepy baby shots," it is best to have a session done by the time baby is 2 weeks old.  And a true newborn session takes anywhere from 1.5-3 hours due to baby's schedule, need to feed, and the time it takes to get baby to sleep during poses.  By 2 weeks of age, the baby starts waking up a bit more compared to the 5-10 day olds who sleep a lot.

But - if you have a new baby and didn't get your session done in that 5-14 day old timeframe, you can absolutely still get wonderful images of your new addition while they are still tiny!

Here is an example of a baby that was 5 weeks old.  She was pretty alert, but I love the fact that her eyes are open and she's interacting a lot with her parents in these images.  What a little beauty!  If you can believe it, this was a 30-minute mini-session!  I had things lined up and ready, and we got priceless memories captured on camera for her mom and dad to enjoy always.

Sneak peek into our session...

Shots like the one below are totally "ah hah" moments for me in this business.  I adore them because they show the true tiny-ness of a newborn, and we all know that doesn't last long!  Our photographer got one of me and my sweet baby girl this spring, and I will always cherish it.
 

And this is what the sweet baby's mama sent to me after the session.

"Oh my! Sarah you are absolutely AMAZING! Our morning had been totally crazy before we arrived, but you made sure that our shoot was calm and FUN.

Plus, I was SUPER impressed with the variety of shots you accomplished in such a short time, and that my less than cooperative little one didn't phase you a bit.

Thank you SO much for capturing these precious family moments for us- I can't wait to display more of your beautiful work in our home. Again, thank you thank you THANK YOU!"

~Jessica