At home newborn session in Vancouver
Danni and Sam have had me photograph their maternity and at home newborn session in Vancouver with their second child, and it was such an honor to photograph them again after their move to Calgary. I was able to capture their life at home as well as the beauty of the fall in the prairies. I asked Danni to write her experience of having photos of her family taken. Read her words below!
It’s funny what time does to your heart. Even just months after these photos were taken I see them differently than I did at first glance. They were taken in the field behind our house in mid-October. Winter was just peeking around the corner, shriveled rose hips clung to their branches and I remember that I had wanted to forage them to make jam. But who gives birth to their third baby and then goes foraging for jam supplies? This year again that pipedream has been resurrected, but with more reasonable expectations. I consider what the last few months have done to my other expectations. Last October we were tired, worn, a family of five, and yet in the midst of discovering who we were with this new girl in our hearts. I cringed at the photos of me nursing her and asked Roberta how I could hide them so when I sent the gallery to my family they wouldn’t see those ones. I wished I’d done my hair differently. I wished I didn’t look so tired so it could be more obvious how completely overwhelmed I was with love for these four people.
But like I said: time. Every one of us has changed since then. Now I look at these photos and all I see is beauty and a deep, strong, abiding love. I want everyone to see me nursing, my soft tummy spilling over my jeans, and my baby absorbing what she needs to become who she is. I’m exhausted and a mother. A real, live mother! I look at Sam and I’m so proud of all he is to our kids – a jungle gym and a guide, a stay and a boon. And the kids, in all their perfection, bursting of untarnished awe for the world. These moments with these people are all I want to hold on to. I love who they’ve become since then, and I desperately just want to go back.
What Roberta captured is pure and honest documentation of where we were. Less than a year ago I saw these files and they were good family portraits. Time has done its thing and now these photos are art, a record of this family – me and my lover at the helm – imperfect and flawless. To see us then and to know us now is a gift that I am ever grateful for.
I would love to photograph your at home newborn session! Contact me here to get started.