London in-home maternity photoshoot - Kezi and Ehis
My alarm went off abruptly at 5:45am. Time to set off, a 3 hour drive to London ahead of me. People can call me crazy all they want but there are few distances I won’t travel for sessions. After knowing Kezi online for years and shooting with her beautiful family the previous summer, I couldn’t wait to capture her in bloom with her second baby.
I arrived promptly around 10am, a little exhausted and fuelled solely by copious amounts of coffee and left over adrenaline from listening to Lady GaGa on the drive there. The light was moody, rain bouncing lightly off the streets and clouds hanging heavy overhead. But that never holds me back. Whatever the weather, if we have some window light we can make it work.
Muted tones, earthy textures, high ceilings, flooding light. Kezi’s home was my idea of heaven when it came to shooting.
Being intimately you with your partner when there’s a camera pointed at you can be overwhelming to say the least. In British culture especially, I find that PDA is almost a lost art form. We shy away from touch and connection as if its instinctual to avoid it. I say ignore those anxious thoughts, the idea of being ‘silly’, of doing ‘the wrong thing’. Just be you. Be you with the people you love the most.
We danced around and exchanged ideas for close to two hours, making the most of every light pocket and potential concept that zapped through our minds. Maternity photos can be more than just holding your belly and smiling. Appreciate that you are walking art, you are the creator of life in this moment. I don’t buy into the ‘goddess’ concept in its entirety. Pregnancy can be exhausting, painful, it can feel like a never ending chore as those nine months drag on. But to me, you always look beautiful. I don’t see the exhaustion or the fatigue, I simply see a glowing mother-to-be who needs some love and attention to make her feel her absolute best. And that’s what I want to bring out in every single mother I meet.
