So! This was my first time ever doing a maternity shoot, and it was one in Manchester! The layout and concept was simple, capture the everyday lifestyle of Maimoona’s maternity within her home and her back garden, using a few props such as a polaroid camera i bought along the way to help create interesting daily-life scenarios!
You're probably wondering how I - a wedding photographer - ended up in Manchester shooting a maternity session as well how the photos turned out too! If you also wanna know if a maternity session is worth it for you then carry on reading!
To also expand on the brief, Maimoona didn't want a studio, nor clinical lighting, nor a white backdrop. Maimoona herself loved the idea of this dreamy fairytale-inspired direction that treated her everyday life as some sort of disney aesthetic. The sofa, the garden she walks on, we made it all feel more romantic than it normally would be.
What a Home Maternity Shoot Actually Looks Like
When many people hear "home shoot" they think its low effort, no budget, or just simply lazy. Well, that's far from it. To me it means a different effort entirely. You're walking into a home where people have had conversations, arguments, laughs, it's someone's life and you now have to figure what works within it whilst not making them uncomfortable at all.
Every room within the house had its own lighting, all natural or practical (either from a window or from a practical light such as a lamp or ceiling light). You also have practical furniture to shoot around, similar to a venue (and different from a studio), where the couples can be posed around and interact with.
For this home shoot, we stuck to the landing, the kitchen and the living room, both which had good natural light. The backyard itself gave us another location without needing to go to a nearby park, which at 28 weeks was a genuine benefit to the maternity shoot. My last thing was having her walk ten minutes to the nearby park with a visible baby bump and have her feel uncomfortable.
A home maternity shoot is heavily dependent on the layout, the decor, and the general design of everything, if there's anything important in the background which you can pull to the front. For Maimoona, her living room had visible light through the windows which made shooting in it much easier, and also gave me some interesting frames to play around with. And whilst, yes, whilst a room can feel stale, its those interesting shots that can change how perspective feels and make a scene that's been captured over a dozen times still feel fresh.
What Went Well
The first fifteen minutes of the maternity shoot were awkward (as is with any other shoot). It's worth saying this because if you want a maternity shoot and you're not someone who enjoys being front of a camera, then you'll have the exact same reaction that Maimoona and her partner both had - feeling they needed to be models when they never did. - It takes a while to settle in and be vulnerable with someone pointing a camera at you in your living room, but once they got settled, the session was able to properly flow.
And it's here where that dreamy, fairytale-like direction came to life. We weren't trying to create something dramatic, editorial or gothic at all. This was a domestic space embracing a new life, so the right call was to work with the softness, with them on their sofa cuddling, the natural golden hour light hitting Maimoona, her partner kissing her stomach. We didn't plan for that exact image or pose, I just let them slowly get comfortable in front of the lens and captured their everydayness.
And its why I also preferred doing it in Maimoona's house than a studio. The everydayness can't be captured on a white backdrop, no. We leaned into the grounding element.
I also bought a polaroid (as mentioned earlier) and the use of a prop added something that simple coverage doesn't give you. It's this, fake-it till you make-it moment. It let the two interact physically with something other than each other, and it gave both of them something to keep (a polaroid of Maimoona) whilst she waited for an edited gallery to come weeks later (I did deliver within a week so!)
The garden aspect of the Maternity was probably the most freeing. Them chasing each other, Maimoona spinning, it's here where the fairytale aspect truly came to life most.
What I’d Do Differently Next Time
Props. The Polaroid worked because it gave them something to work with besides a bump and environment, but one prop only lasts a few minutes at best across a full session and it lacks variety when you're working with two rooms and a garden. My idea for future Maternitity shoots would be a picnic blanket to put either inside or outside in a garden, maybe a basket too and some food or perhaps a teddy bear, some baby shoes even or whatever else feels sentimental to the couple as they could've each added variety and a layer to the shoot that didn't feel like the same thing but repeated outdoors or in another room.
The honest version is that I was thinking about this shoot the way I’d think about a couples session: work with the people and the environment, keep it natural, let the connection do the heavy lifting. And that approach worked — to a point. But maternity is different. There’s a built-in subject (the bump) that benefits from being contextualised with objects that point forward, that hint at what’s coming, that give the images a story beyond ‘pregnant woman in her living room.’ Next time, I’d arrive with a small kit of props and offer them as options rather than relying entirely on what’s already in the space. Fake it till you make it. A styled blanket, a bear, a book — none of it needs to be real. It just needs to look intentional.
The truth is that I thought too much about this shoot akin to a couples session. I focused on the couple and then the environment, and wanted it more natural, and waited for their connection to the heavy lifting, but I realised that approach was working only to a point. There was a built-in subject (the bump) that works from being focused on with the objects around it focusing on it.
The other adjustment is pacing. Working around a bump at 28 weeks means being conscious of comfort in a way that a standard couples session doesn’t require. Maimoona was great about telling me when she needed to sit, but I’d build more structured breaks into the session next time rather than waiting for the client to flag it. Five minutes between setups, explicitly offered, not implicitly available.
Should You Book Him?
If you're pregnant and want maternity photos that don't use a studio and would rather use your own home, your own space or something that actually has meaning in your life than just a blank set then that's what that shoot was, and what I've done. I know what to do it again, what I'd do better and what I wouldn't do again.
If you’ve found me through my wedding or couples work and you’re wondering whether I can do maternity, this page is the proof of concept. The editorial eye carries across. My approach doesn’t change because the subject is a bump instead of a bride and groom.
If you’re not local, that’s fine. I travelled from Birmingham for this one and I’ll travel for yours. The distance doesn’t change what you get!
Read Next
Not sure what to expect from a couples-style session? Our guide on whether you should do an engagement shoot covers the same kind of hesitations and what the experience is actually like. Read it here
