A while BS (before Siam) I remember walking into my half sisters bedroom after she had had her first child and she had a huge A0 size blow up photo of herself pregnant. At the time I couldn’t quite connect to the thought of being pregnant and the emotions behind a photo of yourself in that “State”. I stood there staring at this huge A0 size photo and thought wow “Why would you want to wake up to seeing yourself like that, your boobs are looking larger than life in this photo.” For me the photo was just scary. But to her there was a sense of pride in seeing herself carrying a child within her and the appreciation that her body could “DO IT”. The sparkle in her eyes was similar to that sparkle in a Winner of a marathon photo.
Now that I am 8 months pregnant and baring the same symptoms as my half sister, looking larger than life, I can totally relate to that desire of “Mr Photographer Shoot me now! Boobs , tummy, bum and all….. Capture this BODY you see right here…for I am a Marathon winner!” I did The Google thing and searched other maternity shoots and was totally inspired to book my appointment. I then chatted about my excitement over a cup of tea with one of my pregnancy buddies. She was 2 weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy and had already done her photo shoot. However the difference between her photo shoot and the ones I had seen on The Google was that this friend of mine was already in the film/design/photography industry. So her photos were not scary but more so B-WOW…yes B-WOW (my word for blown away wow)! She proudly showed me her photo’s and I was completely dumfounded by the detail, expression, intensity, beauty in the shoot. Her photos looked like they were taken out of a magazine and in some I could barely recognise her. The photos were also fun and artistic with crazy photo edits which were ingenious.
So…almost deflated, I went back to the drawing board for my maternity shoot plan. Now I wanted a fun and hip maternity shoot too! I also wanted to be in a bikini in a tub of milk, or be lifted with helium balloons and photo shopped here and there. I wanted a B-WOW photo shoot of my own. But reality hit me quite quickly as I remembered my photographers maternity portfolio was hardly as creative and I didn’t have a stylist or make-up artists to join me. But never the less I brain stormed with Avon on some of the possible positions, props and wardrobe ideas we could use…..he would be my inspiration.
Early one Saturday morning Avon and I rocked up at the studio dressed in black and ready to pose for the first round of shoots then changed into jeans and a white top for the second, which was all conservative and normal (in my opinon). After about a half an hour of posing the typical maternity way I started doubting that we would get any creative B-Wow shots. Now our idea of creative was me in a bikini with toys all around me and Avon top less showing his tattoo… But how do you say it to a somewhat conservative male photographer with out sounding like you wanna get naked for him. Thank goodness Avon rescued the situation by saying “ Babe how about that toys and bikini idea?” …thank goodness my man knows me so well....I replied with a "Oh yaaaaa I almost forgot about that!" LIES!!!! lol.
Posing at 8 months pregnant, in a bikini, and on the floor with toys isn’t exactly the easiest of jobs. Firstly you are hopping everything stays inside the bikini and that your new cellulite doesn’t get exposed. Secondly you are so awkward when you are on the floor because the lack of abdominal muscles and awkward bump doesn’t quite allow you to sit up or lean back nicely, you feel like a huge seal (yes the animal) with your arms being the flippers. You kind of have to role into position and when I did just that one of the squeegee toy animals hidden behind me gave a yelling screech as if it was in genuine pain. This might be a normal sound for Moms with kids...but for me it was it was a terrifying unfamiliar sound. I couldn’t help but laugh out of embarrassment as both Avon and the photographer looked down at me so helplessly. I wasn’t sure if they felt sorry for me or the animal but either way it was hilarious.
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| Teddy and Tum-Tum |
The next shot was a leg in air shot, I call it the tear drop shot. You lie on your back and you lift your legs up in the air while they are folded over. I got the idea from an internet maternity shoot and thought it would be simple enough. But as I lay there on my back I realised that those leg lifts don’t come easy. So I had to explain to the photographer to take the photo SUPER QUICK .."when I lift my legs up YOU SHOOT". Lol. As I lay there on the floor I thought “wow kanya you really are pushing your limits here….just for that B-WOW shot.”
I am not sure of what we will do with the photos we took , but I must admit I had fun taking them and I am sure they may scare some people, as they once scared me before I was pregnant, but to me these photos will be B-WOW no matter what. With the B standing for Baby-Wow, Big-Wow, Blown-up-WOW, Brrr-WOW, Bgosh-Wow, bloody-WOW!
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