My Baby Shower and Belly Portraits (part 1)

As a little girl I never dreamed about the day that I would get married, what kind of wedding dress I'd wear or who my Prince Charming would be. I was a "girly-girl" but just not the kind who thought about those things. All I wanted was to be able to grow my hair really long and wear Lee-Press-On-Nails! Neither of which I do now.

The same goes for having babies. Until I caught the baby-bug about 4 years ago I didn't dream about buying baby clothes or start picking out names. Then as soon as we started planning to have a family I immediately began thinking about my baby shower and maternity portraits! I've been excited about these events for many, many months and am so thrilled that quite a few family members, and a lot of good friends, were able to share the excitement with me.

Especially my sister, Liz, who flew in from England and will stay with us until Eli makes his appearance.



Also my Grandma who came down from Michigan.



Here are some of the treats that our incredibly talented friend, and past Kismet bride, Bunny, made for us to enjoy! All of which were fantastic!



Our theme for the baby shower was "nothing disposable". All the decorations were handmade and/or reusable, like this alphabet banner for Eli's room.




And one of my favorite things, the cloth diaper cake that my dad engineered!



A big thanks to everyone who helped make the shower so special and wonderful!


And now for Part 1 of my Belly Portraits - the Water Theme!

I can't tell you how many times people have asked me when I was going to post my Belly Portraits. With only 2 weeks to go until my "guess date" I know I'm cutting it close, but our planned "maternity leave" only recently started and we still haven't taken all the portraits we have planned. Hopefully I'll have the rest up before Eli arrives.


Swimming has provided incredible relief from the largeness and body ache I've been feeling lately and that's one of the many reasons we're planning a water birth.
















My sincere appreciation goes out to my amazing husband, and photographer, Curtis. I love my Belly Portraits and can't wait to do the rest!


Emily
Kismet Photography

Waiting Patiently for Liam...

It seems like in our business things are always connecting in ways we would least expect. That's why we are firm believers in the word Kismet, which means destiny and fate. Things are meant to be and always come full circle.

Back in 2008 while photographing a wedding in Boone, NC we met Amanda, who was a bridesmaid. Little did we know we would cross paths with her again almost 3 years later. Her and her husband moved to Greenville and are now expecting their first child. And what perfect timing to reconnect with a former Boone resident as we will be going to Boone again next weekend for a wedding!

Any day now baby Liam will make his debut!





























Emily
Kismet Photography

Welcome to the world baby Declan!

I started photographing baby Declan when his mom came in for our Growing Belly Series, starting in her 16th week of pregnancy. I love not only being surrounded by other pregnant mommas and photographing their bellies, but watching them grow and change from session to session.



It's so amazing to see what their baby looks like after many months of waiting. Here's Declan at 10 days old.










Emily
Kismet Photography

Maternity Portraits

Our pregnancy makes it's debut on the blog!

For those of you who don't know yet, we're expecting a baby boy, Eli, who is due in September. Curtis and I could not be more excited about meeting our baby in the near future. Eli will most likely share his birthday month with yours truly along with a handful of other important people in our family. Talk about a lot of cake in one month!

Besides working hard creating beautiful wedding images for our couples we have also been busy turning our once empty storage room into a nursery. After things are a little more complete we will be posting pictures.

And now on to other bellies…

Our first pregnant momma, Pucci, who has already had her precious son, inspired me with her colorful, dramatic belly-dance costumes so we had to incorporate her hobby into the portraits of her baby belly.











At-home maternity portraits were perfect for our second momma, Melissa, who's baby boy will be here later this month.




Can you tell her and her husband are Greenville Drive fans? They also had a Drive onesie and matching bib!










Our Maternity Portrait sessions are tailored to each woman to fit her style and personality as well as where she feels most comfortable. Another option for your Maternity Portraits is an Underwater Portrait Session.












As pool season is beginning, now is the perfect time for an Underwater Session at our pool (or yours). And, for a limited time, our Underwater Maternity Portrait sessions are only $75 (normally $100). You can make this session all about you and your belly or if your partner is willing to take the plunge, they can join in too!

Our summer availabilities are going quickly so call or email us today so we can talk about your Maternity Portraits.


Emily
Kismet Photography

The Growing Belly Series

The Growing Belly Series is the perfect way to visually show the progression of your pregnancy, month by month. We start the Series at your 16th week and continue through week 36. Whether you want to be semi dressed, draped in fabric or nude is up to you. The Series is catered to your comfort level.







Once your little bundle arrives they start growing so fast, so why not remember every tiny feature with a "Baby Bits" Canvas Wrap. This 3-dimensional piece of art is printed on fine art canvas, professionally wrapped around a solid wood stretcher frame and comes ready to hang.



You can even include your baby's birthday stats on both sides to make a keepsake your family will cherish forever.



Call us today to create one for your family!


Curtis & Emily
Kismet Photography

Underwater Bellies

What started out as a crazy dream actually became possible, thanks to my wonderful husband Curtis and his DIY talents! About a month ago we were talking about creative endeavors for the future and since I have been photographing a lot of Maternity portraits lately I started thinking about photographing bellies underwater.

Right away I googled "underwater maternity photography" to get some ideas and came across the most awesome blog post. These images make me want to be pregnant in the summer JUST so I can have shots like these!

The first step was figuring out how to get the high quality images we're used to from our D3's while being underwater and without shelling out $3000+ for a waterproof housing unit.

So we did some tests, well a lot actually! First we tried a disposable underwater film camera. This test proved that the poses we had in mind would look cool and that we could hold our breath and shoot at the same time. Great! However the camera sucked big time and we had no control over the developing process, so it obviously wasn't an option. We determined that we definitely wanted to use our gear but had no idea how we were going to submerge a $5000 camera underwater without something going horribly wrong. So Curtis came up with a genius, yet simple, idea:





Yeah, that's glorified Tupperware. Now the question was how to release the shutter without having my hands inside the container. In comes a wireless shutter release remote to the rescue! We originally got the remote so we could take more photos of ourselves without having to run back and forth to the camera.

After many, many tests to make sure it was completely waterproof we took the plunge and tested it out in an actual pool. After getting over the initial submersion-trepidation and getting comfortable shooting while wearing goggles and a nose plug we scheduled some real sessions.

Check out some of my favorite images from the underwater belly portraits:

























Thank you to Janet & Dawn for giving their time for this fun, learning experience. I only wish I had more time this summer to shoot more of these. Oh well, there's always next summer!


Emily Snyder
Kismet Photography