The Dimic Family is adding a beautiful baby girl to their gorgeous family in March. I was lucky enough to capture their maternity session with this baby – like I did their first one. You can check out that Livermore Maternity Photography session here.

I know how you are thinking – that momma knows how to pick out maternity clothes. I couldn’t agree more!

I can’t wait to meet you baby Ella Mae!

Gorgeous sunset at this maternity session in Brentwood!

I had such a beautiful east bay maternity session with this couple. They are waiting to find out what they are having. I am guessing a boy – let’s see if I am right.

Brentwood East Bay Baby Photographer

Discovery Bay Newborn Photography

San Ramon East Bay Maternity Photographer

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to capture this maternity photography session in the East Bay with this a-m-azing family. As a maternity photographer – well I guess at least for me – it can sometimes be hard to find that balance between gorgeous, emotional, and timeless maternity images and images of a belly is a field.

I find maternity sessions to be my most challenging sessions. This doesn’t mean I don’t love them, but it take works to make a maternity photo “wall worthy”. Think about it. While we all want photos of our pregnancy to look back on, once the baby comes it is easy to want to remove the maternity photos from the wall and hang all those sweet, cute newborn photos up. A picture of a belly has to be simple, yet breathtaking to have any chance of staying on the wall after a newborn photography session is done. I think this session has a shot.

The lighting was perfect – grandma came to help round up the kids when it was time for just mom and dad pictures. Everyone was helping me draw out that nice, gorgeous smile she has! The woman is just a rock star at being pregnant. I know that pregnancy didn’t look that good on me.

I submitted these images to be featured on Newborn Goodness. The blog is hosted by Laura Brett of Laura Brett Photography. If you are a newborn photographer or photographer newborns/maternity/babies at times I highly suggest becoming a part of Newborn Goodness. Not only it is a blog that features a TON of awesome photographers all over the US but they also have a forum where you can ask questions and share about your studio, learn new poses, brag about a session, and just get general encouragement about your business. It makes being a one (wo)man photography shop feel less lonely.   Should this session be posted on her blog I will make sure to post a link so you can get more of this maternity session.

Warning: This is a long post with a ton of information. You are more than welcome to contact me with any questions you may have.

With the amount of inquiries coming in about child, family, and maternity sessions – I have been a bit overwhelmed, and wondering what I could do to A. Keep the cost of sessions affordable for my new and past clients and B. Make it so I wasn’t driving to six different sessions all over the East Bay in one day, every weekend – and missing out on my much loved family time. After my sister’s great idea -God bless Ashley- about Beach Mini Sessions, I decided that is where I would focus a lot of my energy now. It is the best fit for my busy family and I think it will be awesome for my clients as well.

So what is a mini session? Well, a mini session is a session that lasts anywhere from 15-30 minutes vs. an hour or more at a full session. It gives you anywhere from 8-12 images vs. 25-35 images from a full session.

These sessions would be ideal for the following:

*Maternity  - For anyone who has ever done a maternity session before, you know you probably won’t hang 35 images of your pregnant belly around your house. So these are perfect to capture the moment you want to remember but at a more affordable cost.

*Child – Babies and Children grow so fast, this is an easy way to continue to capture their first year and on without the high cost.

*Family pictures – We all have our reasons for taking family photos. Maybe it is with our children as they grow, grandma’s birthday is coming up, or you just lost 50 pounds. Whatever the reason a mini session could be a great option to keep the cost down and still obtain the photos you are looking for.

*Engagement sessions – This would be perfect for a fast and painless engagement session.

What these sessions would not be ideal for:

*For a larger group – These sessions are quick, and while I believe I try to complete my job as easy and quickly as possible – the more people at a session the harder it is to do it quickly. Every mini session will have a cap to the number of people allowed to be captured. Full sessions are available for larger groups.

*For newborns – Newborns are long sessions. Newborns need time to eat, time for diaper changes, and to get settled into those sleepy poses. You can’t rush those.

*Boudoir sessions – Mini sessions will be captured outdoors, so boudoir photo shoots will only be available as full sessions.

*Family session with very young children – not all young children will do well at mini sessions. Their is a reason why most photographers like an hour to capture sessions, sometimes children take awhile to warm up to that massive black camera in their face. If you have a shy child or a camera shy child, you make want to invest your money into a full session so you don’t waste any on a session that won’t yield the results you are hoping for.

Photography is an investment; just like a Coach purse, or Baby Jogger stroller – except these are pictures of your baby/family/engagement that you will have forever to remember this moment in time you will never get back. After knowing what you do about your children/family and the process of mini vs full session, it shouldn’t be hard to know which one suits your family best.

More Information on Minis:

I will be offering mini sessions roughly every 30-60 days in different locations all over the Bay Area. They will be a supply/demand type of thing – so the more I hear from clients stating they would like one, the more I will have available.  Each “mini session day” will have a limited number of appointments available at each location and a deposit is due to hold your time and is non-refundable.

As I said before these mini sessions are a maximum of 30 minutes and will include the digital images in the price. They will cost less them my normal pricing since I will be able to stay in one location and have my clients come to me. The price will change slightly with each mini session due to the following:

*the location

*length of time

*amount of people allowed to be captured at the session

*the amount of digital images edited and given to each client

PLEASE NOTE: Since mini sessions are at such a reduced rate I will not be excepting discounted gift certificates or gift certificates obtained at auctions. Those are for full sessions only. Please email me with any questions you may have on that.

Every “Mini Session Day” will have a blog post with all the details regarding what is offered and the cost. Please also sign up for my monthly newsletter to ensure you are up to date on the most current information for Amanda Rachelle Photography. Signing up is easy and fast – click on the “More Info” tab on the left hand side of my blog and fill in your name and email address to be added to the list.

I know that was a lot of information – so if you have any questions at all about these mini session or where the next one will take place, please feel free to contact me by hitting the contact button on the menu bar above.

Today my children and I are going to a very special 1st birthday party, for little Miss Poppy. Poppy has been my first baby I followed from maternity to newborn to her 1st year. Although this little diva has quiet the list of nicknames; Pop, Popstar, Poppyseed, Lolli – all suit her perfectly.

Poppy likes to steal your attention and she does it quiet easily. Her sweet smiles, those blue eyes, the very light strawberry blonde hair, and now all that too die for baby chub – the girl has it going on. She loves all eyes on her – you know the way it should be.

Over this year I have watched Poppy grow from a baby bump to a one year old, and while it is always so special to do any session with a child because we all know they will look so much older so quickly – it has been really awesome to follow Poppy through her first year of life. She holds a very special place in my heart and I am excited to see her grow into that sensational personality of hers.

In honor of her party today, I want to share with you what I got to capture in my camera this past year. Memory lane here we come.

So here is to you Miss Poppy girl. I wish you many, many more wonderful years. As you grow I hope you continue to carry that strength and grace you have in you and let it shine as much as it does now. I know you will go to great places and do amazing things with all your spunk and drive, but don’t forget to stop and smell the poppies – I mean roses – every once in awhile. Life is sweeter because you are here. Happy 1st birthday baby girl.

I have been a number of inquiries on my maternity photography sessions and newborn photography sessions. Since I have changed my website in January I haven’t shared a ton of my maternity photos. This post is just a cluster of some of my past maternity sessions. I will be doing possible blog posts of the different sessions, but this gives my readers an idea of my style and the overall outcome of my maternity sessions.

Currently I am only accepting mini maternity sessions with a booked newborn session. Mini maternity sessions are done on location – usually outside – and last 30 minutes long. My clients will receive roughly 20 poses edited in color and black and white to choose. Please contact me with any questions on pricing and scheduling an appointment. Either by email or you can hit the contact button on the menu above. The best time to do a maternity session is closer to sunset, when the lighting isn’t so harsh.

I would tell you which ones are my favorite, but the truth is they all are. And yes I am so in love with all the outfits these woman picked, too. I get so many emails about the orange shirt in the sunflower picture. Amy bought that from the I.N.C. department in Macy’s. I also get so many email about the white shirt Mel is wearing in the picture that has the yellow leaves in the background. She got that from Macy’s as well. Both of them were not in the maternity departments. Mel told me she just bought a size up from her normal size of small, mostly for the length. So don’t feel as though Pea in the Pod or Motherhood are your only options. Venture out and try to see if you can find something that you are truly comfortable in. When you feel comfortable, confident, and beautiful it will shine through in your photos. You can’t fake comfort, especially in pregnancy.

As with all the sessions lately, I am posting this as yet another catch up session. Amy has had her baby girl and she is about 2ish months old (if I remember correctly). But I just have to share – no matter how late to the game I am – her amazing maternity session we did in Brentwood and Discovery Bay. Amy and Dennis were down to get creative at their session. Amy called me a few nights before her session and asked if they could do a few fun and different ones. OF COURSE – one of the best parts of custom photography is being able to plan your session with the photographer! She got a ton of props and cute ideas to make their session something that made it about them, and something to remember. They were cherishing those last few months of before their baby girl came.

As for Amy – she was beautiful. I want to be able to do hair like her, she is a hair stylist in Livermore and she showed up ready to rock my camera in like 100 degree weather. Some of clients are tougher than me, she was one of them! If I was pregnant and doing a maternity session in that heat I would have been whining the entire session. Amy didn’t… at all – she truly couldn’t stop smiling. Her smile infected Dennis to smile. He adores her every being – I could truly feel his love for her. I love seeing parents-to-be as in love and as excited as Amy and Dennis were. And as for Amy’s perfectly smooth and round and TAN belly – that was all her. I didn’t photoshop any of that to perfection, she did that all on her own. If she wasn’t so awesome I would have hated – lol! Oh and her beyond gorg orange shirt – it’s from INC. Who doesn’t love INC?!

Amy had this awesome idea to sport their favorite baseball team’s jersey. She is a Giant fan (holla!) and he is an A’s fan, those pictures are so adorable. Some of my all favorite pictures. I have always wanted to go to the orchards off of Sellers Ave. in Brentwood and take a maternity picture with sunflowers. I got it from this session. The light was SOOOOOOO amazing in those photos. I just love them, all of them!

Last year I had a beautiful glowing pregnant client named Lyndsey. She was gorgeous and fun and outgoing and I was so envious of her having a husband who wasn’t stiff in photos. In fact Brian was so awesome he came up with some great posing ideas for their maternity session. The maternity session took place in Brentwood in September and it was as hot as Hades that day. But even the heat couldn’t shake the beauty that Lyndsey exuded at her session. You could tell these two were so excited for their baby girl Aubrey to come in October and so was I.

When we ended the maternity session Lyndsey asked me the best time to book her daughter’s newborn session. I expressed that between 4-6 days old is the best time – for some reason that is sweet spot where babies sleep really hard and don’t mind being put in all those adorable sleepy poses. I expressed as a mom I know how life changing having a baby is, and how overwhelming it may seem to book the session that soon after her birth. Lyndsey said that nothing was more important than getting Aubrey’s first few days captured. That was music to my photographer ears. Bless you Lyndsey!

Aubrey’s newborn session was perfect, and booked during that sweet spot time. I think those images show that. She was so tiny and a perfect sleepy angel. And when I say tiny I mean tiny. She was 5 pounds and a few ounces at her session, but she rocked out the sleepy poses like an 8 pounder. Such a gorgeous newborn.

Brian is one lucky guy! He was also an excellent assistant that day. As was Jake – Aubrey’s doggie. He was so sweet with her – he stirred every time she did. He also felt the need to be right next to her during the entire session. Thank you Brian and Lyndsey for sharing your sweet girl with me.