This has to be one of my all time favourite sessions.  *Please leave a comment if you like it!*

Annie is a dear old friend of mine, a kindred spirit (cynicism and sarcasm and all!), and fellow entrepreneur–and when she found out that for her 2nd pregnancy she was having a little girl I received an excited email saying we needed to go ‘all out’ for this little girl.   And that included stellar maternity photos.   Her ideal session?   “Classic/bohemian/Amelie flava.”    Rock and roll, baby!

I’d had this special idea burning a hole in my brain, waiting for someone special to use it on so I knew this was the time to pull it out!

I scoured the countryside for days driving around in my pick-up, pinning locations on my phone and knocking on doors.    Finally, with a sweet spot chosen I went to work designed and (poorly) sewing Annie’s wardrobe.  She graciously let me take control of one of her outfits—-I was pretty excited.    After that I made a wooden swing that was easily put up and taken down by a person without a ladder (and possibly without assistance!), but fortunately my husband was there to help hang the swing.

We started off the session easy though—-kind of like a warm-up.

Sadly, 95% of the session was sans sunshine—-Annie arrived about 5 minutes after the golden-hour sun was eaten up by black clouds.   It was a race against time and I was already disappointed about the sun.   But the dark, moody clouds that surrounded us actually gave us a really, really cool vibe and created some stunning contrasts.   After the warm-up part we dove into the main-event: the swing!   Kudos to Annie, being 8 months pregnant, and happily standing on a home-made swing!   Not only did she do that for me, but she looked like a goddess while she did it!

This photo below was the image I entered in the Chic Critique Photography Idol contest back in August.   I had just gotten home from vacation, read my inbox of emails and realized I only had TWO HOURS to submit my entry into the contest!   I did and I WON the entire competition!   You can read more about it here, here, and the winning blog here.   All of it was possible because of Annie and this shoot :)

Look at that impish smile.  COME ON!

We finished off in the soy plants–sorry Mr Farmer!    The sun was almost gone completely and the green soy was casting a really pretty light in contract with the pink of Annie’s skirt.    I think it was also nice for her to lay down for a moment!

Thanks again to Annie for being so willing to place her session in my hands!    And sorry this post is so late in coming—there will be oodles more being posted as I try to catch up on blogging from the last three months.  Ouch.

And check out Chic Critique if you are a female photographer–Chic Critique is THE elite magazine & resource for women who love photography (yes, we’re biased!)

*I’d love to hear back from you!  Please leave a comment–pleeeeeeasse!  I feel like I’m all alone here….