Nantucket Maternity Session | by Nantucket Photographer Kristen Swain

More and more, I’m coming to believe that maternity sessions are highly underrated. This is especially true when you’re expecting your first child. Within just a few weeks, your entire world will change, and the focus of your life will shift. And something you may not be thinking about right now, with all of the excitement and preparations underway to welcome your little one, is that going forward, your baby and any siblings they might eventually have will dictate how your professional photo shoots go.  That’s not a bad thing (I personally love watching how things unfold when we let the kiddos’ innocence and curiosity run the show), but a maternity session is truly your last opportunity (for a long while, at least) to capture you and your partner at this stage of your lives, with the love you share together — and the shared future that lies ahead of you — as the sole focus.  In addition, you’re willing to take certain risks and experiment with fun, creative ideas when you only have to worry about yourself, and the kids’ bedtimes don’t yet dictate what time your shoot starts and ends.  For many families, a golden hour shoot in the summer is a challenge, given that the sun doesn’t set until after 8pm for more than two months of the season.  I’m not saying you’re totally carefree when you’re growing a baby inside your belly, but you’re probably as close to it as you’ll be for the rest of your life.

Kudrat and Gurk’s Nantucket maternity session was a perfect example of embracing and celebrating this extraordinary time in a couple’s life together.  They were willing to meet me at one of the island’s more off-the-beathen-path beaches, one that takes a little more time and planning (and ideally 4WD) to reach, but is well worth the effort.  At this particular spot, you’re rewarded with a visual feast before you even spot the sand.  The road to get there winds through Nantucket’s gorgeous and unique sandplain healthlands, featuring vegetation in infinite shades of green. The lush landscape takes on the most stunning glow as the sun gets low in the sky.  Everywhere you turn it’s beautiful. It felt very appropriate that Kudrat, Gurk, and I ended up spending most of our time in that section of land just shy of the soft sand and saltwater … much like we were there to celebrate and document this wonderful, anticipatory time in their lives before baby’s arrival. 

Just as the landscape of the island shifts from unpaved paths snaking through rolling fields of greenery, to dunes that create the perfect frame and transition point into the light sand that dissolves into the vast ocean, the landscape of Kudrat and Gurk’s life was about to change dramatically. For this session, given that it was just the two of them, we were able to intentionally and strategically select where to shoot, tolerate a little discomfort from some prickly grass to get some epic shots, and run and splash in the water as the sun set. All things that are going to be much more challenging once baby arrives, so in my view (and I believe in theirs too), it was well worth it to indulge in the adventure and celebrate the freedom of now.

The truth is, both sides of the dunes (literally and figuratively) feature gorgeous views, and they’re worth enjoying, and honoring, in equal measure.  So if you want to know this photographer’s take, it’s simply this: Don’t sleep on the maternity session. 

Nantucket Maternity Session | by Nantucket Photographer Kristen Swain

Nantucket Maternity Session | by Nantucket Photographer Kristen Swain