Maternity Photos

A few weeks ago we spent three hours with a professional photographer--one who I have seen the work of before and loved. She did engagement photos for good friends of ours recently and I absolutely loved them. They were exactly the 'style' I love when looking at photos. Well, I am extremely unhappy with our maternity photo shoot. We started out the day at Frying Pan Park in Herndon. She gave AJ a balloon prop, which actually ruined all of the photos and I ended up carrying it, causing my hand to be awkwardly placed in every photo. She was keen on keeping the dumb balloon prop. It was a cute idea for a location (although our original idea of the carnival was better--but it closed the day before our scheduled date), but I didn't realize how smelly and gross a petting zoo would really be for us. I found that our faces expressed 'it is really smelley here' instead of 'we are so happy to have a new baby in our life'. The photos from the park are pretty much a bust--all of them (except a couple at a tree that wasn't near the grossness).

Then we went back to the house where I did my maternity photos by myself. She only uploaded 4 of them because it must have been a terrible shoot. I felt weird and she didn't help me pose at all--so I knew I was already feeling large and in charge, much less I am so not photogenic. None of those will be posted or used ever because I hated ALL 4 of those pictures.

So that brings me to the following. I like some of them, but they dont' really show our faces! I guess I knew what I wanted, we didn't get it, and I am just disappointed. But--here are a couple that I do love (and some I kind of like):

Needless to say, we plan on getting professional photos done for newborn/family shots, but she will NOT be doing them. I contacted a few people already that come highly recommended in the newborn industry..and I am going to be very clear in my expectations and speak up when something dumb is suggested.