Outdoor Maternity Photoshoots in Sydney

I photograph almost every maternity session outside, in the last stretch of light before the sun goes down.

An outdoor maternity photoshoot gives you room to move, which is most of what I'm after. Long grass to walk through. Space to turn away from me and look at something else for a second. A breeze that lifts a dress and does half the work for me.

There's a softness to that hour I've never managed to make indoors. It wraps around a changing body rather than landing on it.

Most of my maternity photography in Sydney happens this way, and because I'm based in the Hills District, a good deal of it happens in paddocks 20 minutes from my front door.

Timing an outdoor maternity photoshoot around sunset

Timing is the one thing I'm firm about.

I start about 90 minutes before the sun sets. The first stretch is a warm-up. You get used to me, I get a feel for how you're moving that day, and the light is still bright enough to be honest about skin and hair.

Then it drops, and the last 40 minutes are what everything else is built around. The sun sits low enough to come through the grass instead of over it, and it puts a warm edge on hair, on the curve of a belly, on a shoulder.

After it goes behind the treeline there's another 15 or 20 minutes of quiet blue light. That's when I'll ask you to come in close and stop performing altogether.

How the light behaves in a paddock

Open grass is the most forgiving light I know.

There's nothing overhead to interrupt the sun, so it arrives low and long and sideways, and it keeps its warmth later into the evening than it does in a suburban park where the rooflines cut it off early.

Long grass also gives your hands a job. You trail your fingers through it, gather a skirt, walk a slow line away from me and turn back when you feel like it.

At the right moment the seed heads catch the sun and the whole field goes gold and soft behind you.

How the light behaves near water

Water works differently.

By the harbour or a river the light reaches you twice, once from the sky and once bouncing up off the surface, which fills in under the chin and under the belly and softens everything.

Sunset runs a little later at the water's edge because there's no ridge in the way, so you get more usable minutes at the end of the session.

Bring a wrap. The breeze comes up as the sun drops, and it's always cooler down there than it was in the car park.

Staying comfortable when you're heavily pregnant

I keep an outdoor maternity photoshoot to about 90 minutes, and a fair bit of that is standing.

So I'll always find you somewhere to sit between sets. A picnic rug, a fallen log, the boot of the car with the tailgate up. Sitting for 3 minutes makes a real difference to how you feel in the next 10.

Water, always. I carry spare bottles in the car.

Wear flats or go barefoot for the walking between spots, and keep the nicer shoes in a bag for the frames where they'll show. Bare feet in long grass photograph beautifully, and plenty of women never put the shoes on at all.

If you're 36 weeks or more, I'll choose somewhere you can park right beside, so the longest walk of the evening is the one you do on camera.

What to wear when there's wind and long grass

Flow matters more outdoors than anywhere else, because there's wind and there's walking, and both of them are on your side.

Long skirts, soft jersey, anything with enough weight to hang and enough give to lift. Solid colour keeps attention on you rather than on a pattern.

I've written a longer piece on what to wear for a maternity photoshoot, including how to dress a partner and older children so everyone sits together.

Overcast afternoons and what the weather gives you

An overcast afternoon is one of my favourite things to be handed.

A high, even sky turns a whole paddock into soft light. Your eyes stay open and relaxed, faces stay even, and it lets me shoot from mid-afternoon on rather than chasing a 40-minute window at the end.

Light rain is lovely too if you're up for it, and the sky just after a shower goes a colour you couldn't plan for.

If it's properly pouring, I'll move the date. I hold a backup afternoon in the diary for every maternity session, so the swap is easy and your due date still has room in it.

Choosing where to go

Most people come to me with nowhere particular in mind, and I like that.

I'll ask what you want the photos to feel like, how far you're happy to drive at 35 weeks, and whether anywhere already means something to you. The paddock you pass on the way to your parents' place counts.

If you'd like a starting point, I've collected the best photoshoot locations in Sydney, with what each one is like at different times of day.

Movement is most of what I ask for

Walk towards me. Walk away. Turn your head when the wind hits it.

Standing still while someone looks at you is a big ask, and it's a bigger one when your body has been changing every week. Walking gives you something to do, and a face softens the moment it has somewhere to go.

The frames women write to me about months later are nearly always the walking ones. Hair across the face, one hand low under the belly, the light almost gone, your body carrying on doing what it was already doing while I stand a few metres away and keep quiet.