Tattooed Philadelphia Maternity Photography

When Velvet initially contacted me to schedule a maternity session, we discussed doing an edgy, urban maternity session. I had grand ideas for shots in front of a graffiti wall in Philadelphia. (Anyone want to do this? I'm full of ideas!) A few weeks later, she wrote me back with a new idea - a horse farm. Initially, I worried that I might not be able to produce a horse farm for us to use. Then I got resourceful, when I remembered that the greatest little horse lady in Pennsylvania has been a friend of mine since I was babysitting her oldest child when I was eleven years old. She had an orange Camaro, let me listen to Michael Jackson's brand new album, Thriller, and I watched little baby Shash while she rode horses. When I contacted her, she was a GO! So, we headed up to Chunk O' Heaven Horse Farm in Newtown Square, where Mindy Chernoff is not only a skilled horseman but a spiritual advisor as well.  We looked over all of the horses, and selected one to use for the shoot. Only problem was, this one chose my client. The horse seriously came out to her after we'd chosen another horse that we were going to use. The other horse really didn't even look over at us, but Vitonne was smitten.     I have to stop this little love fest to mention one thing: I'm scared of horses. Like, terrified. I don't want to get stepped on, bitten, or, well, breathed near. These things are DANG BIG and could put a hurtin' on little old me with a quickness. That created quite a few laughs when I was trying to back away from the horses (uh, note to self: electrified fence). Mindy tried to tell me to be calm and breathe. Not really my thing. But, man. Velvet sure does know how to be around a horse. She was so gentle and still, and the horse was looking at her with love in his eyes. So was her husband, actually. She's pretty engaging - beautiful, quiet, sweet, quick with a laugh. Watching how enamored of her the horse was was a pretty incredible thing to do. He kept pointing his head toward her belly with such tenderness.    I feel really honored that I got to help create these photos - it truly was a group effort with Mindy's amazing coaching, Velvet and Page's incredible calm, and me documenting it all. These are some of my favorite maternity photos to date - these clients were the best! I have to say, even the horse part was kinda fun. To schedule your own maternity session, even with horses, click here.  There's also a lovely little video you can watch here.