Jenna & Adam's maternity shoot

My sister-in-law Jenna is pregnant! We took a little trip to Hawaii recently to celebrate our co-pregnancy (and to make Lefteris say, "ARE YOU JOKING ME???" possibly hundreds of times as we drove around Oahu and he marveled at the tropical-ness of it all), and included a weekend in Kauai.I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about what it means to me to be pregnant, because, you know, not only am I knocked up myself, but I've never before had "pregnant lady" or "mom" as part of my self-image. Knowing I'd be seeing Adam and Jenna - and knowing that they're incredibly photogenic - made me think about maternity photography, which before now I'd never had much interest in.I looked around and found a lot of stuff I hated. It's all "look at this pure pure woman, this vessel of life, this conduit for another human being, in this golden-field-of-wheat/backlit-black-and-white/semi-nude-while-draped-with-a-sheet-like-a-toga" shots. I'm sure anyone who's had those photos taken in the past loves them, because they love their kids, but I gotta be honest, I don't like it.I think maternity photography today is about where wedding photography was 10 years ago (when it was all posed prom-style photos). There's no attitude or spice. The woman is supposed to look serene above all else. And I find this extremely boring.Lefteris's mom said something to me very early in my pregnancy that got me thinking: "Pregnancy is such an exciting time in a woman's life." I had literally NEVER thought of it that way before. I had always thought of it as this time when the woman completely surrenders her life to the little life growing inside of her. But I have to say, she was right! This is a VERY exciting time in my life. My body is revealing that it has this whole, incredibly science-fiction-y ability that it has never even practiced! It's so cool! And when I (eventually) have my maternity photos taken, I want to be excited, happy, goofy, strong, and fashionable - AND pregnant.That is the attitude I brought to this shoot, and I hope it translates. Jenna really showed me how it's possible to be pregnant and sexy at the same time. And Adam is pretty hot stuff himself! Enjoy the portfolio here, see the whole lot of photos here, or take a look at my absolute favorites, below.