When you are a pregnant maternity photographer… I guess you have to go big or go home. With that in mind, for our maternity photos we flew to Kauai, booked an 8 hour photo shoot, brought 4 gowns, and had a total of 7 different looks and 5 locations throughout the day.
The 8 hour session became a 10.5 hour photo shoot plus 2 hours for hair and makeup but I think all in all it was worth it! Getting up at 3am to be ready for a sunrise beach photo? No problem! With time change on our side, it feels like 6am anyway, right?
So here is our day of photos, I hope you enjoy!
Our first stop was Hanalei Bay. This is as far as you can currently travel to the north on the island after the terrible floods last spring. The pier is iconic and I knew we would get some great morning light out by the calm water of the bay.
Little J started to warm up to the idea of photos while we were there, and was a super champ walking along the beach as long as he didn’t get too close to the (3 inch) waves!
A quick snack in the car and a ride over to the St. Regis brought us to our second location, some oceanfront lava rocks and a lush green shaded area. J picked flowers and presented them to his baby sister and I enjoyed watching him come to life and interact with our photographer, Sandy.
As it was terribly hot already by 8am, we ran back to the condo for a cool down and some relaxation. Having a break to snuggle and read to J was perfect – these are things we do every day so he could just be himself and allow Sandy to capture our lives. I can tell he is going to be a great big brother as he wants to hug and kiss baby sister ALL. THE. TIME!
My son did AMAZING for the 3 hours he was with us, then we got to be a little more adventurous with some hiking. A newly discovered secluded beach that our amazing photographer found before we arrived was at the base of a trail flanked with old ruins. A few days later we were told by a security guard that the structures can be a bit unsafe (go figure!) but that originally the location was a ClubMed, then land was bought to be created into a hotel, but there was a lot of push back from the community who feared it would be an eyesore. In the end nothing came of the space – it is owned by someone who keeps the landscape maintained, but no real building plans in the future.
Queen’s bath which is close to my heart was our final stop. An often dangerous trip down to the lava rocks, waterfalls, and bath, we took it nice and slow with gowns packed away in bags. I could have spent so much more time down in this location – the breeze and the water were so refreshing! Jeff rocked it in the waterfall and jumped into the bath for some final photos. I can’t float at ALL, so he really had to help me with those, but it felt so good to swim after a long day of frying in the Kauai sun.
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A big thanks to Sandy (Sandy Swift Photography) for all of her time and effort to make this a great experience. And also to Crystal Hunter who woke up even earlier to drive to me and work magic styling my hair and makeup!
