At 36 weeks

Light in the Shadows, 2008

One of my most recent shoots was with one of my favourite models. At the time of writing, Leia is about to have her first child, a son. I wanted to shoot a couple of sessions with her during her pregnancy, and we planned this well in advance of her actually even conceiving. I shot some indoor nudes of her at 26 weeks and then these at 36 weeks.

Guardian of the Cross, 2008

I wanted the second series to be outdoors in a specific location in her home town near London, close to when she was due, and for her to wear a fantastic but simple black hooded cloak – reminiscent of Darth Maul - designed for me by Violet Couture in December 2007. I felt the results were inspired images and she was glowing in these unique shots.

Waiting, 2008

Outside the Fortress Wall, 2008

For this next shot, A Sith in Time, 2008, I decided to have some fun and think outside the box. Her pose, in a small grassy clearing and walking towards the camera, coupled with the position of her hands as she flared the cloak, lead me to think that adding in a prop and makeup would be a cool touch. I don't often create gimmicky shots like this, but this was a fun excercise. I think the finished unflattened file took me about two hours, was about seven or eight layers and came in roughly at 115MB tiff.

A Sith in Time, 2008

In this last image, taken in her home after completing the cloak session, I wanted to do something completely different. With my recent cloning images, I felt it would be a clever idea to have a woman looking at her own belly as a second person and wanting to touch it in the way that so many people want to touch a pregnant belly. And I had never seen anything like it. And thus Leia and her belly, 2008 was born - so to speak.

Leia and her belly, 2008

Documenting pregnancy, I have found, is something not as many women do as wish they had done. Doing it in an artistic, creative or themed way is a beautiful thing to cherish and I felt privileged to be part of this with Leia.

Mike

Mike Wood Photography