A Winter Pregnancy (Herring Cove, Nova Scotia)

Miranda's e-mail letting me know she was returning to Halifax to give birth was literally titled "Wanna document my bump?", so it isn't surprising that four days later we were in Herring Cove, working on making a snow-pregnancy-nude image, to celebrate the event. As much as I would have loved to document the entire pregnancy (as I have done twice for Carol), the opportunity to work with Miranda at the very end of her third trimester was fabulous, and a great addition to the already rich body of work we have created since we first worked together in 2001.

Digital original

While the morning was relatively mild, it was far from warm, so the entire outdoor session was carefully managed to be as swift as possible. Before Miranda left the nearby house, I tromped down a path in the snow, and worked out exactly where I wanted her to pose. When it looked like we'd have a brief window of soft light (a cloud moving over the sun), I motioned for Miranda to join me, and just before she took off her coat and moved into position, I had the camera in position, the lens selected, and the exposure already determined. From then, to her putting her coat back on, less than four minutes passed, and I made several dozen exposures. While others worked on various levels, the above was exactly what I sought, and upon returning to the house, we both reviewed the image, and agreed we had nailed it.

Digital infrared original

The rest of the morning was spent making some images in the house; I'd expected the outdoor session to tap Miranda of her energy, but she was more than happy to continue posing ("I won't be pregnant forever" was one expression I heard during the session). A modern house, there was numerous locations with interesting lines and corners, but nothing beat the reading nook with skylight, where the above image was made - the results of which pleased Miranda, as she has always loved the veining that infrared images can record.

Digital infrared original

The last images of the session were made in the master bathroom, working with a modern tub and the beautiful light that surrounded it. A crucial component in these images was determined just before we started - I made two photographs of scene - one with the blinds up, and the other, with them down...and the down option was by far the better of the two. We worked with a variety of standing poses (including the above) before filling the tub, and making images of Miranda actually bathing. In the end, it was the standing, celebratory image which really resonated with me, thus, it is the one displayed here.