One thing that you’d see most expecting couples do prior to popping is a maternity shoot. Again, this is not a compulsory thing to do per se. For us, we thought that it’d be nice to celebrate Ruth’s impending arrival (then) and to do one thing that is truly for ourselves and our family this pregnancy. There are many styles of maternity shoots to choose from but we wanted something simple, rustic and homely, nothing over the top.

Given our excellent experience with Sherman from Antelope Studios during our wedding, we had absolutely no qualms about approaching Sherman for our maternity shoot. And as a side note, if you’re looking for someone to shoot your family portraiture, Sherman is the guy to look for. He’s extremely skilled with capturing natural and candid shots of little children and this was reflected in his shots of my nieces and nephews during our wedding day. As Raw. was unavailable on the day of our shoot, we shot our maternity shoot at The White Space instead, another popular venue that is used for ROMs and small events.

From the photographs of various maternity shoots that we perused through online, we observed that most shoots were styled. Arguably, a styled shoot is not quintessential for a successful maternity shoot as your photographer should be able to work the simple and clear space with his lens. Nonetheless, we opted to go with a collaboration between Med Karlek Inc and Hello Flowers to style our shoot.

When you engage a stylist for your shoot, they’d be responsible for the entire conceptualisation, procurement of props, set up and tear down of the set. Given the location of our photoshoot, we felt that the use of earthy colours would complement the space well and add to the rustic vibe of the photos shot. Other than the fact that it took some time for us to “seal the deal” with Med Karlek Inc. and that the budget was a little higher than we expected, we were overall pleased with the final product. Also, the colours surprisingly blended rather well with Ichiro’s orange fur!

Since we had the space from 8 to 11am (to the best of my memory), Phillane from Med Karlek Inc and Annie (and team) from Hello Flowers were at The White Space by 8:30am to set up. And the set up (as pictured above) was more beautiful than we could have visualised from the initial sketches.

During our shoot, we decided to feature some “props” to introduce some diversity into the shots. Pictured above is a personalised onesie that Sharon gifted us from His Little Champs and we loved the calligraphy and quality so much that we had to feature it in our shoot. Outfits-wise, the white dress that I wore was purchased from the Dear Collective, and the kimono, from Hollyhoque. Marc’s outfit was put together from his existing clothing stash and a simple cream shirt from H&M.

I also asked my dear friend and fellow mommy, Stella Ang, to doll me up for this shoot. She did such a great job with my hair and makeup for our wedding and since this could be one of the rare opportunities for us to take professional photographs, why not go all out?

If you’ve got a pet at home, why not bring along your little furry buddy to your maternity shoot? Ichiro was an absolute prince during the shoot and complied with most of the angles that we sought to achieve. One tip is to bring along a stash of treats. To get this shot, Marc rubbed some of the treat onto the bellybutton area of my dress, and then hid the treat behind his pants. This left Ichiro searching for the source of the smell on my body and hence, the successful tilted head.

So, would we recommend a maternity shoot with Antelope Studios? Yes, yes, a 100% yes. And if we have another child, we would definitely have another maternity shoot together with Ichiro and Ruth too. Sherman made the shoot such a breeze for us, and it was so helpful that he did his research on the type of shots that he planned to shoot for us. So all we had to do was follow his directions (to the best of our abilities) and leave it to him work his magic with his lens. We are so thankful for his expertise and will always choose Antelope Studios to be the photographer who curates and immortalises our precious moments and memories.

Antelope Studios
48 Niven Road
Singapore 228396
Tel: +65 9636 1050
www.antelopestudios.com
[email protected]