The Art of Pregnancy Photography by Jennifer George Page A

the innovative approaches each photographer uses to personalize their work and set their business apart from the competition.
    KEVIN KUBOTA
    Background . Kevin Kubota of Kubota PhotoDesign, Inc., located in Bend, OR, is a wedding and portrait photographer who creates images that speak to the heart. They are filled with emotion, joy, intimacy, and impact. Who better to capture the joyful, intimate moments of pregnancy?

    Photo by Parker Pfister.
    Kevin’s photos have been featured on the covers and pages of many popular magazines and photography books. He has been a Nikon-sponsored speaker, and his work with the Nikon digital camera has been the focus of the company’s advertisements. He is named in the Legends section of the Nikon website ( www.nikonnet.com ) as a prominent wedding photographer. Kevin is also a PPA Photographic Craftsman.
    Kevin loves to share his Photoshop tricks and actions, and his trademark Digital Photography Bootcamp(tm) seminars consistently sell out nationwide. He is the author of Digital Photography Boot Camp (2006), published by Amherst Media. He is also the creator of a number of Photoshop actions that will allow you to add beautiful portrait effects quickly and easily. For more information, go to www.KubotaImageTools.com .
    Personal Satisfaction . For Kevin, the personal rewards that come from creating pregnancy portraits are many. He loves providing the subject with a once-in-a-lifetime image that she will cherish and hopefully pass on to the little one inside her belly. He also gets a lot of satisfaction from being able to photograph a woman who may feel a little large and unattractive, because when they create a beautiful portrait, she’s so proud and excited. “I had one client whose mother simply could not understand why she wanted pregnancy portraits made and tried to talk her out of it. After her mom saw the images, she loved them so much she bought many portraits herself,” Kevin says.

    For this image, Kevin’s subject hiked down a rocky trail, through freezing water, over logs, and out onto a slippery riverbed to get to this spot (it was the client’s idea)—something Kevin wouldn’t ask a pregnant woman to do unless she was completely comfortable with it. Kevin used a tripod-mounted Nikon D1x, fitted with an infrared filter and set to the black & white mode. The image was made under an overcast sky, and the exposure was 4 seconds at f/8. Photo by Kevin Kubota.
    Kevin also finds that his maternity portrait clients are always excited and eager to do whatever it takes—which always amazes him considering their condition and the fact that moving and holding positions can often be uncomfortable. He appreciates when they are willing to go outside with him and find a great spot to make the images. For one session, Kevin’s pregnant subject hiked down a rocky trail, through freezing water, over logs, and out onto a slippery riverbed to reach an ideal spot (it was her idea). Kevin notes that this is something he wouldn’t ask the subject to do unless she was completely comfortable with the idea. He also says, “I think there is something about pregnancy that makes women bolder than usual—or maybe I’m imagining things.”
    Kevin says that in adding pregnancy photography to his repertoire, he has found a niche he really loves. In fact, he has come to enjoy pregnancy photography and wedding photography the most. He adds that although pregnancy photography, in and of itself, isn’t a big contributor to his financial success, it’s personally rewarding and gives him a chance to create more artistic images and display them in his studio. This inevitably draws clients to book his services for their other portrait needs as well. He feels that this is the time in a woman’s life when she is most beautiful. “It’s truly an amazing and rewarding thing to be able to capture,” Kevin says.
    Professional Tips . Kevin finds that the timing aspect of working with this client demographic