Maternity shoot x Alafaga

Dec 15, 2022 | Lifestyle, Motherhood, Photo Diaries

My best friend gifted me with some of the best memories as a soon to be mama.

I’ll always look back at these photos and remember all the weekly bumpdates you made me do when I wasn’t feeling it, all the apple waters you fetched for me when I was at my most potato-y, the trip we took to Manu’a, and all the hours we spent huddled over our laptops editing late nights at my office.

Thank you for being there for me at every trimester.

Love you forever my soul sister @alafaga 💌

Sessions: Meagan + Hideyo waterfall maternity shoot

Dec 15, 2019 | Photography

This is one of my favorite maternity sessions thus far, with our friends Meagan and Hideyo.

If you know Meagan and Hideyo, you’ll know that they are easy-going, hilarious, and all around just lovely people. They wanted to do an off-the-beaten-path session so they took me and Ian to this beautiful hidden waterfall in their village. Meagan was about 7 months preggo during this shoot and was moving around with such grace and ease through the dense tropical rainforest, one might have confused her with a (pregnant) woodland fairy!

We managed 3 outfit changes within about an hour for this shoot, and that’s impressive not because of me (Ian helped a lot too, and made skirts fly hahah) but because of how easy and cooperative Meagan and Hideyo were to work with. They just ran with whatever I asked them to do, and had a lot of fun doing it. They mostly did their own thing too, hugging and talking and goofing around with each other, which was fun for me and made the session so much more genuine. I can’t help but think that maternity photos are just a tiny bit cheesy (but in the best way possible), and I’m pretty sure Meagan and Hideyo would agree… you can tell because of how much fun we had with this shoot!

They’re keeping the gender a secret, like they don’t even know what the gender is yet, so it’s going to be a great big surprise on bebe’s birthday! I can’t wait to meet their little one soon!

Sessions: Kelley’s Maternity + Family

Dec 10, 2019 | Photography

Another maternity session with Kelley and her baby bump, Alden, and this time with little J-Ro in tow.

Oh, and their dog Avey joined too!

For this shoot, Kelley chose the off-the-beaten-path location in our backyard lagoon.

Altogether, we took 3 paddle boards, 1 kayak, 4 adults, 2 dogs, 1 toddler, and of course, Kelley’s 9-month baby bump!

Ian came with me and was super helpful in making her maternity dress look like it was blowing in the wind,

when in fact it was so hot and muggy, and we were all sweating bullets when we got to the location even before we started the shoot.

Luckily we got in the water for most of the shoot, and made some mama-magic!

The last time I took photos of Kelley was her first maternity shoot back in 2017.

It’s always so neat to follow a specific family’s growth over the years.

Check out my first maternity photo shoot from with Kelley that we did in her front yard here,

and another session we had done when she got her ‘preggo dress’ here.

SESSIONS: Kelley & Alden (+1) almost there

Jun 30, 2017 | Photography

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JUNE 2017

Another session with Kelley and Alden.

This glowing mom-to-be is due to give birth any day now, and she’s making pregnancy look like a piece of cake! Her bump has grown a lot since the last month (more preggo photos here).

After our last session, Kelley was inspired to get a “preggo dress” made by an Etsy seller and it arrived just in time for one more maternity session! Kelley and Alden are almost there!!

Kelley and Alden - Pregnancy is almost up!

SESSIONS: Kelley & Alden (+1)

May 2, 2017 | Photography

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May

2017

At 7 months pregnant, Kelley is still a bombshell in a lavalava. This hot mama and her handsome husband of 7 years are expecting a tama o le motu in June.

We spent an afternoon on her home beach attempting to do some underwater photos but after some technical difficulties we played little mermaid turned human by love. And then a few days later we headed over to Moana O Sina for photos just before dark and listened to the waves crash against the lava rocks at dinner.

Both Kelley and Alden are marine scientists, living loving and working to promote earth friendly solutions in American Samoa. I was really excited when Kelley asked me to take their photos and had a lot of fun hanging out with this duo.

She is a mermaid. A steward of the sea.

Nerelle is an incredibly kind and caring person, and that love for people really shines when she’s shooting. She’s able to make everyone feel comfortable while getting shot, even photographers who are notorious for disliking being on the other side of the lens. In addition to her great personality and people skills, Rellie has some great camera skills too! She’s very creative and knows how to use the local environment to her advantage, and while I don’t know enough to speak to the technical parts of editing, I can say the photos sure look even better when she’s done editing than they did before!

– Kelley Anderson Tagarino

SESSIONS: JereMia is expecting!

Jan 29, 2016 | Photography

Over 2 sessions late last year and within a 1 month time span, I got to watch Jeremy and Mia’s (here dubbed “JereMia”) little family grow with the birth of their first baby, Jones.

For our first session, I took photos of JereMia and that adorable baby bump. Which, by the way, you can barely even see from the front or back. It was really just from a side profile that it was more than obvious! And she was already 36 months! The ever radiant Mama Mia had just gotten off of work. She was working an extra 2 hours after work for the past couple of weeks to build up some compensatory time because local government jobs does not offer maternal leave. Also, she was due in the next month!

Jeremy and Mia jumped out of their big white truck and led me to their house along the main road in Faganeanea. Jeremy took off his hat and tousled his hair. Mia put on lipstick and took a quick look in the mirror while offering me a glass of wine, and they were ready.

It was already almost 6pm and the sun was going down quickly. We took photos in front of the house, around the yard, and ran across the road to the seawall to snap some shots in front of the ocean, the rock landmark, and the bus stops. I mostly asked them silly questions, and we giggled over Mia’s baby mama waddle, but I also told them to talk to each other so they could basically hang out while I took photos. Actually most of these photos are candid! There were just a few incidents where I told Mia to cup her belly (so that you could see her bump better), told them to hold hands in front of their house, or for Jeremy to look at Mia and talk to her instead of to the camera. Other than that, Jeremy and Mia were naturals in front of the camera. In less than an hour before the sun had set, we were done!