Montana Maternity Art

I choose to create art with my sessions. I really want you to work with me to create art together. What I will not give you is: pastels, mediocre and Jcpenny catalog. Don’t get me wrong I love Jcpennys- but the images that we visualize in the catalog- that’s not art, that’s not me or YOU.

Here is Missoula Montana, we have an amazing backdrop to work with and even the smallest of intimate spaces will hold us, just long enough to capture something truly stunning. I want to adventure and that doesn’t just have to do with outdoors. I do plenty of studio sessions and in- home sessions in Missoula. I want to adventure with you and your skin- your motherhood journey. When we talk and share- when you hear me- my motherhood stories- when we laugh together, the vulnerable slowly appears from behind the foggy veil of everyday. I get to see you, you get to feel me lOVE on you.

Megan Branz- she is a delightful mother of 2 now. Megan is up for anything, trusting me with a road trip, barreling up snowy mountains- then into the birth space- twice now! Megan gave birth at Community Medical Center for her first birth. Her second birth was a homebirth- attended by local licensed homebirth midwife- Ashley Hinton-Sharp. Megan’s births are pure magic to behold. She is strong and confident. Megan has shared her birth experience with me many times- she is empowered by them, ripped open, glowing. Megan caught her own baby boy just a few months ago, gently guiding him out from between her legs, into her arms- gliding back into the birth pool.

Missoula Maternity Photographer
Missoula Maternity Photographer
Megan was adjusting herself on the rocks when I captured this. It is one of my favorites. Showing her in natural movement. She is human, curved and angled, expecting- beautiful.

Missoula Woman- Family & Birth

Megan found me on Instagram- searching home birth hashtags for Missoula. When we consulted I was blown away by her fierce energy to have the birth experience she felt best for her self and her baby. She was this petite bubbly, messy bunned mama on the screen of my computer bursting with energy and chatter in the most positive light.
She was planning on a home birth. She talked with such conviction, such confidence, self love, reasonable expectations based on thorough birth research- I couldn’t help but be left with a tingling excitement for HER and myself- that I was being invited to witness her birth story.
I get to call Megan my friend. We have had countless birth aware and birth justice conversations over food and coffee dates. We have hiked together, laughed, cried, adventured, created art. I love her little family. I had the honor of photographing her first and now second birth stories. Megan is a lover, a lover of birth and women’s birth rights, lover of hard work, her husband and babies- you can see in her eyes and gorgeous dimpled smile she has a pure joy for life. She is a cup filler. Her children are lucky to have her. Our community is lucky to know her.

The Tangible

 

The tangible. It all comes back to my story. Stories we share, stories that unite us. Childhood memories. The story of family & Love.

I am a mother of four children. Before my first child was born, I was already reading to him. The value placed on reading, shared reading, story telling and story writing are very high within my walls.

Each of my children have all been able to sit and be active listeners from a very young age. I was reading Charlotte’s Web to my three year old. Where the Red Fern Grows to my 5& 7 year old. The Giver to all four kids, over 2 years ago. The ages sitting beside me were: 6, 8, 11, 13.

Sharing stories is powerful and humanely connects us. 

Sharing stories allows for laughter, discussion, root- seeking, joy, resolution, healing.

My children LOVE reading and they LOVE their albums. Albums that are filled with images of family. Images that show me (mom) growing each one inside of me. The kids look with magic in their eyes at these memories. There are so many questions surrounding Birth Days. My children never grow old of hearing some sweet detail of the day they were born. We don’t sit at the computer pulling up file after file, or searching for files to reminisce. We lustily grab the big, thick albums and sit together on the faded sofa.                                                              We turn pages. 

We feel together texture and warmth of fiber and fabrics- are eyes flood with the moments that have been preserved.

This is the behind my business –values that I want to share more honestly and openly over and over again. I want my clients to know that when working with First Embrace Photography they can invest in a product to sit down with, slow time with, create and enjoy connection through.