As a mother of three beautiful children life alone can be hectic sometimes. I began this journey a little over seven years ago with my first born Kaytlin. I truly thought with her I was in the clear and that I made it through pregnancy without any stretch marks. I was thrilled about that. Stretch marks and losing my perfect boobs were my biggest fear of motherhood at the time. It wasn’t until about two week before her due date (she came 11 days early and on the day of maternity pictures which also never happened) that a few little light lines appeared. “It was no big deal” I said. Then three days later she came into the world my entire life changed forever. The journey of having a children grow inside you is unlike anything in this world. It really wasn’t until the postpartum deflating of my skin trying to bounce back to it’s previous mold (never did and never will) that brought more light pinkish lines on my stomach. At least thats what they were back then they have now faded to my normal skin color seen mostly in reflections when the light hits it in the right direction. It was about just shy of thirteen months late Kaytlin’s brother Brayden joined the pack bring a few more lines through the nine month journey and the months after and then about 27 months later our youngest came and completed our family. Each pregnancy just a few more lines gradually appeared throughout pregnancy and postpartum as my body transformed and nurture three children for almost 6-7 years through conception, pregnancy, birth, the months after as well as years of nursing each child. Although I am very self conscious about my body after children I decided for this project if I were to do any nude image of myself it would be of the marks that make me who I am today.
If your a parent you know that life is really challenging one moment and completely beautiful the next. They can wreck your body and your house (minutes after cleaning it) in seconds but they can also melt your heart with their affirmation of love and make you proud to call them your own all wrapped in a tight bow. If your not a parent yet the beauty out ways the mess in my opinion. But, the mess can be sometimes feel very low and while the highs out way them most of the time they can sometime also be difficult. When give the body with texture assignment I really didn’t want to use my children as object for this particular theme and I didn’t even bother asking my husband. So, instead I decided that I would try a lighting technique I used back in one of my assignments in another photography class at my junior college a few years back. I didn’t have a beautiful model this time or a second light to rim the other side so I had to come up with a concept I felt comfortable showing off parts of my body. Once I came up with a partial fade into shadow effect so I don’t have to show much lol, I choose to paint over these beauty marks that represent my children. I hate my body to be quiet honest because I was so thin before children but there is something beautiful about the image representing my journey creating these beautiful souls. These beautiful souls that now walk this earth and house screaming mommy or mama 1000 times a day now that we are stuck in the house 24/7 and I have now become a teacher of two elementary students.: ) Anyways for those who don’t want to be parents enjoy your freedom and travel lol jk or not whatever you prefer.
For this image I turned off my regular headlights in the studio and shot a night to have a blacked out studio minus my Einstein with a small umbrella to defuse some of the light. It was on the lowest setting the Einstein allows and was about four feet away from me and angled at 45 degree from the the subject (myself). My husband actually took the image to focus in the dark lighting and I didn’t want to set up my tripod and work about focus as out late dinner was almost ready. The backdrop in a thunder grey paper backdrop and it was shot on cannon 6D with a 24-70 @ f 4.0 1/125 sec ISO 100 shot at 70mm.
Lauren Lauric Photography 