BELLies Overview
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Of all the wonders in the universe, nothing is more miraculous than bringing a baby into the world. Congratulations!
As a mother, you're probably already connected to the child growing inside you, and it's natural to want to capture everything about this pregnancy. Perhaps this is something you want for yourself, or maybe it’s a gift you'd like to give your unborn baby.
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But as a woman, it might be challenging to reconcile this desire with other, less than positive feelings about your pregnant body.
Perhaps weight gain, swelling, complexion issues, or even stretch marks are making you feel less than your most beautiful?
At Focus, we're going to use our expertise in posing, lighting, artistry, and retouching to make all of those little distractions disappear, and create artistic images that help you remember all the things you love about being pregnant.
As you look through our gallery, and read about our belly sessions, you'll see lots of images of women just like you - no one on these pages is a model - who wanted this magical metamorphosis forever.
We'd love to have the opportunity to capture the beauty of your pregnancy.
Will, Lucia, and Alison - the Focus team. |
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Why do women want belly portraits?
If you can believe this, there are people out there who wonder why women want belly pictures created.
Over the years, we've worked with hundreds of women, and here are the most common reasons we've been told:
I want to show my baby how excited we are for their arrival! This is a wonderful answer, and one we hear from families where even the kids come in for the belly session.
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We want to show our baby she/he was created from love. What a great gift for your baby. Obviously, we hear this more often when both parents are part of the belly session.
I love being pregnant, and I want to cherish it. We're honored whenever we work with women who feel this way, because we know how important the images we create will be to them. |  |
 | This is probably the last time I'm going to do this, and I want to capture everything. Wow. This is another case where as your photographers, we want to do everything we can to help you remember this pregnancy.
And there are probably hundreds of other good reasons out there. What's the most important reason why you want to take belly pictures? We want to know - please tell us when you call. |
When to come?
Usually, the best time to come in for your maternity session is between 33 and 37 weeks. But…. Every woman is different.
Sometimes our clients are afraid of puffyness, and want to come in right at the 32 week mark. And other women have only realized that belly pictures were important to them right before they were due, and come in at 38 weeks.
So, we think that the 35 week mark is perfect, but you have to decide. How much of a bump do you want to have?
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Who Should You Bring?
You could bring the daddy (not your daddy, that would be weird - your baby's daddy!). I know, you think he won't go for it, that he'll be uncomfortable, but don't worry, Will has handled lots of nervous daddies, and they're going to love being involved in this session with you. And daddies make great assistants. |
You could bring other kids (they have to be yours, or it would be weird - only bring other kids if they're yours). That's a great way to show your baby that everyone was excited about their arrival!
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You could bring along a girlfriend or your mother for support. You won't need it, but lots of times women bring a friend along to help them feel more comfortable, and to get them things. Hey, if you're nine months pregnant, you deserve to have an assistant. But don't bring one of your guy friends along (unless he's the father), because, you know, that would be weird… |
Or, you could come alone, and then Ali will be your friend/gofer/assistant. But she's not going to get in any of the pictures with you, because, you know, that would be weird.
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The Fine Art Style
At Focus Photography, we've got a signature look, and if you've browsed any other photographers, you'll know that our photography style is unique.
Our lighting is dramatic, with both glowing highlights and jet black shadows. Will literally sculpts your body with light, showing the beautiful, feminine curves of pregnancy, while hiding the parts of your body your less thrilled with in shadow. And the dynamic contrast between dark and bright in our images creates the impact that a Focus portrait has.
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Look at the women in our photos, and you'll see a smooth, radiant complexion to their skin. Our exclusive SoftFocus™ System combines the gentlest lenses with the most flattering processing to ensure you'll look terrific.
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Look at the men in our images. They are both rugged and supportive - two excellent qualities in fathers. Their strength allows the women to be sensual, soft, beautiful, and ethereal.
Look at the connection between these couples. They're not just hanging out, they're a part of something momentous. Miraculous. Fabulous. Good ways to remember your pregnancy.
This is what we do with every maternity session. This is our look, and you can't get it anywhere else. We call it the Fine Art Style. You'll call it amazing.
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Your Experience |
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In a few minutes, you're going to browse over to our sessions tab, and decide which of the belly sessions is right for you. Here's what will happen once you decide to call our studio and schedule a session:
First, you'll call and talk with Lucia. Lucia (phonetically, Lu-chee-ah) and her husband Will own Focus Photography, and Lucia is our queen of all details. She'll tell you all about the different sessions we have, answer any questions about us, and learn a little bit about you and what you want from your belly session. She'll tell you what to bring, where to park, and she'll block out some time on our schedule for us to work together. Lucia will also be scheduling a second appointment with you to choose your images, about a week later. |
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Our studio is located right on Commercial Street at the edge of the Old Port on Portland's waterfront, and because our storefront windows are filled with images, you won't have any problems finding us. We have free parking for our clients on the side of our building, so you won't have to pay any parking meters. And because we're a boutique photography studio, and not working in our home's garage, you enjoy a very professional appointment with us.
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When you come in for your photo session, Alison will show you around, and get you comfortable. Will and Lucia will help you select some outfits to start with, and review your wishes for this photo session. If there are any images you've seen (either on our site, in a magazine, or anywhere else) that you want of you, we'll plan this as well.
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Ali and Lucia welcome a client  |
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the changing room getting ready to start, Will and Alison will be setting the
lights and changing the backgrounds.
Depending on the session you've chosen and the images you want created,
we'll probably work together for an hour or two. Most people really enjoy their photo
session, and we hear again and again that our clients were at ease and comfortable, even in a session where they were showing a little skin.
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When you leave, you'll be eager to come see all the incredible images we created of you, but we need at least a few days to create the art we want to show you. Images have to be rendered, retouched, and enhanced, and then we'll be ready. You'll leave with a small catalog of the products we offer, so you can get some ideas for how you'll want to display your images. Many of our maternity clients get a book or album from their session, while other people decorate the nursery.
And then at last, the day will come to see your images. Lucia will take you back to our presentation room, where you'll see your images projected to life size, so you won't be squinting at contact sheets. Lucia has a great system for helping you sort through the images, and then you'll get to shop! We offer books, albums, canvases, jewelry, and even handbags to display your images. And if you find you want more than your current budget allows (it happens to the best of us), we offer no interest financing on larger purchases.
Every image you order will get the complete Focus treatment, and be flawless before we order it for you. Depending on your order, books will be bound, frames will be cut, or canvas will be stretched to produce the highest quality products we can offer you.
Your experience at our studio is as important to us as your delight and pride in the images we create for you. Please let us know any way in which we can make your session special for you.
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Enhancements
Okay - no faces and no names here. But these are some before and after pictures of our clients, and of some of the body shaping and skin smoothing we were able to do for them. |
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After
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Unretouched  |
Retouched 
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Belly Sessions
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The Belly Beautiful Session |
| $120 |
Our Belly Beautiful Session is perfect for couples or families who want creative maternity images. This session is thirty to sixty minutes, and we'll work with clothing you bring in.
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| March Special! |
Donate at least $25 to the March of Dimes and we'll waive the Session Fee! The March of Dimes is a leading sponsor of research on neo-natal health. |
| $100 |
All of your Print Retainer is applied to your print order. |
| Scheduling |
Call the studio to schedule your appointment. Belly Beautiful appointments are available M-F, 10-6, and Wednesday evenings until 8.
Weekend appointments are occasionally available when we're not already committed to a wedding or event. However, because these are premium days, an additional $400 Print Retainer is required to secure any weekend appointment. All Print Retainer moneys are applied entirely to your order.
Half of the Print Retainer is required to secure the studio for your session. The balance and the session fee is due on the day of your photo session. (NOTE - Session Fees waived this month if you bring a donation to the March of Dimes - see above!) |
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The Fine Art Session |
| $180 |
Our Fine Art Belly Session focuses on dramatic lighting,the close connection between parents, and sensual portraits of motherhood.
Along with the clothing you bring, we can drape you in soft, feminine fabrics, and if you like, show a little bit more skin.
Fine Art Sessions are generally ninety minutes or longer, depending on your enthusiasm (we want to create as much art with you as we can!)
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| March Special! |
Donate at least $35 to the March of Dimes and we'll waive the Session Fee! The March of Dimes is a leading sponsor of research on neo-natal health. |
| $300 |
All of your Print Retainer is applied to your print order. |
| Scheduling |
Call the studio to schedule your appointment. Fine Art Belly appointments are available M-F, 10-6, and Wednesday evenings until 8.
Weekend appointments are occasionally available when we're not already committed to a wedding or event. However, because these are premium days, an additional $400 Print Retainer is required to secure any weekend appointment. All Print Retainer moneys are applied entirely to your order.
Half of the Print Retainer is required to secure the studio for your session. The balance and the session fee is due on the day of your photo session. (NOTE - Session Fees waived this month if you bring a donation to the March of Dimes - see above!) |
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The Fine Art Combo |
| $300 |
Our Fine Art Combo is a terrific gift for all moms-to-be! This is two seperate Fine Art Sessions, one for belly pictures, one for newborn images. A $60 savings over purchasing them seperately!
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| March Special! |
Donate at least $45 to the March of Dimes and we'll waive our Combo Session Fee! The March of Dimes is a leading sponsor of research on neo-natal health. |
| $500 |
Half of the Print Retainer is applied to your maternity session's print order, and the other half is applied to your newborn session's print order. |
| Scheduling |
Call the studio to schedule your appointment. Fine Art appointments are available M-F, 10-6, and Wednesday evenings until 8. We recommend scheduling your Fine Art Belly session between the 30 and 34 week marks, and suggess photographing your baby within the first two weeks, to capture the most artistic newborn images.
Weekend appointments are occasionally available when we're not already committed to a wedding or event. However, because these are premium days, an additional $400 Print Retainer is required to secure any weekend appointment. All Print Retainer moneys are applied entirely to your order.
Half of the Print Retainer is required to secure the studio for your session. The balance and the session fee is due on the day of your belly photo session. (NOTE - Session Fees waived this month if you bring a donation to the March of Dimes - see above!) |
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Recent Sessions |
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BELLies In Our Client's Own Words
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Client 1
I loved it
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Client 3
I loved it
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Client 5
I loved it
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Client 7
I loved it
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FAQ
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What's the difference between the sessions?
Well, it's mostly time. A Belly Beautiful session is perfect for families that want to show baby how excited they were for his/her arrival. If you're bringing other children in, we'll get great images with them and your belly, and a few things of you alone, or you with your husband.
Our Fine Art session is about twice as long, and we'll have time to create a greater variety of artistic images. This is also the session for anyone who wants to show a little skin.
And of course, our Fine Art combo session gives you two Fine Art sessions, one for your pregnancy, and one for your newborn baby.
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What about stretch marks?
No matter how much they moisturize, some women's bellies expand too quickly with pregnancy, and the skin scars resultingly. Here's the good news - Ali can remove them from your images. If you look at the enhancements area of the Overview section, you'll see before and after images of bellies with stretch marks.
Now, it's not required, but if you're going to need quite a bit of belly retouching done, it might be nice to bring Ali a brownie :) I think that's where the expression earning brownie points comes from!
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How much will I spend on images? Most families spend at least a few hundred dollars on artistic images. Some families are lucky enough to be able to invest more significant amounts of money, while others might only have a few prints in their budget. And that's okay. We're grateful that we get to work with people who value photography, and we understand that not everyone can afford to decorate their home with artistic portraits (yet).
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Are you part of a chain?
Nope - We're just three photographers - Will Wenzel, Lucia Razionale, and Alison Thomas. And we're passionate about creating amazing images for our clients. Focus Photography is a boutique photography studio, much like your favorite clothing or jewelry boutique, except that everything we carry is custom created especially for you.
Maybe it's our name, Focus Photography, or something about our brochures or web site, but we often have people assume that we're part of a chain of photography studios. We're not.
You can learn more about us on the page entitled 'About Us' from the main menu, and see some images of our studio (coming this week).
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Do I have to get naked?
Nope. The decision to show a little skin is all yours, but even then, we're not really photographing you naked. You're just draped in a fabric, or wearing hubbys arms as a bra. Now your husband - he has to get naked (no, that's not true either.) But, he probably will end up shirtless, and if he's like most of the men who come in for maternity sessions, he'll whine about not having enough time to get to the gym, and he might worry about his midsection, you know, as if he were carrying a baby himself. But don't worry, Will will comfort him, and tell him he needs him to be solid and rugged, and that we'll hide the softer parts of him in shadows, and then together, we'll make some amazing images.
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Bellies Extras
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The Hospitals we Recomend Here is a list of hospitals with great birth centers:
Central Maine Medical
Center
300 Main Street
Lewiston, Maine 04240
(207) 795-0111
Franklin Memorial
Hospital
111 Franklin Health Commons
Farmington, Maine 04938
(207) 778-6031
Maine Medical Center
22 Bramhall Street
Portland, Maine 04102
(207) 662-0111
Mercy
Hospital
144 State Street
Portland, Maine 04101
(207) 879-3000
Miles
Memorial Hospital
(Lincoln County Healthcare)
35 Miles St.
Damariscotta, Maine 04543
(207) 563-1234
Penobscot Bay Medical Center
6 Glen Cove Drive
Rockport, Maine 04856-4240
(207) 596-8000
St.
Andrews Hospital & Healthcare Center
6 St.
Andrews Lane
Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04538
(207) 633-2121
St. Mary's
Regional Medical Center
P.O. Box 291
Lewiston, Maine 04243-0291
(207) 777-8100
Southern Maine Medical
Center
One Medical Center Drive
P.O. Box 626
Biddeford, Maine 04005
(207) 283-7000
Stephens Memorial
Hospital
181 Main Street
Norway, Maine 04268
(207) 743-5933
York
Hospital
15 Hospital Drive
York, Maine 03909
(207) 363-4321
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Eastern Maine Medical
Center
489 State St.
P.O. Box 404
Bangor, Maine 04402-0404
(207) 973-7000
Goodall
Hospital
25 June Street
Sanford, Maine 04073
(207) 324-4310
Inland
Hospital
200 Kennedy Memorial Drive
Waterville, Maine 04901
(207) 861-3000
MaineGeneral
Medical Center
Augusta: 6 East Chestnut Street
Augusta, Maine 04330
(207) 626-1000
Waterville: 149 North St.
Waterville, Maine 04901
(207) 872-1000
Mayo Regional
Hospital
897 West Main Street
Dover-Foxcroft, Maine 04426
(207) 564-8401
Mid Coast
Hospital
123 Medical Center Drive
Brunswick, Maine 04011
(207) 729- 0181
New England Rehabilitation
Hospital of Portland
335 Brighton Avenue
Portland, Maine 04102
(207) 775-4000
Parkview
Adventist Medical Center
329 Maine Street
Brunswick, Maine 04011
(207) 373-2000
Rumford
Hospital
420 Franklin Street
Rumford, Maine 04276
(207) 369-1000
St. Joseph
Hospital
PO Box 403
360 Broadway
Bangor, Maine 04401
(207) 262-1000
Spring
Harbor Hospital
123 Andover Road
Westbrook, ME 04092
(207) 761-2200
Waldo County General
Hospital
118 Northport Ave.
PO Box 287
Belfast, ME 04915
(207) 338-2500
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The Descriptions of what we do.
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The Stuff at the Bottom of the Page
All image on these pages are copyright Focus Photography, and registered with the Library of Congress.
Focus Photography is located at 305 Commercial Street, Portland, Maine 04101, or you can call us at (207) 772-4274.
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