Category Archives: Maternity

Watch her Grow–The finale

18 May 2011 Film,Maternity,Personal

During the past year as Emily was pregnant, I began a series of photos called “Watch Her Grow”.  The watch her grow series were images taken weekly of my wife’s pregnancy. The majority of the project was shot on film.  Although I generally do not shoot film for client work, I love film.  I love the end product, I love slowing down and making every image count, I love the anticipation of getting my film developed, I love the beautiful nature of the photos and I love that these images are straight out of camera with zero processing.  I’m spoiled with digital photography as I’m given instant gratification and results.  Both mediums have their pros and cons. 

Long story short, I came across a roll of film I shot in the final weeks of Emily’s pregnancy.  I was soooo excited to develop this roll!!!  Well, I got the film back yesterday and here is what we got.  This project has been an absolute blast.  I enjoyed finding every square inch to shoot in our house.  Crazy to think that bun in the oven is now named Eliza and is 3 months old.  These photos as well as the rest of this series are priceless!

If you would like to see the rest of the Watch Her Grow series, here they are:

Part 1 – Weeks 20-25

Part 2 – Week 27

Part 3 – Weeks 28-32

Part 4 – Week 34

Part 5 – Week 34-37

Part 6 – Week 38

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Film Note: Shot on Contax RTS II w/ 50mm Zeiss f/1.4 and Kodak Portra 400 Film

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Drumroll Please…

7 February 2011 baby,Maternity,Personal

After 17 hours of labor, our precious baby girl has finally arrived.  Emily is doing great and so is our baby girl.  Even though I’m big fainter, I had absolutely no problems helping with the delivery and cutting the umbilical cord, it was amazing!!  During the course of the entire pregnancy, we have found it difficult to come up with a name.   We have batted around names for awhile now and have spent the past 23 hours trying to figure out what to call her.  So after much debate and contemplation we have finally given our daughter a name.  Emily and I are so proud to present to my blogging world:

eliza_blogpost

Here are some images from her first 24 hours of life!!!!  Hope nobody minds, but this will probably not be the last time I blog photos of Eliza. I anticipate there will be about a bajillion more photos of her during her first year.

Eliza-19

Eliza-18
Eliza-17
Eliza-16
Eliza-14
Eliza-13
Eliza-12
Eliza-11
Eliza-10
Eliza-9
Eliza-8

She was born with tons and tons of thick black hair!!!!

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Eliza-6
First photo as a family
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Eliza-4
Eliza-3
Eliza-2
Em did amazing! Here she is with 2 minute old Eliza!!
Eliza

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Andrew Kosobrodov - March 13, 2011 - 6:57 am

Congratulations to you John, good luck and happiness to your family. Andrew Kosobrodov.Tyumen Russia

Josh - February 14, 2011 - 8:04 pm

Congrats! Welcome to parenthood!

Julia Davis - February 10, 2011 - 8:06 pm

John and Emily, Congratulations! The photos are priceless. I love how REAL your newborn shots are. So beautiful. Can’t wait to “watch her grow” some more. (P.S. I was just telling someone the other day how much I love the name Eliza and how its interesting that it hasn’t been used more. It’s a timeless and truly beautiful name.)

Liz - February 10, 2011 - 1:12 am

Oh wow!! She is beautiful! Love, love, that dark hair, holy cow!! Nothing like a newborn–enjoy every second! :)

Laura Ivanova - February 9, 2011 - 11:55 am

She is SOOOOO beautiful! What an amazing wife you have to bring your daughter into the world. You too John, you’re going to be a great dad. I am so very excited for the two of you and your growing family. Don’t forget about Zoey! :-)

Jill - February 9, 2011 - 10:43 am

Congrats! She’s beautiful! Eliza, too! (*wink*) I can’t get over all that dark hair.

So excited for you!

Judi Shurson - February 9, 2011 - 9:31 am

Emily and John – she is beautiful! Love the hair, love the name. Congrats!

Barb Thibaudeau - February 8, 2011 - 9:22 pm

John and Emily –
What a beautiful little treasure! The hair is ADORABLE :) You may have to start specializing in baby photography! So happy for you both!
~Barb

amy - February 8, 2011 - 9:03 pm

She is BEAUTIFUL! I love all that thick black hair! hope you guys are having a great time!

Lynell - February 8, 2011 - 12:23 pm

There’s nothing I can add to what other comments have already been left but ditto, ditto, DITTO! What a beautiful addition to an already beautiful family.
PS – Hope says “Awww! She is adorable!”

Tami - February 8, 2011 - 11:53 am

If you thought you took a ton of pictures before now wait. Now that youhave a baby you will triple that number. Kids are so fun to take pics of. She is so beautiful

mary - February 7, 2011 - 9:32 pm

Welcome Eliza!! You are beautiful!
Congratulations Emily and John on your new daughter!
John, great photos. I love the bubbles!

Elsie Walker - February 7, 2011 - 9:32 pm

She is absolutely beautiful. Congratulations you guys! We are so happy for you!

Kristen Drufke - February 7, 2011 - 9:18 pm

So I assumeyou’ll be at the PUG tomorrow night right? LOL! Just kidding! So happy for you and the family:) Enjoy all the little moments over the next few days and weeks. I look forward to seeing many more photos of little Eliza:) Congrats!

Lev - February 7, 2011 - 7:50 pm

John – great pictures! Beautiful girl!!! Congratulations, once again!!!

Hilary Reich - February 7, 2011 - 7:30 pm

Congrats to both of you – she is beautiful!!! Love all the hair! I need you to take pictures of my little girl STAT!

Jessica & Steve - February 7, 2011 - 6:56 pm

Congratulations! We’re so happy for you guys! What a cute name for such a beautiful little girl!

Rebekah @ It Only Gets Better - February 7, 2011 - 6:33 pm

So so so excited for you and I adore her name! She is a perfect little bundle of fuzz! Totally anticipating more pictures of her. You could do it like this photog: http://keriannebrown.com/blog/?cat=3. Be warned! The cuteness is off the charts!

Andrea Murphy - February 7, 2011 - 6:02 pm

Just left a comment… think it went away when I tried to post. So here I go again:
So happy for you guys, she’s just beautiful! This verse just came to mind when I was thinking about you guys, I’m sure you’ve seen it before. Congrats again!
“For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him.” 1 Samuel 1:27

grand ma sharpe - February 7, 2011 - 5:11 pm

Boy am I proud of my granddaughter no. 22 you and Em did good
love ya both
mon

Lindsey Joy - February 7, 2011 - 5:05 pm

Such a beautiful baby girl, and awesome head of hair!! Congrats John+Emily! SO SO SO happy for you!!!

GregK - February 7, 2011 - 4:54 pm

Beautiful, John! Love the name, and the photos! Congratulations to you, Emily, and your family! May your life be forever changed!

Glenda - February 7, 2011 - 4:42 pm

Oh my word she is so beautiful and just look at all that hair – gorgeous! Congratulations John and Emily!!

meredith carlson - February 7, 2011 - 4:33 pm

She’s so beautiful!! All that hair! Love it. Em looks gorgeous too. Love the name. Congrats to you both and tell Em hi for me and that I’m super happy for you guys.

allegra - February 7, 2011 - 4:23 pm

she is seriously BEAUTIFUL!!!! congratulations to you and emily! i am dying over all the hair. beautiful pictures. post tons and tons. they grow too fast and everyone loves to see them:)

her and max almost share the same birthday… just a day apart!

Eliza– 1st Birthday!!! | Minneapolis Wedding Photographer - John Sharpe Photography Blog - February 6, 2012 - 7:37 am

[...] 5 February 2012 Children,Personal One year ago today, my life changed forever when baby Eliza was born! My family grew from 2 to 3!  This past year has been a blur and I learned more about love [...]

Watch Her Grow–Part 6

3 February 2011 Maternity,Personal

I cannot believe we have just a couple weeks left till the baby comes.  It’s been exciting seeing Emily’s belly literally morph as the baby moves.  Emily have been the best prego mom-to-be, she has been working so hard lately, but still has the “motherly” glow about her (hopefully I captured that in the images below).

On a side note about this shoot: I have begun running out of locations to shoot in our home.  So for this shoot, I decided to convert our living room into a “studio”.  The living room looked ridiculous as I used reflectors to attached to our dining room chairs.  Typically when I arrange a shoot, I have a specific image that I want to capture.  In my head, I knew I wanted the exact image below.  Give my “studio” space, it took a bit of trial and error, but I got it!

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Here is my “studio space”, pretty glamorous huh?  Someday….

Minnesota-Maternity-Photographer (2)

In case you have missed any of the past Watch Her Grow photos and would like to view past posts, here they are:

Part 1 – Weeks 20-25

Part 2 – Week 27

Part 3 – Weeks 28-32

Part 4 – Week 34

Part 5 – Week 34-37

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Linda Anderson - February 7, 2011 - 2:25 pm

Little did you know you only had a couple days, NOT a couple weeks! Beautiful photos! Awesome lighting! Will look forward to more!

mary - February 6, 2011 - 5:00 pm

Beautiful work John! I checked your site to see if there was another update on Emily’s progress, and I was not disappointed! I love the black and white shots and also the color portrait of Em! I’m looking forward to the new baby photos! Wishing you two all of the best!!

Jason Thon - February 3, 2011 - 9:43 pm

Hey guys, I love these images! Way to get creative John, and you look great Emily!

amy - February 3, 2011 - 8:56 pm

Love them all, I really like the one of her silhouette and white back ground, looks like you could write something or turn it into stationary or a journal to record all your pregnancy mile stones or something.

Morgan Law - February 3, 2011 - 6:06 pm

LOVE the black and white ones, wow!

Greg K - February 3, 2011 - 5:07 pm

Love that gridded photoflex! Nice work, John. Very happy for the both of you. You have some amazing times ahead of you!

Glenda - February 3, 2011 - 2:35 pm

Aww… she looks beautiful!

lev - February 3, 2011 - 12:33 pm

really liked the silhouette pictures – looks very cool and beautiful! good luck to you guys!

Watch her Grow–Part 5

26 January 2011 Film,Maternity,Personal

I remember when we first found out Emily was pregnant and due February 17.  As a photographer, my firsts two thoughts were…”Crap” that is the week of WPPI (a big wedding photographer convention and my favorite week of the year) and “Shoot” how am I going to shoot Em’s maternity photos in the winter?  I remedied my first conflict of missing WPPI (sort of) by going to PPA Imaging USA in San Antonio and as for the second conflict, I have found every nook and cranny in our home to shoot Emily’s “Watch Her Grow” photos.   It’s been a challenge but it’s been a very rewarding project.  Emily’s maternity photos for 34 weeks may be my favorite images so far!  I blogged these images earlier this week using B&W film and a Hasselblad camera.  All images below were shot on my beloved 35mm Contax RTS II camera using some expired (2006) Kodak Portra 800.  I’m very very happy with the results.  The colors are quite vibrant, but I love it.  Shooting film has forced me to slow down and really critique my photos before clicking the shutter and of course I love that these images received no post processing!!!

34 Weeks (Em is smokin’ hot in these images, but I may be biased)

Minnesota-Maternity-Photography (5)
Minnesota-Maternity-Photography (6)
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35 Weeks

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36 Weeks
Minnesota-Maternity-Photography (2)

Minnesota-Maternity-Photography (1)

In case you have missed any of the past Watch Her Grow photos and would like to view past posts, here they are:

Part 1 – Weeks 20-25

Part 2 – Week 27

Part 3 – Weeks 28-32

Part 4 – Week 34

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Jessie Eyre - January 26, 2011 - 8:35 pm

She really is gorgeous. She’s 36 weeks already?! My, how it goes quickly when its not YOU who’s prego. Can’t wait for her new baby and mama pictures! :)

Linda Anderson - January 26, 2011 - 5:55 pm

you look so incredibly beautiful, Em! I love you and am SO excited you and John are having a baby! You will make fantastic parents! I just hope I do half as good a job as a grandma!

Olga - January 26, 2011 - 11:33 am

Emily looks gorgeous in eggplant! Awesome pictures!

Rebekah @ It Only Gets Better - January 26, 2011 - 11:09 am

Love them! And you’re absolutely right (bias set aside) – she is so beautiful! I have to say that I like the week 36 pics the best – that color is so perfect on her! Maternity fashions are SO much cuter than when I had babies.

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