Goddess Pregnancy Photos

by rsthurston photography

*Feel free to leave comments below the slideshow~

September 20th, 2011

"To be pregnant is to be vitally alive, thoroughly woman, and undoubtedly inhabited."

Anne Buchanan & Debra Klingsporn

It's crazy to think that not only are some of my oldest and dearest Santa Barbara girlfriends now married and with kids but a few of them are on their second and third little ones. It's a beautiful thing to watch a fellow woman grow from who she was as a single entity to growing into a wife and mother. My dear friend (who wishes to remain unnamed but is pleased to share these artful images with others) has been in my life since the first year I moved to Santa Barbara. I was fresh off the river from years of living in a tent...my Chevy Blazer packed to the gills with most of my living possessions.

She had just moved here from Oregon and was beginning an equally exciting adventure and chapter in her life.Those were the days when we didn't know the difference from the Eastside and the Westside or the Riviera from the Mesa. We were just happy to have a roof over our heads and a little piece of green out our backdoors. I lived off of plastic plates and ate on a coffee table stitched together from plywood and bricks for the first year. My girlfriend "G" and I paddled outrigger together, partied with sailors, went to music festivals, and lived the free-spirited lifestyle of 20-something women unfettered by commitment, mortgages, or a biological clock.

In short, them were some fun days...

I look now at how much our lives have changed. I definitely couldn't fit all that I own into an SUV anymore and I'm a lot pickier about the plates I eat off of and the neighborhood I live in. She's married now to a sweet engineer with a Midwestern raising and taste for travel and good art. They're on their third child now but seem to maintain a closeness with each other as if they were just entering their first year of marriage together.

While we both acknowledge the incredible times we had here during the "good ole days," I doubt either one of us would trade where we're at now. I've discovered a serenity and blissfulness here in Santa Barbara that I never knew when I was moving every three months and living out of tupperware.

And my girlfriend has grown into this amazing, radiant, calm, and collected wise, sexy wife and mother. To see the woman who I once danced on bartops with and lost at a music festival in the High Sierras becoming this pregnant goddess is truly an unimaginable transition yet it just feels right. Girlfriends like her are blazing the way for me in the next chapter of my life...

We're blessed to be the women that we are. And as the old saying goes...."You can never step in the same river twice." But why should we? It's a magnificent, heart-wrenching, and beautiful journey this life of ours....and I wouldn't trade any of it.

The adventure of motherhood awaits....

We had fantastic timing, by the way, with this shoot. "G" gave birth only a week after these photos were taken....her precious little one was born on a Sunday morning...hence the title of the soundtrack I chose by Maroon 5 which I thought fit the mood purrfectly....Enjoy!

August 8th, 2010

Baby Photo Shoot With Erin, Javier, and Mateo
Santa Barbara, California

I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.
~Woody Allen

I first met Erin and Javier through a mutual friend and we hit it off immediately. Turns out Erin is a Hoosier--born and raised--just like me and Javier is an Argentinean...so what's not to love? Mateo is growing up bilingual in a super loving, joyful home and has Queso as an energetic, playful canine playmate.

We had such a blast doing this shoot together that we toasted to it at the end of the afternoon!
Mateo, like his parents, is a super mellow, happy kid who has infinite patience and smiles when large cameras are being pointed at him and grown-ups are making funny faces and noises with every possible type of of rattle and stuffed animals. Sometimes I wish had a photographer documenting the interactions between me and the parents when we're trying to elicit sweet responses from babies....it's probably one of the most entertaining behind-the-scenes moments of baby shoots.

As the shoot went on and little Mateo became more and more tired of our grown-up tricks, we got goofier and more creative...using bottles of tequila, bottles of vitamins, and stuffed gorillas to entertain him. I still wish I had a recording of Erin, Javier, and me all trying to make our best monkey and cat calls~

And I was especially stoked to discover one of Erin and Javier's favorite songs by John Lennon that really speaks to their journey with Mateo....Here it is. Enjoy!

March 26th, 2010
The Best Family Portrait Shoot (I love that I can say that!)
Elaine, Mike, and The Little Man...Mister Ethan Best

When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses.
~Joyce Brothers

I had a truly wonderful afternoon photographing Elaine, Mike, and their young son Ethan at a nearby beach. Although the beginning of the shoot got off to a somewhat chilly start for the little tyke we really gained some great momentum as the sun set lower over the ocean and we tried out a few fun poses. I especially love the little Scottish Hat that Elaine brought along for Ethan...a few of my favorite pictures feature him silhouetted against the sand and lapping waves...the images could just have easily come from Isle of Skye, Scotland as Santa Barbara. Ahh, the magic of photography!

Instead of posting individual photos, I'm going to post slideshow of the shoots I'm doing. I'm so incredibly stoked that I've found a new service which allows me to create slideshows which maintain the integrity of the photos' vivid colors and sharpness! Enjoy some of my favorite pics of the Best Gang. I hope you enjoy them!

BABIES, BABIES, BABIES!
A Shoot With Princess Corianna Camenzind
San Francisco, California

There is only one really pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.
Chinese Proverb



I had the opportunity to go on another fantastic road trip with Steve up to San Francisco last fall to visit some friends of ours and attend a Hard Assets Conference (more his thang than mine). The coolest part of the trip was the fact that I had just bought a brand-new Canon 7D which shoots gorgeous pics and takes digital high-def video (which I went on to shoot a lot of on my trip to Ecuador!).


My first shoot with the 7d was with the veritable and charming Princess Corianna up in San Mateo....
What greater beauty than to see a little naked baby on a sheepskin rug....she was gorgeous! And takes quite a bit after her Mama and Papa (Peter and Lisa Camenzind). After a crazy holiday season and a month long trip to South America, I've finally had the chance to edit and post a few of my favorite pics from the morning with them.









How do you spell "adorable?" C-O-R-I-A-N-N-A!