Ariel + Nektar | Sunset Maternity Session at the Scarborough Bluffs

Bare feet in the sand, wind off Lake Ontario, waves rolling onto the shore, and the last warm light of the day—Ariel and Nektar’s maternity session near the Scarborough Bluffs was one of those evenings where Toronto felt very far away.

We met near Guildwood Park in Toronto's east end and made our way down to the beach to document this particular chapter of their lives: the two of them together, waiting for their family to grow.

The shoreline gave us the perfect setting—quiet, natural and a little wild, with plenty of space to move, connect and let the evening unfold.

A Beach Maternity Session in Toronto

Maternity photography doesn't have to be highly posed or centred solely on photographs of a pregnant belly.

Pregnancy exists within a much bigger story.

It's anticipation. Partnership. Change. The relationship between two people shifting as they prepare to become parents. It's excitement, uncertainty, tenderness and imagining a person you haven't met yet becoming part of your everyday life.

That's what I wanted to document for Ariel and Nektar.

Of course, we made photographs that celebrated Ariel's pregnant body. But we also made photographs of them—walking along the shoreline, holding hands, laughing, kissing, leaning into one another and soaking up a little time together before life changed again.

Letting the Elements Become Part of the Photographs

The lake was especially alive that evening.

The wind was moving Ariel's hair, waves were crashing onto the shoreline, and eventually shoes came off and both of them stepped into the water.

Instead of trying to control any of it, we leaned into it.

I love photographing people outdoors for exactly this reason. Movement creates opportunities for photographs that couldn't have been planned perfectly in advance.

Hair blows across a face. A wave comes in farther than expected. Someone reaches instinctively for their partner's hand. You laugh because your clothes are getting wet.

Those tiny reactions are real.

And often, they're far more interesting to me than perfection.

Maternity Photographs That Feel Like You

You don't need to arrive at a maternity session knowing how to pose.

My approach is a balance of lifestyle and documentary photography. I'll find beautiful light, offer direction and give you things to do when it's helpful—but then I leave space for the interaction between you to take over.

For Ariel and Nektar, that meant walking barefoot together, holding one another, playing by the water and occasionally forgetting about my camera altogether.

Their soft, neutral clothing worked beautifully against the sand and water, while Ariel's fitted silhouettes celebrated the shape of her changing body without making the photographs feel overly styled.

The result feels intimate and romantic, but still relaxed.

Documenting the Before

One of my favourite things about maternity photography is that we're documenting someone who is simultaneously here and not quite here yet.

Their baby isn't visible in the way they soon will be, but they're already woven into every photograph.

They're the reason we're standing on this beach.

They're there in Ariel's changing body, in Nektar's hand resting on her belly, in the way these two hold onto each other and in everything they're anticipating about what comes next.

Years from now, their child will be able to look at these photographs and see a chapter of their family's story that they could never remember themselves.

They'll see their parents walking barefoot beside Lake Ontario.

They'll see how Ariel carried them.

They'll see the two people who were waiting to meet them.

And I think that's pretty incredible.

Sunset by Lake Ontario

As the sun dropped lower, the light softened and reflected across the water.

We spent the end of the session right along the shoreline—walking through the waves, getting sandy, getting a little wet and making some of my favourite photographs from the evening.

They're not perfectly controlled.

Hair is blowing. Water is moving. Feet are covered in sand.

But that's precisely why I love them.

They're photographs of Ariel and Nektar in the middle of becoming a family, during a chapter that will eventually feel incredibly far away.

And that's what I want maternity photographs to preserve.

Not only what pregnancy looked like, but a little piece of what it felt like to be waiting for someone you already loved.

Looking for a maternity or pregnancy photographer in Toronto? I photograph pregnancy, couples and families with a candid, documentary-inspired approach that celebrates connection, changing bodies and the beautifully human experience of growing a family.

If you're expecting and want photographs that feel intimate, natural and genuinely like you, I'd love to hear from you. Get in touch and tell me a little about your family and what you'd like to document.