In Chicago a popular European coffee and pastry shop has banned classic baby prams – the type of baby carrier that plows down the street slicing though pedestrian traffic and taking up more space than a SmartCar. I fully understood the coffee shop’s rules as I strolled down the street after my morning latte. It seemed that 90% of the people on the sidewalk in this up and coming neighborhood were either pregnant or had one or more infant nestled in some form of carriage or stroller. More than one of the giant carriages in a shop creates customer gridlock. US neighborhoods that young couples favor are brimming with babies.
There are increasingly reliable statistics that an American population explosion similar to the one in the US in the late 1940’s is in full swing. This growth is being called a baby boomlet. The first articles suggesting that an era of population growth was looming came in early 2008. Now that the year is more than half over and the statistics are more fully developed, the US government is safely saying that 2007 experienced a higher percentage growth in the birth rate this past year than in 1947. There is no reason to conclude that the soaring number of pregnancies will diminish any time soon.
Idealized images of pregnant women through gauzy curtains or with dreamy backdrops are rarely successful today. Modern women get on with their lives as they progress through the months of pregnancy. They continue their jobs as attorneys, teachers and clerks, fully engaged in their work. Users want to see women in all stages of pregnancy dressed for work or casually in hip clothes if they are in their 20’s. Women go swimming, hiking; take exercise classes and attend childbirth classes with their partners. These are subjects that you should plan to shoot the next time you have a pregnant model. Prop shops have pregnancy suits too that come in sizes for all three trimesters. The model slips the apparatus under her clothes and suddenly she looks six or so months pregnant.
During the first baby boom in the last century, the world was recovering from a devastating world war. A new mom was lucky to get some cloth diapers and a bassinet. Once babies learned to walk they had to give up getting carried about. Today we see children that are easily able to walk around the park, being pushed by Mom in pricey strollers. Expectant Moms and Dad’s register with baby stores for gifts for the newborn that run the gauntlet from receiving blankets, hundreds of toys, CD’s of lullabies, machines that create soothing sounds of ocean waves to quiet baby and even warmers for baby wipes.What does this mean to Dreamstime contributors? It means that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of baby product manufacturers and distributors that need images. Blogs and websites that address every aspect of new motherhood are geared to audiences from a national general interest down to very specialized and localized ones to offer tips on child care just in a particular neighborhood. All require fresh images.
What is the cause of this newest population explosion? Couples are having children later in life and older mothers are more apt to have multiple births or to use fertility methods that result in multiples. Teen pregnancy in the US is on the rise. It has become much more acceptable in the US for a single mother to have a child, putting many mothers-to-be into the baby business that were excluded in the past. Women can keep a career going and still have children. As for me? With two friends expecting a total of three babies in the next two months, my knitting needles are clacking day and night. Call me old-fashioned but I like to think that baby should have at least one handmade gift.Shot list:
Older parents-Late 30’s to early 40’s
Twins and triplets
Pregnant women at work
Stylish or hip pregnant woman
Teen pregnancy. Prop shot with schoolbooks or set in a teen environment
Many babies in the picture of differing ethnicities
Baby surrounded by way too many toys
Groups of pregnant woman
Pregnant women swimming, running, exercising
Birthing classes
Fathers and newborns
Neonatal intensive care
Keywords : Don’t use the keyword ‘pregnancy’ for a child on a computer, an image of a woman who might be pregnant but the pregnancy isn’t apparent in the image. Don't use "newborn" for a child that is older than six months or so.
Props: This online store for all things baby is an excellent source for prop and shot ideas
