Maternity Photoshoot with Horses at The Green Acres Farm in Ontario

Some photoshoots begin with a beautiful location. Others begin with an idea that means something personal to the people in front of the camera. Anna and Alex’s maternity photoshoot with horses in Ontario was both.

When Anna told us that their baby would be born in the Year of the Horse, she already knew that she wanted horses to be part of their maternity photographs. From there, we started building the session around that simple idea — finding the right farm, planning two different looks, choosing her dress, creating a backdrop and thinking through how everything could come together naturally.

The result was a sunny evening at The Green Acres, surrounded by open fields, horses and late-summer light, celebrating a completely new chapter in the lives of two people who have been part of our own story for years.

From a Wedding in Montenegro to Life in Ontario

Our friendship with Anna and Alex actually began long before this maternity session.

Several years ago, we photographed their destination wedding in Herceg Novi, one of our favourite coastal towns in Montenegro. There was also a lovely coincidence we have never forgotten: their wedding took place on May 12, the same date as our own wedding anniversary.

Their celebration was intimate — a beautiful, stylish family dinner that felt warm and deeply personal. After the wedding, we stayed in touch occasionally, more as old acquaintances than close friends.

Then we moved to Canada.

We reached out to Anna and Alex after arriving in Toronto, and they immediately shared so much useful advice with us about starting life here, including something as practical and important as choosing the right neighbourhood to live in.

Eventually, we met for coffee.

What was supposed to be a simple catch-up somehow turned into almost three hours of talking and laughing. It was one of those rare meetings where you suddenly realize how easy it is to be around someone, as though you have known each other much longer than you actually have.

That coffee was really the beginning of our friendship.

Since then, there have been walks, dinners and plenty of board-game evenings. Anna and Alex were the ones who first brought Catan after we mentioned that we loved board games. It turned out to be a very consequential decision: since then we have tried countless versions of the game and are still slightly obsessed with it.

Our daughter Anya knows them too, and over time Anna and Alex simply became part of our life in Canada.

A Very Special Piece of News

Earlier this year, Anna and Alex left Canada for several months in China.

We had no idea that they would come home with such wonderful news.

After returning, they told us they were expecting their first baby. Later, at their baby shower, everyone learned that it was a boy — although Anna and Alex are keeping his name a secret until he is born.

We were incredibly happy for them.

And before long, Anna and I were already talking about photographs.

Planning a Maternity Photoshoot with Horses

Anna knew almost immediately that she wanted to have her maternity photos taken somewhere with horses.

Their baby will be born in the Year of the Horse, so incorporating horses into the session felt like a sweet and subtle way to connect the photographs with the year in which he will enter their lives.

It was never meant to become a heavily themed photoshoot. We wanted the idea to remain elegant and understated, with the farm and horses feeling like part of the environment rather than props.

Once we chose The Green Acres, we began planning all the other pieces.

Anna came up with the idea of bringing a simple fabric backdrop into the landscape. I worked on the clothing and overall styling, thinking about the colours and textures of the farm and how everything would look together in photographs. I even searched for a specific dress for her.

This is one of the parts of photography I genuinely love.

For me, styling a maternity session is not simply about choosing something that looks beautiful on its own. The location, clothes, textures and colours all have to belong to the same visual story. Trends come and go quickly, so I always try to think about how a photograph might feel ten or twenty years from now.

The goal is not to make someone look fashionable for one season.

It is to make the photographs feel like them.

Two Looks, One Story

We started the session with a more contemporary western-inspired look.

Anna wore denim with a cowboy hat, while Alex’s darker shirt and light trousers kept everything simple and balanced. Against the fences, fields and horses, the denim made sense immediately. It gave the first part of the gallery a stronger, slightly more playful character without turning the session into a costume.

From there, the photographs gradually became softer.

For the second look, Anna changed into a flowing ivory dress. Against the deep green of the farm, the warm evening light and the brown and white horses, it completely changed the mood of the photographs.

The first part feels more modern and western.

The second feels quiet, romantic and almost cinematic.

Together, they tell the same story from two slightly different perspectives.

Creating Something Unexpected on the Farm

One of our favourite elements of the maternity session was the backdrop Anna had imagined.

Instead of keeping it inside a studio, we hung a large piece of light fabric outside beneath a beautiful old tree and created a small scene around it with flowers, a woven basket, a hat and a few subtle details.

Getting it there was the easy part.

Keeping it there was another story.

The weather was beautiful and sunny, but the wind was surprisingly strong. Hanging a large piece of fabric outdoors quickly became an exercise in improvisation. The staff at The Green Acres were wonderful — they showed us around and even found us a step stool so we could get the backdrop into place.

In the end, the wind became part of the session rather than a problem.

The fabric moved. The light changed through it. At one point, Anna and Alex stood behind the backdrop and their silhouettes appeared through the material, creating some of the most unusual photographs from the entire evening.

Those are often the moments we love most: something that was never precisely planned becoming part of the story.

Photographing with Real Horses

Working with horses is very different from working with a perfectly controlled set.

They do not know the shot list.

They do not care where the best light is.

And they certainly do not stand in exactly the place a photographer has imagined for them.

Some of the horses were cautious and occasionally moved away from us, so we had to be patient, move slowly and adapt to them rather than expecting them to adapt to the photograph.

That was important to us.

We never wanted the horses to feel like objects being positioned for a picture. Sometimes we simply waited. Sometimes we walked a little farther. Sometimes the photograph we originally imagined became something completely different.

And eventually the horses began to feel naturally woven into the evening.

They grazed beside Anna and Alex. They wandered through the backgrounds of wider photographs. Anna spent quiet moments beside the white horse and interacted with others as we moved through the property.

Looking at the finished gallery, they do not feel like accessories added to a maternity photoshoot.

They feel like part of the place.

Relaxing in Front of the Camera

Anna was a little nervous when we started.

Even when someone is excited about having photographs taken, a planned session can come with a certain amount of pressure. You have chosen the location, prepared your clothes, thought about the photographs in advance — and suddenly it is time to actually stand in front of the camera.

But little by little, she relaxed.

I think the energy coming from the photographer matters more than people sometimes realize. If I am worried that something is going wrong, the person in front of my camera feels it too. If I am calm and simply adapt when the wind changes, a horse walks away or an idea does not work exactly as expected, there is nothing for the couple to worry about.

Anna began to see that everything was going well.

Alex is naturally a little more shy in front of the camera, but he relaxed too.

Soon there was much less posing and much more of the two of them simply being together — walking, laughing, holding hands, touching Anna’s belly and enjoying the evening.

Those are the photographs that make the gallery feel most like them.

A Sunny Evening at The Green Acres

As the evening continued, the light became softer and warmer.

The ivory dress caught the sun beautifully. Horses grazed throughout the fields. Anna and Alex walked together through the property while the sun dropped lower behind them.

There are wide photographs where the landscape almost becomes as important as the people, quiet portraits of Anna on her own, close photographs of hands resting on her belly, small details from the styling and images where a horse simply happens to wander through the frame.

There are also photographs that are less perfect in the traditional sense — movement, wind, fabric caught by the light and moments happening faster than they could ever be arranged.

Together, they make the gallery feel like an evening rather than a collection of poses.

That was exactly what we hoped for.

Anna and Alex

It feels very special to photograph people again at a completely different moment in their lives.

The first time we photographed Anna and Alex, they were celebrating their wedding beside the Adriatic Sea in Montenegro.

This time, years later and on the other side of the world, we photographed them on a farm in Ontario as they prepare to become parents.

A great deal has changed between those two days.

But the warmth between them has not.

Anna and Alex, we are so happy for you both and cannot wait to meet your baby boy. We hope these photographs always bring you back to this little chapter before the three of you finally became a family.

View the Complete Maternity Photo Gallery

VIEW THE FULL GALLERY

Here you can see the complete collection from Anna and Alex’s maternity photoshoot at The Green Acres in Ontario, including both looks, the farm, the horses and all of the moments from the evening.

Download All Photos

DOWNLOAD ALL PHOTOS FROM DROPBOX

The downloadable gallery contains the complete high-resolution collection of finished photographs.

If You’re New to Our Website

If you found this story while searching for a maternity photographer in Ontario, a farm maternity photoshoot, or a maternity photoshoot with horses, welcome.

We are Alexandra and Vladimir of Nadtochiy Photography, a husband-and-wife photography and videography team based in Toronto and working throughout the GTA and across Ontario.

We photograph maternity sessions, families, engagements and weddings with a combination of documentary photography and gentle direction. Some sessions take place at home, others in the city, by the water, in a field or — as in Anna and Alex’s case — on a farm surrounded by horses.

The location itself matters, but we are even more interested in why it matters to you.

For maternity photography, we can help plan the session from the beginning: choosing a location, thinking through the time of day, discussing clothing and styling, and creating a concept that feels personal rather than simply repeating the same maternity photographs everyone else has.

You can explore our photography portfolio, see more complete family and maternity galleries, or view another very different in-home maternity photoshoot in Toronto.

For current session information, visit our Investment and Services page.

If you are planning your own maternity photoshoot in Toronto or anywhere in Ontario — whether you already have a very specific idea or would like us to help create one — you can get in touch with us here.