Expanding my exploration of the endless photo ops of the beautiful Poconos, I did a poetic fairytale maternity session at Hickory Run State Park. I also recorded running into two black bears mere yards away.
Digging In
After moving to Poconos five years ago and exploring many cool photo shoot locations in the immediate vicinity, I was ready to expand the area of coverage and discover new places. I live in the far eastern part of the Pocono Mountains in the Delaware Water Gap area, and I had a fair share of local shoots, right from my own land, to fun family sessions for my community neighbors, a newborn session for my wife at the Raimondskill Falls, another fairytale maternity session for my old Italian clients around the Delaware Water Gap, to a crazy post-apocalyptic engagement session in a junkyard, a 3-family shoot in the sunflower fields, and a wedding in a picturesque lodge, etc.
And yet, most of the Poconos’ beauty remains unchartered by me yet. In fact, most of the popular Poconos photoshoot locations are in the west. At least that area is much more densely populated, and there are more photographers and hence, more blogs and online samples of a fairytale maternity session. They were missing mine. 🙂
Time to Explore More
Such an opportunity finally came. Kayla found me via my local Yelp listing in late April. She is due in early September and lives southwest of me in the Allentown, PA area, a 2-hour drive from my local Poconos shoot locations. I offered those, of course, but let her know that I’m eager to travel and explore new options in the Western Poconos closer to her.
After my research, I sent her a list of locations that I wanted to try. One of them was Hickory Run State Park – Hawk Falls Trail, which she liked the most. As you can see, she started researching photographers five months in advance—a plausible approach! I advised her of my recommended timing for a maternity session and shared more tips from my extensive knowledge base, which she complimented on helpfulness. We set a date for late June.
Meeting the Bears
The adventures of a fairytale maternity session at Hickory Run State Park began! Since I’d never been to this park before, and it’s a 1.5-hour drive for me, I came quite early as always and scouted the area before Kayla arrived with her partner Mark. That’s when I walked into a black bear… I’m used to them at home—one of them sat on our porch, another walked through our backyard when my wife played with our toddler (the second video below), and others regularly scavenge through the trash cans. So, I just calmly stood there and recorded him, then noticed another one:
Here’s the one passing our backyard in the past:
As I was thinking about how to introduce the bears to the expecting couple, they messaged me. It turned out the guys went to another part of Hickory Run State Park, uninvitingly named Shades of Death Trail. Comparing their description of their spot to what I had scouted, I got another reason, besides the bears, to leave and use the place that they found. At least they didn’t stumble upon any bears, reportedly.
Fairytale Maternity Session
Our fairytale maternity session at Hickory Run State Park was timed around dusk in hopes that some sunset light would add magic to the images. Being in the forest that looked pretty enchanted, though, we could barely see any sun come through. Not that we required it! First, we hiked to a waterfall that, surprisingly, is not marked on a map! It looks like people want to keep it as a hidden gem.
These are just the studio’s favorites, not the full gallery. Kindly refrain from re-uploading images to social media during the first week of the feature. Share instead and give credit to @ZorzStudios!
Then, I had Kayla go up and around where I could use a thrilling angle, looking down the waterfall. You can’t see Mark, but he’s sitting right outside the frame, ready to help if needed. After a bit of adrenaline rush, we turned toward the reservoir framed by a captivating forest line and worked on several more poetic portraits.
As we were heading back to the parked cars through the woods submerging in darkness, I kept fantasizing about a mysterious forest fairy who fell in love with a human and bore his child. I didn’t want to use my flash as I often do to give a pretty dramatic feel to my portraits but preserve that fairytale maternity session aura that started by the lake.
It was dark when we returned to the cars. For the finale, I used the headlights of one of the parked cars, still unwilling to kill the feel of a fairytale maternity session at Hickory Run State Park.
Client’s 5-Star Review
Look at what Kayla wrote in her unsolicited public review right after her fairytale maternity session before even seeing any results! This left me speechless. Thank you, Kayla, and I wish you the brightest and happiest for your little one!
Over to You!
Having discovered new exciting spots during the preparation for this maternity photoshoot, I am now welcoming a) my Milford, PA area neighbors to venture out west, b) the greater Poconos area residents to have me come to you (I regularly drive to New York so you are local to me!), and c) my faithful NYC metro area clientele to experience the magical beauty of Poconos for your fairytale maternity session, adventurous engagement shoot, or a fun family retreat! I have these and more cool spots in my mind now, so come explore with me!
A Photoshop Trick
One quick titbit for you: the cover image was one of my absolute favorites. In my mind, the original still lacked the expecting mom’s hand position to depict a gentle connection that I created for them a few moments later. Although wonderful as is, I swapped the hand from another image. No other images in this fairytale maternity session were altered this way.
