Maternity Photographer in Modesto, CA

Modesto has been announcing itself since 1912, when the arch went up at Ninth and I spelling Water Wealth Contentment Health in light bulbs. It still lights every evening, and it is still the best-known thing in the city.

The Victorian blocks around the McHenry Mansion are the quieter beauty, and the town is George Lucas's — the summer he filmed as American Graffiti is marked here every June along the same cruise route. It is a city with more character than it is usually given credit for.

For maternity sessions, though, the draw is outside town: almond and walnut orchards in every direction, at their best in the weeks either side of March. Modesto is about forty-five minutes south of the studio, the furthest of the valley towns, so a session here is worth building an afternoon around.

There is a rhythm to the orchards worth planning around. The almonds break white in the third week of February and hold a fortnight; the walnuts leaf out later and give deep green shade by May; and by October the whole lot turns gold before the leaves come down. Three quite different settings from the same rows, all within a few minutes of town. Given the forty-five minutes each way, most Modesto families pick the window first and the date second, which is the right order and produces better photographs than the reverse.