Tree of life
Originally uploaded by Katsoulis.
The stretchmarks here are amazing and intense. I like how they are shaped like a tree – the fetal side of a placenta also has a “tree of life” image on it, so this mama has got one inside and on the outside. I also love how lopsided her belly button is. It’s perfectly imperfect just like most mama bellies.
That’s amazing. It looks painful and very stretched, but beautiful.
I’m taking advantage of the first comment being moderated, to say that this picture seems fabricated. It’s a great pic, but there is something about it that’s not quite right. Know what I mean?
It doesn’t look fabricated to me. It’s a professional photograph taken in a studio. If you click on it, you can read, in the comments at Flickr, a little about it, and the photographer says it’s unretouched.
i would have to agree with bonnie that it doesn’t look fabricated. i’m 35 weeks pregnant this week and my marks look a lot like that, they’re just all below my belly button (which is also strangely crooked). you just never know how a body is going to stretch and grow!
I don’t think it’s been touched. It’s just an amazing photo. Funny thing according to Katsoulis, the woman in the photo liked this pic the least! I love the perfect imperfection of it.
rachel
WOW! And I thought I was stretched to no end! Beautiful pic!!! :-)
Great picture! By the way, everyone’s belly button is off center, it’s something I never realized until I was pregnant with my youngest baby but it’s true! Go check yourself out in a mirror. lol
What a great artistic pic, the belly is beautiful and a wonderful sight :-) But it looks like the computer altered it to look “3-D” like her belly “jumps” out at you. The belly is very BIG (no offense…was she overdue at the time?) and resembled an onion bulb (unusual shape and form for a typical pregnancy). The belly’s “tree” lines on her abdomen look like it’s been drawn…but what a cute and fun pic, a good work of art w/ or w/out the computer image effects program. +
This is a cool photo but I think I understand why the woman doesn’t like it. She’s all belly in this picture. Where’s the rest of her?
In terms of body image, I think there’s sort of a “perfect” point sometime in your pregnancy. For me it was around 7 months – big and round – obviously pregnant, not just fat – but feeling very voluptuous and full of life. Late in pregnancy – and I went 10 days overdue so I know from late – I just felt enormous and uncomfortable and all belly. This picture makes me think of that feeling.
Michael, it looks “3D” like that because it has a short range of focus (I’m forgetting my terminology here – it’s been years since I formally photographed anything manually). All has to do with aperture on the camera. Totally possible (perhaps easier) without photoshop.
“Perfectly imperfect.” That’s a great way to put it :) I’ll be using that description in the future.
I think it looks a little out there!! but pregnancy is a beauiful thing.
My belly was way out there, too, and the kid was born at 37.5 weeks (and just shy of 8 pounds, so he wasn’t as big as my belly looked). I think it was partly because my abs separated due to a prior abdominal surgery.
My stretch marks were/are kind of like that – but I always thought they looked like a fancy chrysanthemum like you see in Japanese art.
Maybe someday I’ll post my own pics…
Those stretchmarks are stunning! Makes me wish I had some!
I had my daughter 3 months ago and I thought it couldnt possibly get any bigger.She weighed 8’15,this picture makes me wish I had taken more pictures of my belly.
This photo makes me want to have another baby very badly. Pregnancy is so….Magical.