Miss Z Photography turns fleeting moments into a lifetime of memories

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Last year we showcased one of the nation’s premier maternity photographers, Abrah Zion of Miss Z Photography, in a spotlight article. Since then a lot has happened. A lot.

Abrah has entered the lives of scores of people across the South Coast. I don’t mean solely as a business entity, but also as a person who has found their life’s passion and a way to integrate relationships with it. I come across a lot of people who are passionate about what they do, but the exuberance and excitement that come from Abrah when discussing her passion are on another level.

Her entire energy changes when the topic of her photography comes up. Here is someone whose first and fondest childhood memories revolve around a camera – a gift from her father – and snapping anything and everything in sight. While sunsets, sunrises, flowers, natural scenery and their ilk were targets, there was something special about living, breathing, dynamic targets.


Maternal photography is one of many services that Miss Z Photography offers.

Fondly poring over black and white images in the family’s photo albums is responsible for many of her favorite childhood memories. The albums captivated her. These moments conveyed early on the sheer potency of images; the feel of holding the photographs in your hands and passing them along; the aroma of the aged vintage photos and paper it was attached to; the intimacy that came through sharing them with family and friends who sat alongside you. She knew then and there that life, memories, and moments would be her prized targets. She wanted to share with the world everything that was conveyed in the time spent with these albums.

In pursuit of this aim, she has rubbed shoulders with giants in the photography world and is constantly honing and developing her craft. She has learned directly from world renown newborn and maternity photographer to the stars Ana Brandt. She is a member of PPA – Professional Photographers of America, PPAM – Professional Photographers of America, Massachusetts division and NAPCP – the National Association of Professional Child Photographers.

She has also collected some pretty prestigious awards along the way. This January she won the Beauty and Lifestyle Mommy Magazine 2015 Parent’s Choice award – quite a strong declaration by the people. One of the top publications in the photography world is Photography Magazine who listed her as one of the best newborn photographers in Massachusetts for 2016. When the critics and the people alike say you are one of the best you’re doing something right and have something special.

It doesn’t stop there: she graciously volunteers her services to “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” an organization of professional photographers who dedicate their time and talent to photographing still born babies for parents as part of the bereavement and healing process.


There’s no limit to the possibilities when it comes to themes.

Do you get the idea that she lives, breathes, sleeps and eats photography? What is the point I am illustrating here? That you would be hard pressed to find someone who cares as much, who is dedicated to doing her best, and who is determined to providing you with the finest quality photographs on planet earth. If you are looking for a way to document those fleeting memories that happen only once a lifetime, you’d be hard pressed to find someone better!

You may be asking “What does she specifically do? Just take pictures of my baby?” Of course, my words can’t do anywhere close to the justice that her images can, but in a nutshell if it’s related to maternity, newborns, babies, or families she excels at it. It’s her niche – photography is such a deep field that the top photographers narrow that field down. Specialization is the name of the game and being able to take world-class photographs of a nature, doesn’t mean it translates to photographs of newborns or vice versa.

That means if you want these moments captured, you want a photographer that spends all her/his time in one niche. Someone who knows the ins and outs, is highly experienced and is on the cutting edge of the field.

One of the newest services Miss Z has added that has become incredibly popular is the “Birthday Smash and Splash.” You and Abrah will discuss a theme that best fits your baby and choose the cutest, funniest, or sweetest one. On the day of the shooting, a fully themed backdrop will be presented and a matching themed cake will be waiting for your baby to smash. Talk about a photo opp!

After your baby enjoys making his or her mess, and you are laughing and smiling from ear to ear, the “splash” part comes in. A small bubble bath awaits, raising the cute factor through the stratosphere. You can blow bubbles to get his or her attention and create more smiles and photo opportunities.


Dad doesn’t have to be left out!

This is certainly not a “Bring your cute baby by and I’ll snap some photos.” session. There’s quite the bit of thought behind it. There’s a clear passion and love for the subject matter. I mean, who doesn’t love babies? The manliest man will have no problem declaring how cute newborns are! To provide an atmosphere, the bring the best out of the baby (or mom or dad), and to create the photogenic moments takes much more than someone pushing a button behind a fancy camera.

These moments will happen once and be gone forever – as a father of a 14 year old, I can vouch for the speed with which our children grow up is astoundingly fast. While I took lots of pictures as any proud father would, I took pictures with a cruddy, cheap camera (smartphones with high-resolution cameras didn’t exist yet) then stored them in boxes for later perusal. Struggling with sport-related memory issues, if I didn’t have these images those moments would be gone forever. Pulling those boxes out and browsing through those images not only brings back those forgotten memories, but they are so incredibly powerful that they actually get a 14 year old teenager to put her phone away. How many things can do that these days?!

The two of us not only take great delight in passing the photos back and forth, but there’s plenty of laughter, smiles, and the occasional sadness when we come across family we’ve lost in the 14 years she’s been on the planet. An hour can pass by easily and the intimacy and bonding moment is something I can’t put a price on.

My only regret is that I wish that I had better quality photos in terms of technique – less red eye, less blur, better centering, fewer cut-off heads, more spontaneity, and of course I wish I had better quality, more durable paper that would stand the test of time.

This illustrates the sheer power and massive value of “physical” pictures – images on paper being passed, hovering over shoulders and shoving them in each other faces “Hey look at your pants in this one! HA HA!” The feel, the energy, the atmosphere you get with physical pictures is superior to crowding around a computer screen. Having that box or photo album is far easier than trying to find where I put that blasted minuscule USB or where I left the CD that when I am lucky to find, is scratched.


They grow up fast – capture as many moments as you can!

You don’t want to trust this sort of thing to an amateur photographer, but someone who is world-class, acclaimed, passionate and more than capable. Someone who will provide customized, individualized service with a personal relationship. Someone who will give lots of unmentioned extras. This is what sets Abrah and Miss Z Photography from the rest.

After the photo shoot, you can set up a custom “in-person” ordering session and will spend time deciding on your prints and choose which ones to keep a la carte. You can also determine the size and number of photographs and whether they will be framed or not. The images are mounted on a matboard and are printed on high quality archival paper that is also fade resistant. They can be finished with a protective high end linen texture or on thick, highly textured fine arts paper called Hahnemuhle prints. Prefer canvas (including Lagniappe) or metal prints? You can have that. Want a high quality photo book or album? She’ll help you there as well.

Want to use a credit card? Want a payment plan? Looking for gift certificates to give a special gift to a friend or family member who is pregnant or just had a newborn? All covered by Miss Z.

If you want to read what people are saying, you can check out the testimonials on the website or Facebook. Want to see examples of her work or find out more about Abrah? Check out her blog or join the newsletter. If you sign up for the newsletter, not only will you get a 15 page e-book titled How to take more memorable photos of your children.” but you will also be among the first to know about model opportunities, specials, and fun happenings at Miss Z Photography studios.


The “splash” in the “Birthday Smash and Splash.”

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The photographs in this article have been formatted to be functional for viewing on phones, tablets and computers. They have been compressed and re-sized to speed up load times. They are poorer quality versions of the originals and do not accurately portray the high quality of the actual photographs nor the talent of the photographer. Please click the following links to see the actual quality.

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Miss Z Photography
227 Union St #412
New Bedford, Massachusetts 02740
Always open!
Phone: (508) 663-6544
Email: info@misszphotography.com
Facebook: facebook.com/MissZPhoto
Website: misszphotography.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/MissZPhoto

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About Joe Silvia

When Joe isn't writing, he's coaching people to punch each other in the face. He enjoys ancient cultures, dead and living languages, cooking, benching 999#s, and saving the elderly, babies and puppies from burning buildings. While he enjoys long walks on the beach, he will not be your alarm clock, because he's no ding-a-ling.

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One comment

  1. I would be so honored to receive the gift card your offering. We just found out 2 days ago that im expecting with our second child. We are very excited and just announced it to our families last night at dinner. ?. And if this helps, now you know before any of my facebook friends do. (Unless of course they read this post)

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