Blog
blog/bläɡ/noun – a regularly updated web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
Winter Studio Family Sessions | Northern VA Family Photographer
Winter Studio Family Sessions | Northern VA Family Photographer
Winter is our most popular time for indoor studio portraits. Studio photography allows us as a family photographer to feature unusual and striking fine art elements enhanced by first-class equipment in our studio near Fairfax, VA.
Fine Art Black & White
Black and white photography has made a strong resurgence in fine art photography for a reason. For timeless portraits, more clients have turned to this iconic style of photography – and for a good reason. Black and white portraits are timeless. In our studio, we can better manipulate the lighting to create bold and dramatic art, and our clients fall in love with the results of their black and white portraits. Their only challenge lies in which ones to select as handcrafted, museum-quality pieces for their homes! Thanks to our interior design software, clients can preview how any portrait will look on any given wall in their homes. A Fine Art Black and White Session may be perfect for your family portraits!
Today’s Classics Portrait Session
You can create art with the inherent beauty and love of your family captured in one of our beautiful Today’s Classics Portrait Sessions. These unique and elegant portraits capture the meaning of photographic portraiture and familial love. We create archival-quality portraits rated to last more than 100 years using the latest technology and products.
When you sit for one of our Today’s Classics sessions, you are creating an enduring photographic legacy of love for future generations. Where aristocratic families once hired famed oil painters to capture their images, today’s families create legacies through fine art family photography.
Framing
Our Masterpiece Frames finish off these lovely portraits. Handcrafted by skilled and talented artisans, these exquisite frames provide the perfect framework for these pieces of art.
For those who prefer a more modern look for their Fine Art Black and White Portraits or Today’s Classics Portraits, fear not! We offer a line of Frameless finishes for even the most discerning client. You can select from the Gallery Wrap, Bamboo, Steel and Ice. You can’t go wrong with any of these finishes for your stunning portraits!
If you’d like to work with a reputable and skilled family photographer in the Fairfax, VA area this winter, contact us today to discuss your studio portrait session. We offer a variety of options you can select from for your session, and we are always happy to answer your questions!
Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Fairfax, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer
A Lovely Family…
Isn’t this a lovely family portrait session? We love staying in touch with our awesome clients and watching their children grow from year to year
A Fun Family Session, The Garbers | Northern VA Family Photographer
A Fun Family Session, The Garbers | Northern VA Family Photographer
We love it when a potential client browses our website and decides to hire us based on our work and reputation! Molly contacted us last summer about our doing fine art portrait photography for her family of four in the Sterling, VA area. With an active 3-year-old Orion and 3-month-old Freya, they were excited about doing their first family portraits. We were excited about working with them!
Lively Family Outdoor Portrait Session
After searching for nearby photographers, Molly and Dave chose our portrait studio for their family portraits. This active family, and especially Orion, loves the outdoors. So, we introduced them to our wonderful outdoor portrait park. We are glad we did an outdoor session because it was a lot of fun to do with them. Orion was quite the ham, and a joy to photograph! This family’s love for each other and enjoyment of the outdoors was evident during their fun portrait session.
Children are always a joy to work with because it keeps us on our toes as photographers. Three-year-old and three-month-old siblings inspire us as photographers and as individuals. To us, children epitomize all that life represents: joy, laughter, and love. We work hard to capture their big, sincere personalities in their portraits!
The Garbers moved to this area just a few years ago. Molly told us they had plenty of open wall space in their home and they were hoping to fill some of it with family portraits from their session with us. As you can see from their pictures, we got some lovely portraits for them.
We specialize in family portrait photography because of the joy it brings us and the passion we have for it. We also do it because we value family and all that it represents for us as a mother and daughter team in the Sterling, VA area. We hope you will contact us for your family and children’s portraits.
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Themed Wall Art Collections | Northern VA Family Photographer
Themed Wall Art Collections | Northern VA Family Photographer
Portraits tell the many stories of our lives. Imagine creating a wall art gallery around just one of your family’s stories, or even building on a gallery throughout time! How would your gallery look? What portraits would you include? As you think of the answers to these questions, consider how portraits live on beyond our lives – whether we are living here in the Round Hill, VA area or in London, England.
Our Bebe Coterie plan is perfect for telling the story of your child’s first year and creating a poignant gallery. But, it isn’t the only idea for creating a themed gallery!
Milestones
We have families return to us throughout the years so that we can capture their notable milestones. Sometimes it begins with their engagement and continues through their wedding and on to maternity and newborn portraits, and then more family portraits as the family grows and changes. Lifetime milestones make a great collection for a themed wall gallery.
Annual Family Portrait
The annual family portraits we take for many of our regular clients becomes a compilation built through time which you can display. They show your family as it grows through the years. Do you need to wait to begin your display? No, not at all. You can display your first annual family portrait and each year add to your gallery! We’re happy to use our exclusive design software to show you exactly what your portraits will look like on your wall before you order your wall art!
Sports
Does your child have a favorite sport? Bring in your child dressed in the uniform of their favorite game, and we’ll create a unique portrait for you. Imagine creating a wall art gallery in your children’s playroom, the family room, or a hallway using their sports portraits. What a great tribute to your child’s efforts!
Vacation Snapshots
Regarding taking photos of your own, make the decision early on to take at least one iconic picture at each family vacation. Have someone take several pictures of your family standing in front of a background representative of your vacation. These pictures can bring back powerful memories in the future, reminding you of the fun you had on family vacations! Display a collection of those photos as a themed gallery in your home and enjoy them for many years to come.
As a family portrait photographer in the Round Hill, VA and Northern Virginia area, we enjoy discussing portrait ideas and design with our clients and potential clients. Contact us to discuss yours!
Family Photographer, Portraits
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Round Hill, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer
Do you follow us on Pinterest? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Do you follow us on Pinterest? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Do you pin? We pin! We love Pinterest! As a mother-daughter photography team in the Sterling, VA area, we know Pinterest offers our clients a treasure trove of information and ideas. We have many boards, almost 19,000 pins (excellent), and more than two-thousand followers (thank you)! How’s that for social media active?! If you don’t already, please follow us on Pinterest.
We don’t just do Pinterest for fun – although we will admit it’s loads of fun!. We have curated a lot of pins for you to browse and enjoy, including session ideas and clothing suggestions. One of the things our clients especially appreciate is our guidance on clothing suggestions, so below you’ll find a few of our clothing boards to browse. Keep in mind that as part of our customer service, we’ll send you customized clothing suggestions, just for you and your family, but you can have some just browsing in the meantime.
Here are a just few of our boards:
– What to Wear for Your Family Photos
It’s best not to be too “matched” in outfit selections. It’s better to choose complimentary colors and patterns. This board shows you how to put together colors, patterns, and textures.
– Maternity
Our maternity clients often worry about what to wear for their maternity portrait. Our advice is to wear something comfortable and flattering. There are some great examples on this board.
Need some ideas for what your little girl should wear to her photo session?
Check out our Girls’ board.
– Headshots
Winter is a very good time to come inside the studio for your professional headshot. Here are some great suggestions.
– My Style board offers an extensive collection of classic looks and styles from Hepburn to Monroe to Anthropologie and Dior!
If you would like to work with a highly committed mother-daughter photography team in the Sterling, VA area, specializing in poignant, fine art photography, contact us! We’d love to create a beautiful portrait of your family!
Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Leesburg, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer
Preparing for Your Professional Headshot | Northern VA Professional Photographer
Preparing for Your Professional Headshot | Northern VA Professional Photographer
As a professional headshot photographer in the South Riding, VA and Round Hill, VA area, we work with many clients to capture their best looks for their headshots. It’s a growing part of our work!
Professional headshots – also known as branding or business photos – were once the stuff of promotional materials and conference programs. However, the Internet has changed all that! Professional headshots are regularly used today across all kinds of platforms including social media and websites. They are often the first impression you make on others before you even meet them. Where we once had storefronts, we now have the Internet and our branding images to represent us.
Why do a professional headshot with a headshot photographer?
As we said, a headshot is often the first impression you make on others in the business world, whether fellow business people or potential clients. It’s essential to have a high-quality professional picture taken by a headshot photographer who shows you take your job and career seriously.
A snapshot is an unprofessional way in which to represent yourself, and it won’t suffice today! It’s worth investing in a professional headshot that serves you well and shows you at your best. Snapshots can’t do that.
Investing in a professional portrait from a headshot photographer shows others that you believe in what you do and in yourself. It helps establish you as a professional willing to invest in yourself and your career. You are a professional who should be taken seriously.
Here are some thoughts you should consider before you do your headshot session.
Carefully select an experienced headshot photographer.
They should know how to take these kinds of business pictures because they are not an everyday kind of portrait. Your cousin might take good snapshots, but that doesn’t mean he can do a professional-looking headshot that does you credit.
Trust your headshot photographer!
A skilled headshot photographer is professional. They are experts in their industries just like you are in yours. Follow their instructions and guidance. Trust what they are suggesting. A skilled and reputable photography studio will not steer you wrong.
Dress well. Groom well.
Your clothes and how you look in them will say a lot about you, and you should put a lot of thought into how you dress for your headshot, and the message you want to send. Even if you are in a more casual industry where jeans and t-shirts are the dress code, be sure to wear nice ones to your headshot session! Clean, neat clothes matter even if you’re an artist having a “funkier” headshot taken.
Wear what best represents you and your industry, by all means – just make sure it looks good! Your headshot photographer should assist you with choosing the best attire to suit you and your brand. Experienced headshot photographers can also offer professional styling. More on that below, but seriously consider using a professional stylist!
Plan Your Outfit(s)
By all means, please do not wait until the morning of the session to pick out your clothes. Do it at least a week in advance to be sure you like what you have in your closet or have the time to buy a new outfit!
Hair
Do what you want with it as long as it looks neat and clean (those words again!) and translates well on camera. We don’t recommend changing your hairstyle dramatically for your headshot because people need to recognize you after seeing your picture and meeting you in person. Again, matching the look of your hair or clothes to the goal of your headshot is – a good headshot photographer can guide you on this.
Professional Hair Styling and Makeup
At Ever After, we can arrange for professional hair styling and makeup for any of our portrait sessions including headshot photography. Some people prefer this for their portraits, and we understand. It can be tough to get your hair or makeup looking as good as when a professional does it! Working with professional hair and makeup experts is a small investment that can pay off big for a professional headshot. When you use professionals for your session, you feel more confident in yourself, more relaxed, and that comes through in your portraits.
Relax and Breathe!
It’s tough for even the best headshot photographer to take great pictures if the subject is nervous or stiff. We always tell our clients to relax and breathe. We got this for you! We have a lot of experience working with clients in various industries doing their professional headshots. We understand the importance of these portraits to them and their careers. We take our time with each client during their headshot or branding session to be sure we get it right, and the final product does a great job of promoting or representing them.
That’s it!
Follow these pointers, and we know your headshot will be amazing!
We invite you to have a look at our Headshot and Branding Gallery to see some of our work. You can also check our Pinterest boards for hundreds of ideas and suggestions on selecting outfits for portraits sessions, whether headshot or family.
As a professional and reputable headshot photographer, we do headshots year round. Give us a call if you live anywhere in the Northern Virginia area, including South Riding, VA and Round Hill, VA, a to discuss our availability and how we can help you best represent yourself through an Ever After headshot!
You might also enjoy this article:
What’s a Headshot, and Who Really Needs One?
[show_if not_one=’Free Resource Member’]
[/show_if]
Family Photographer, Professional and Headshot Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near South Riding, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer
What clients are saying, Traci | Northern VA Headshot Photographer
What clients are saying, Traci | Northern VA Headshot Photographer
We were thrilled to do a Headshot Session with Traci! She works with N2 Publishing and needed a new headshot for business use, something to showcase her fun and bubbly personality but still be professional. We enjoyed working with her to capture her personality! We’re now her headshot photographer!
“I do not enjoy having my picture taken but Ever After offered such a relaxed, warm and fun experience for me that I really enjoyed the shoot. The final product was wonderful and perfectly captured me, exactly how I wanted it to. Every step from beginning to end was impressive! I would absolutely recommend Ever After for anyone’s portrait needs. Class act!!! ~ Traci”
Family Photographer, Headshot Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer
Traci, Headshot Portrait Session | Northern VA Photographer
Traci, Headshot Portrait Session | Northern VA Photographer
As a family photographer in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia, we’re often asked what other kinds of photography needs we can fill. We also provide branding and headshot photography to our clients.
We met Traci through our local Loudoun County business community, and she was in need of a new headshot. Traci works with N2 Publishing and wanted updated headshots that really captured who she is, warm, friendly and joyful, but always professional.
Traci’s session was so much fun for us. Her bubbly personality and beautiful smile were infectious and just us smile too! Although she doesn’t enjoy being in front of the camera, we all worked together to provide a relaxed atmosphere and put her at ease, and in the end, Traci enjoyed her session with us. As a result, she got the headshot portrait she wanted, one that showcased her warm character and attitude.
When was the last time you had a headshot taken? Is it time for a new one? Most likely it is!
For more info on why you need a NEW headshot, click through to this article:
What’s a headshot, and who really needs one?
Family Photographer, Headshot Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team, including headshot photography, located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer
Why should you hire a professional makeup artist for your Portrait Session? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Why should you hire a professional makeup artist for your Portrait Session? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Although you may know many tips and tricks to apply your makeup for everyday wear, you’ll find that hiring a professional makeup artist will make for an even more beautiful you for your Portrait Session. Think of it like the difference between a DIY hair color kit and going to a professional stylist who specializes in blending shades of hair color so that the result is a more natural looking color, one especially blended for you. In the end, which looks better? The professional’s work, of course!
An Artful Eye
A professional makeup artist’s artful eye sees the beauty and potential in each face. Not only are they trained to apply flawless, enduring makeup, they are also skilled in the art of making you feel at ease in every aspect of the process, working with you to create a stunning makeup style unique to you, one that will be timeless.
Makeup for Photography
Many different factors can affect your look, and makeup for photography is decidedly different from everyday makeup. You will most commonly notice this with brides. How many times have you seen a bride that didn’t look quite right in her photos? Did her skin look uneven or shiny? Were her eyes lost in the photo? Most likely, the person who did her makeup didn’t understand how to apply makeup suitable for a camera! A pro knows how to apply makeup for the camera, uses the perfect foundation color to match your skin tone, knows how to contour to bring out the right amount of shadow or highlight, and can select the right colors to make your features pop in exactly the right way. A pro knows how to make you look your most beautiful for the photographer’s camera!
Professional Makeup Products
If you were to compare your makeup bag to a professional’s kit, you would see they are vastly different! Professional makeup artists know which products to use, where to use them and in what intensity. This ensures you will look good both face to face, as well as in your portraits. Pros have access to and use a wide range of products from vastly different lines to achieve that flawless look. The majority of their products are waterproof and even suitable for HD film/TV. That means they will last throughout your portrait session, even the entire day, while still looking and feeling incredibly natural. You’ll love how you look – and so will the camera!
Education and Experience
A professional makeup artist has been trained in the art of makeup either through a makeup artistry school and/or an internship under other pros, and will have years of experience in this field. (Keep in mind that someone being licensed as a cosmetologist doesn’t mean he/she is fully trained in makeup application or has the experience necessary to provide a perfect makeup application each time. In fact, most cosmetology schools do not offer makeup training!)
Expert Opinion
A Portrait Session with a professional photographer can be exciting! With that excitement sometimes comes nervousness, though, because you want to look great for your portraits. It’s good to have an expert opinion on how to look your best in your portraits. A professional makeup artist will take more time and be more purposeful in applying your makeup than you would be at home. They will come to your location or to the location of your Portrait Session, will be punctual and efficient, and will ensure you are ready for your session, often with time to spare.
Confidence
As mentioned at the outset, and perhaps most important, a professional makeup artist is a great investment because you will come to your session feeling amazingly confident about your look. Having professional makeup applied for you not only helps you relax and feel beautiful inside and out, but will give you amazing results. When a client feels great about herself, her confidence is caught on camera and her portraits are even more beautiful.
Behind every beautiful model, singer or movie star, there’s an experienced and talented makeup artist ensuring she looks great in every single picture that is taken. Your Portrait Session, whether it is a family portrait, a beauty portrait or even a headshot portrait, is your very own mini-celebrity moment, and you should look and feel as amazing as those stars. Hiring a professional makeup artist is one way to guarantee that!
Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Social Media Safety Tips for Parents and Kids | Northern VA Family Photographer
Social Media Safety Tips for Parents and Kids | Northern VA Family Photographer
As a South Riding, VA photographer specializing in family and children photography, we are well aware of the dangers of oversharing on social media. As parents, we are even more vigilant and realize the importance of taking steps to ensure our children or grandchildren’s safety.
While fine art photography is our livelihood, we invest a lot of time in researching a variety of topics. Here is some information we’ve culled which you could find helpful. At the bottom of this post, we provide links to the websites we used in our research.*
Four dangers of social media sharing:
1. Don’t overshare information. Stress to your children the importance of not providing too much personal information on social media including their ages, birth dates, and addresses or emails. They should keep in mind that accounts are always at risk of being hacked and the information is sitting there available to hackers. Identify theft is always a strong possibility and the more information they provide, the easier they make it for thieves.
2. Social media makes it easy to hide anyone’s real identity, and fake profiles do exist. How many cases have we heard of where kids open accounts to bully another student? Too many, unfortunately!
3. Location-based services: These are considered one of the most dangerous features of social media sites. These features can reveal where your child is when they post online and “tagging” can identify who they are with. Various crimes have taken place because someone has identified where they were at a given time. Predators can track a parent’s or child’s whereabouts because of location services.
4. Photo sharing: It is important for your children to understand that any picture they post can be downloaded and used in any manner, including inappropriate editing. Moreover, they should realize that photos they consider funny, cute, or sexy could be inappropriate and have unintended consequences.
Safety tips for you and your children:
• Give minimal information online including in your profile of any social media account.
• Use the maximum level of privacy for any social media account and do not post anything without a security privacy setting. Do not post public or open posts for anyone to see.
• Do not accept friend requests or follows from strangers! It’s also important to note that hackers and pedophiles have begun to open forged accounts under names familiar to their targets.
• Security and police enforcement experts recommend parents teach their children to ask themselves the following questions:
– Should I share this? Could the information put me or someone else in danger?
– Do people need to know where I am and with who?
– Is it a good idea to let everyone know my exact location?
– Am I selecting friends online that I can trust? Always keep in mind that it’s not just about what you post, but how others may use that content.
– Is the information I am sharing too transparent?
– Before sharing information with the public, does my post give out too much personal information?
As a fine art photographer specializing in family and children photography in the South Riding, VA, we enjoy the relationships we build with our clients and with their children through our photography. We hope you enjoy our blog and its posts.
*NCPC, Social Networking Safety
*Kids.gov, Online Safety
Family Photographer, Children Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near South Riding, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.
Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.
Best,
Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!
Professional Photographer