What is it about old-fashioned barnwood and a log fence that we find so charming? Something about the nostalgia they evoke draws us to these iconic features – no matter where you’re from or where you were born. Any family photographer in the picturesque Great Falls, VA, and Northern Virginia area can tell you that clients frequently request these types of features or structures in their portraits.

Family Portrait Session

Unlike other photography studios in the area, we don’t have to search for these features; we own them in our private 2.5-acre Outdoor Portrait Park! We, too, are drawn, not just to nature’s beauty, but to these symbols of the countryside. As props in a family or child’s portrait, it doesn’t get much better than these. (We also have a lovely wooden bridge, pier, two ponds, and lots of trees.)
 

Outdoor Portrait Park

 
While authentic barnwood and a log fence lend themselves toward the rustic, believe it or not, you also can compose an elegant portrait with either of these in the background. We often use our antique couches placed smack in the middle of the woods or in front of the barn or fence for a dramatic and intriguing composition.

The contrast is striking. The portrait is beautiful. The possibilities are endless.

If you are interested in a Great Falls, VA area family photographer with their own photography studio and private outdoor portrait park and for your next portrait, contact us! We can discuss your many, many options for pictures!
 

Family Photographer

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Northern Virginia, near Great Falls, VA. 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

Decorating your formal living room with precious artwork of your family is not as complicated as you might think. It can be done! If you are like many of our clients who live in the Northern Virginia area, including Great Falls, VA, you have a single-family home. Most of these homes have a formal living room and/or dining room. As professional photographers, we use an interior design software program that has been transformative for our clients!

Using our custom software, we simplify decision-making for our clients. There is no guessing as to upon which wall you could display your finished portrait. The software program allows us to show you exactly what any of your portraits will look like in your home! It’s a simple process involving you snapping a smartphone picture of the wall and sending it to us. We can then demonstrate to you what various portraits would look like directly on that wall!

Interior Design

Interior design should reflect your personal tastes. Some designers have hard and fast rules about where to display professional pictures, or any pictures for that matter. Other designers are more casual about displaying personal pictures.

We believe that your home should reflect those who live within it. It should also reflect your personalities and relationships. That is what makes a house a home, after all!

You can display professional pictures in a formal living room. Not every picture might be appropriate to display, but most will be. We always talk with our clients about where they think they’d like to display their portraits before we even use our software. We tailor our portrait sessions toward any style of portrait you like. In other words, if your living room is very formal and elegant and that is the style you would like for your family portrait, then we would create a more formal photo session, perhaps in our studio, perhaps in black and white. It all really depends on what you like and what emotion you’re trying to convey with the portrait in the room.

Some clients prefer to add a more whimsically-styled portrait to a formal room. That’s a wonderful idea as well. The portrait becomes a statement piece or a focal point. Again, our special software will give you the chance to see exactly how the portrait will look on that wall.

We look forward to being your professional photographer and working with you on styling portraits for your formal living room. Our studios are in Sterling, VA but we draw clients from Greats Falls, VA and other Northern Virginia cities and towns.

Family Photographer, Professional Photographer

Ever After Portraits is Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Great Falls, 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

“All of my pictures are on social media, so I don’t need to print anything!” Honestly, that comment makes us cringe as a professional photographer! Yes, we all have dozens if not hundreds of pictures on social media. Everyone is a photographer these days, and clients in the Great Falls, VA and Cascades, VA areas are no different. Heck, we’re no different. We aren’t past pulling out a cell phone and snapping a quick shot. However, those don’t and can’t compare to professional portraits.

Is that the photo legacy you want to leave behind?

Social media overexposure can make us forget that this could be the only legacy we leave to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren! Do you really want that to be the photo legacy you leave to grandchildren and great-grandchildren yet to be born? We know we don’t! We’d rather have beautifully composed portraits to leave our descendants. Candids are one thing, but snapshots of us in sweats aren’t legacy-worthy. Actually, the majority of us would rather very few people ever see those kind of snapshots!

Those images posted all over social media will have very little value years from now; they’re practically disposable. Do you remember what you posted last week, last month, last year? Do you look at the images you posted online even 5 years ago? You might look at them if you take the time to find that file or post online, but it’s not the same thing as professional fine art portraiture displayed in your home, artwork you can see and admire every day.
 

Wall art versus snapshots

A wall art family portrait that will hang on the wall of your home, one that you and your children walk by every day, will be of so much more value to you – and to them! Every single day, your children will see themselves in a family portrait and feel the love and happiness they felt when the portrait was taken. Every single day, they’ll see how very much they’re loved.

Fine art portraiture has an inherent value that simple, everyday snapshots don’t. It is a legacy you leave, a legacy embodying the love you have for your family. We hope you will take the time – at least once but preferably more – to have professional family photography taken. It’s not a decision we have ever seen anyone regret!
 

If you would like one of the leading professional photographers in the Great Falls, VA and Cascades, VA area to do your family portraits, please contact us. We’d love to discuss your session with you!

Family Photographer, Professional Photographer

Ever After Portraits is the mother-daughter portrait photography team of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a portrait studio located in Cascades, VA, near Great Falls, 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

How long has it been since your last family portrait session with a professional photographer? We bet it’s longer than you think! As a professional family photographer in Northern Virginia, near Great Falls, VA, we’ll sometimes run into a former client who mentions they will schedule another portrait with us but not quite yet because it hasn’t been that long since their last portrait. Umm, but wait! How long has it really been?!

When we check dates, our clients are usually surprised at how long it has been since their portraits with us – sometimes as long as three or four years! Now their children are in middle school with no professional pictures since they were very small – except for those school photos we all love to hate! Where did the time go?!

If you have waited more than a year or two, and you have young children, you should consider doing another portrait now. It’s time! Children grow up so quickly and change so much. You won’t ever regret taking portraits – there is never such a thing as too many pictures!

How much time should pass between portraits?

As we’ve said, not much time should pass in between professional photo sessions. Waiting too long between professional portraits can leave you with regrets. A toddler’s face is not the face of a middle-schooler or of a teenager. What did they look like in between those two portraits? Do you have any fine art photography to show for it?

So really think hard about this and be honest with yourself: How long has it really been since you had a family portrait? Has your family changed since then? How much has your little one grown since the last portrait? Have new members been added to your family?
 

 
Let’s talk!

If you are a past client, and you’d like to know the exact date of your last portrait with us, contact us. We can look it up. You can schedule an appointment to update your portraits. Each session is customized, so that your portraits won’t look the same each time. A whole new portrait for a new time in your lives!

We like to chat with our clients, do a consult – yes, even with past clients because their lives change, and then we can plan your next portrait session with us.

If you’ve never taken portraits with us but are interested in working with a professional photographer like us, then welcome! We love meeting and speaking with potential clients! It’s like meeting a new friend. Our studios aren’t far from the Great Falls, VA area in Sterling, VA. Give us a call today at 571.434.0009 or contact us online here.
 

Family Photographer, Professional Photographer

Ever After Portraits is Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Great Falls, 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