Back to school raises a certain nostalgia for us for several reasons. Although we start to get busy with family pictures here in the Arcola, VA and Middleburg, VA area, back-to-school days remind Mindy of a time long gone. “Back to school” once meant ushering little Joriana out the door and off to school. Today, she’s a grown woman and one-half of Ever After Portraits! “Back to school” has a very different meaning for us now.

Back to School
Trust us when we say that your children will be grown and flown in what will feel like the blink of an eye! One day they are waving goodbye from the school door and the next they’re walking across a graduation stage. You will be left wondering where the time went. Mindy wrote about this nostalgia in this blog post, “Moments.”.

We love working together as a mother-and-daughter family photographer. We spend the vast part of our days bringing our clients’ dream portraits to fruition. And, the best aspect of our work is, of course, our clients! We enjoy working with people and helping them to preserve their memories through our photography.

The arrival of back to school days with its cooler mornings are a poignant reminder to us that change is inevitable. Life isn’t stagnant. Children grow and move on. We, too, grow older. Snapping moments in time through photography is powerful. It’s important. Every fall we remember the importance of photography – both in our lives and our clients’ lives.

Before the leaves begin to change color and flutter to the ground, we encourage you to schedule your family’s portraits. We realize life gets in the way sometimes, but as summer’s hot days begin to wane, remember to call us.

Schedule your Arcola, VA or Middleburg, VA area family pictures for this fall or winter. Let us capture your memories through our fine art portrait work. We can’t stop time for you. But we are experts at capturing it in our poignant photography.
 

Family Photographer, Family Pictures

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Arcola, VA and Middleburg, 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

Sometimes after an Ever After session, a client falls in love with multiple portraits. It’s a good problem to have in our industry because it means we did something right! Middleburg, VA area client, Deveney, was one of those clients!

The Session

Deveney and her son had their portrait session with us on a beautifully perfect fall day. After having to fist reschedule due to bad weather, things were back on track! On a cool sunny day, the fall foliage shimmered in the background as we shot this charming duo’s portrait photography. Everything coordinated and blended just perfectly, from the color of their outfits to the landscape surrounding us.

Products

“The quality of the products is like none other that I’ve seen,” Deveney later said to us. She’s right! We only offer the highest quality photographic products. All are rated to last well into the next generation and are archival quality. We realize that professional portraits are an investment of time and effort, and we want your portraits to last for many decades.

Deveney had a tough time selecting just one portrait from her many gorgeous choices. Each one was as spectacular as the previous one. Each one so aptly covered the love she and her son have for each other! So, she chose to order a gallery Wall Art collection in a Steel Finish, as well as a Legacy Album. The portraits that didn’t end up as part of her wall gallery ended up in the album. We were happy to help her select complementary portraits and, as you can see below, the results were stunning on her wall!

“I love enjoying the art on my walls every day. I look forward to being photographed again to document the next stage of my son’s life, hopefully with my parents,” Deveney told us.

We look forward to photographing her and her son again soon, hopefully with grandparents included!

To see more portraits from Deveney’s session, click here.

If you would like to have professional portraits in the Middleburg, VA area, please feel free to contact our studios. We would enjoy working with you!
 

Family Photographer, Portraits

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Middleburg, 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

If you display family pictures in your McLean, VA area home, then you understand and appreciate the power of portrait photography. Photography gives us a real picture to what we store in our memories. At times, it fills in the blanks created by time or loss.

The Pages and Chapters of Our Lives

Portraits are like the pages and chapters of our life stories. As a professional photographer, we understand that the work we do isn’t just a consumer product. It goes far beyond that. Our portraits document moments within our clients’ lives like pages within a story – their unique story. When viewed collectively, those moments just like pages create chapters. When a client regularly invests in portrait photography, they are visually writing their stories. Their children’s lives are played out in touching imagery to be enjoyed and appreciated well into the next generations.

Priceless Photography

Today’s portraits are priceless in the future. If you’ve lost someone in your life, then you understand this. Their portrait serves a far more touching role now that they are gone. The person you’ve lost lives on not just in your mind and memories, but in their treasured portrait.

Children and Grandchildren

If you are the parent of grown children, then you too understand the value of portrait photography. Your children’s childhood portraits remind you of just how small and precious they once were. And, in your grandchildren’s faces, you see or will see your adult child’s face. Your grandchildren’s portraits will one day remind you of what once was.

We are good at our work because we love and appreciate what we do and the role it plays in our clients’ lives. It isn’t a job for us. It is a passion. As a mother and daughter team, family photography has a personal meaning for us. That is to our clients’ advantage!

Contact us if you’d like to begin documenting those moments in your family’s life through portrait photography in the McLean, VA area. We know you won’t regret it decades from now!

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near McLean, 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

Portrait photography in McLean, VA isn’t quite the same as photography on vacation. With summer holidays upon us, we thought we’d offer a few tips on how to take memorable photos at somewhere as eye-popping as Disney World. (We love Disney!) But you can apply our tips to wherever you go this summer!

Camera settings!

1.Rather than a lesson on how to shoot on Manual, if you don’t already know how to do it, we’d advise you to shoot on Auto “A.” If you do shoot on manual, practice before you go if you haven’t shot in awhile and aren’t an expert. Whether you shoot on Manual or Auto, you need to feel comfortable with your camera’s settings including the flash. The lighting in Disney World could throw you off if you’re shooting into the light or your subject is backlit either from natural or artificial light. At a minimum, know how to turn on your flash even on Auto. You might need to override the Auto settings and activate the flash to ensure your subject is visible in the photo.

Batteries!

2. Make sure you charge your camera each night or carry an extra battery. You don’t want to run out of battery in the middle of the day! Remember, if anything goes wrong and you find yourself unable to use your camera, purchase a disposable one inside the park. It will do in a pinch.

Equipment!

3. Any professional photographer will always check their equipment before they head out the door. You should as well! Also, give some thought to how much equipment you really want or need to lug around on your vacation!

Think out of the box!

4. Portrait photography can be powerful, but it needs to be well thought out and clever. Don’t just pose your family in front of a pretty view and shoot! Get goofy along with Goofy! Do the unexpected in your pictures and with your pictures. Don’t just stand in front of the castle. Look for unusual angles from which to shoot. Look for quirky things which symbolize the spirit of the park, whether it’s a sign or an unusual or unexpected backdrop.

Think details!

5. We tend to get so excited in beautiful places that we forget that the devil is in the details. Some of the most beautiful pictures capture not the overall picture but the detail of something. Yes, the castle in Disney is stunning. But one feature of the castle, such as a grand turret, can give you an equally lovely photo.

Before you shoot…

6. Look through your lens and carefully compose the shot. A closeup can usually best capture someone’s expression. Imagine photographing your child’s face when they first see Mickey or on a thrilling ride. Those types of pictures can be the most memorable. Take your time composing the shot if you have the time or try to anticipate the shot. Most importantly, always be ready to shoot!

As a portrait photography specialist in McLean, VA we love working with our clients in and out of the studio. Our blog serves as a way to stay in touch, provide helpful tips for photography, and provide information about our work and how we can serve our clients. We hope you’ll follow us here on our blog! Contact us is you would like to discuss our photography or schedule an appointment.

Other posts in this series:
Photography Tips & Tricks: Lighting tips for family snapshots
Photography Tips & Tricks: Get natural smiles from your kids!
Photography Tips & Tricks: Underwater Pictures
Photography Tips & Tricks: Pets
Photography Tips & Tricks: Confidence is key

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near McLean, 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

Before we take your family photos, you will want to consider your outfits and the colors you’ll wear. Let’s talk about the myth of wearing white – and why it shouldn’t be a choice especially with the lush green landscapes of the Waterford, VA and Northern Virginia areas as a background.

As a family photographer, we often discuss with our clients a few ideas for their outfits. We also direct them to our Pinterest boards where they’ll find hundreds of ideas. Your outfits and color choices should do three things:

1. Be flattering to you and your figure – whether you’re male or female, young or old

2. Make you the subject – what the eye is immediately drawn to in the photo

3. Your outfits should not be the first thing you see in a photo.

The Technicalities of White
There are technical challenges for a professional photographer when a client is wearing white – yes, even a bride. White tends to blow out the highlights of a shot and confuse the camera’s internal meter, so it takes a skilled and experienced photographer (like us) to compensate.

White or Color for a Group
When you select white, you create an immediate magnet for the viewer’s eye. Rather than looking at your lovely face or faces, the eye goes to the white clothes! Some families want to wear white tops and khaki pants for their family photos. But, unless you want to look like you all work at Walt Disney World, or somewhere else with a uniform, we recommend you shy away from this!

It’s best if you select two coordinating colors and then mix and match them across the group. Don’t put everyone in the same tops of the same color – that’s too matchy-matchy!

If you must wear a white shirt, add a pop of color whether it’s a simple scarf, tie, or vest. Just keep in mind not to wear too many accessories. They, too, will draw the eye away from you as the subject (and star) of your photos.

As a full service portrait studio, we will work with you to choose flattering clothing for your family portrait!

Want some proof of not wearing white? Next time you’re watching a news broadcast, look for reporters wearing white tops. You’ll likely see very few people wearing only white. It’s too distracting to the camera.

It’s important to select an experienced and skilled photographer for your next family photos in the Waterford, VA region. They will need to know just how to coordinate your group, advise on outfits, and produce the spectacular portraits you deserve! Contact us if you would like to schedule portraits with our trusted and reputable mother and daughter photography team.
 

Family Photographer, Family Photos

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Waterford, 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