If you have ever wondered why all your family portraits look rather the same, it could be your angle. Having worked almost two decades across the Middleburg, VA area, clients often ask our advice on how they can take more interesting family pictures. Here are a few tips to consider.

Check the Angle

If you’re lining up your family and shooting straight at them, that could be part of your problem. What’s interesting about a group of people lined up staring straight at the camera? Likely, not much. Try staggering them, so they’re not standing straight across the horizon. Then try shooting from unexpected angles as you move around.

Portrait Angle

With some portrait photography, your best angle is what is known as the portrait angle. It’s shot at the same level as the subject while changing the subject’s angle to you as the photographer. Turn the subject or subjects at an angle away from your camera. You can play around with angles especially when there is more than one person. Try having them look in opposite directions from each other or, when it’s more than two people, have them each look in different directions for an interesting result!

Bird’s Eye View

Looking down at your subjects from a bird’s eye view offers a unique perspective on what might otherwise be an ordinary shot. If you’ve ever seen a photo taken from a drone, you know how different the world looks from above. Note that we’re not saying you need to get up that high! Sometimes just holding your camera higher or standing on a chair will do the trick. Remember, safety first!

Ground Level

Rather than shooting from above, get everyone sitting or laying on the ground while you do the same. This angle makes for some fun shots especially if you’re at the beach or lying in a meadow of beautiful grass. This is a particularly nice angle when you’re working with children!

Ground-up View

Another clever angle is for you as the photographer to get on the ground while you shoot up at your subjects. It works especially well when shooting a circle of people looking down at the camera. Keep in mind that while this is a fun and creative perspective, it can cause your subjects to look bigger. Not every person will want that!

Reflections

How about looking for something shiny?! Use a body of water, including a simple puddle, and photograph the reflection for a new perspective for your pictures.

If you would like to do your family portraits in the Middleburg, VA area, contact our portrait photography studio. We’d be happy to schedule an appointment for your session with one of Northern Virginia’s most reputable and trusted photographers!
 

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
Photography Tips & Tricks: 6 Tips for Taking Memorable Disney Park Photos
Photography Tips & Tricks: 5 Tips for Photographing Special Occasions

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

As a Middleburg, VA family and children’s photographer, we like to think ahead! It’s always a good idea to practice photographing for a special occasion. Whether it is children photography or special family events, our tips can be helpful to you too.

1. Candids:

One secret to shooting great portrait photography at special occasions lies in capturing candid moments. You might need to move around in the shadows of the event. Sometimes stepping out of the middle of the “action” to the periphery will give you a better perspective. A better view will allow you to get better shots. Extra Tip: Try shooting from unexpected angles such as from above looking down on the action.

2. Poses:

Sometimes, you’ll want to ask people to pose for a picture. That’s okay, too. For a less posed look, stagger the individuals in the group rather than lining them up straight across. Extra Tip: Sometimes just asking people to stop what they’re doing and look up is enough. Focus and shoot!

3. Lens:

Using a zoom lens will help you to get those close-ups when you need to, especially if you’re shooting from farther away. At other times, a wide angle lens will serve you better especially when you’re in smaller spaces and you’re close up to your subjects. Extra Tip: Practicing with various lenses will help you know when to use what and when.

4. Details:

The devil is in the details! What often makes a portrait unique are the little things you capture, such as the expression of a child or the smile of an older adult. Those little details can be important symbols of the moment or event. Extra Tip: Aim at your subject’s eyes to focus, especially if you’re using a flash. It will help you get the sharpest image.

5. Lighting:

Whenever possible, make use of the natural light you have. It can be a photographer’s best friend. You can shoot on Manual and set your camera according to the lighting. If you’re an amateur photographer, set your camera to Auto and let it do its thing, taking advantage of both the flash or the natural light. Extra Tip: If you’re taking pictures indoors, use the natural light from a window or doorway.

Finally, enjoy yourself while you’re shooting photos at any special event or occasion – especially when doing children photography, which can be a lot of fun. Move around; shoot from various angles; zoom in and zoom out. Be ready to capture unexpected moments. Those are the most likely to be treasured years later!

If you would like a special and unique portrait session, we are family and children photography experts! Please contact our studio near Middleburg, VA. We would love to discuss our work with you and how we can help.

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
Photography Tips & Tricks: 6 Tips for Taking Memorable Disney Park Photos

Family Photographer, Children Photography

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

You don’t have to be a family photographer in the Hamilton, VA & Tysons Corner, VA region to know that there’s an abundance of things for families to do in Fairfax County!

So, if you’re not at a portrait session with us, here are some fun things to keep you busy.

TripAdvisor’s Top 10 Activities in Fairfax County

1. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is the companion museum to the Museum on the National Mall. Address: 14390 Air and Space Museum Pkwy, Chantilly, VA 20151-3002.

2. Mount Vernon. Address: 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, Mount Vernon, VA 22121. Once home to the father of the country, visitors can tour the estate, gardens, tombs, farm, slave memorial, and education center. Photographers should bring their cameras to this bucolic estate!

3. Great Falls Park. Address: 9200 Old Dominion Dr, McLean, VA 22102-1019. Explore history and nature, all in a beautiful 800-acre park only 15 miles from the Nation’s Capital.

4. Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. Address: 1551 Trap Rd, Vienna, VA 22182-1643. Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts is a majestic natural setting for performances across all genres every summer. Home to the Filene Center and the Children’s Theatre-in-the-Woods, the 117-acre Park offers dining and hospitality amenities throughout the summer season, and year-round recreational opportunities, including hiking trails, picnic areas, and sledding.

5. Meadowlark Botanical Garden (Vienna). Address: 9750 Meadowlark Gardens Ct, Vienna, VA 22182-1992. Explore 95 acres of ornamental display gardens and unique native plant collections at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna.

6. Tysons Corner Center (McLean) On a bad weather day head over to Tysons Corner with its more than 300 shops, restaurants, and department stores, the Hyatt Regency, VITA Apartments and Tysons Tower.

7. George Washington’s Distillery & Gristmill (Mount Vernon) Address: 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway Mount Vernon, VA 22121. This is a fully functioning reconstruction of George Washington’s Distillery and Gristmill located 2.7 miles from the estate’s main entrance

8. Burke Lake Park (Fairfax Station) Address: 7315 Ox Rd, Fairfax Station, VA 22039-1929. A 218-acre lake with fishing, boating, rowboat rental, camping, a miniature train, a carousel, outdoor volleyball courts, open fields, an 18-hole par 3 golf course, clubhouse with snack bar and driving range, disk golf, horse shoe pits, an ice cream parlor, picnic areas with grills, 3 playgrounds, trails, amphitheater, and miniature golf course. Swimming and windsurfing are prohibited.

9. Frying Pan Farm Park (Herndon). Address: 2709 West Ox Road, Herndon, VA 20171-3807. Frying Pan Farm Park is part of the Floris Community in western Fairfax County, known as Frying Pan from 1726 to 1892 when the name was changed to Floris. Today, the park preserves and interprets a 1920s through 1950s farm, agricultural process, rural community life and landscape for the educational, cultural and recreational enrichment of citizens and visitors of Fairfax County.

10. Reston Town Center (Reston). Address: 11900 Market St, Reston, VA 20190-5614. Reston Town Center is a community destination, offering more than 50 shops, 30 restaurants, an 11-screen cinema and open-air pavilion, luxury residences, and a four-diamond Hyatt Regency hotel.

We hope this list has given you a few ideas for the summer!

As a leading and trusted family photographer near Hamilton, VA & Tysons Corner, VA, we’d love to work with your family to preserve your memories through fine art photography. Contact us today!

Family Photographer

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

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