Name: Ever After Portraits
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How to Make Your Multigenerational Session AWESOME! | Northern VA Multigenerational Photographer

Multigenerational or extended family portrait sessions are a lot of fun for us as a family photographer. With two decades of work shooting at our Sterling, VA indoor and outdoor portrait studios, we’ve learned a lot from our clients over the years!

One thing we’ve learned is that sometimes clients get a little worried about doing group shots – so let us help you out. There are a few things we can tell you to help you through the (wonderful) experience of doing a family group portrait. We promise you that by the time you leave your session, you’ll look back on the experience as something memorable, poignant, and even a lot of fun!

So here are some useful tips for you!

Establish Goals

Whether you’d like to do multigenerational or extended family, it’s helpful to decide ahead of time what your goals are for the portraits.

Do you want only group pictures?

Or, would you like to do individual portraits as well?

One of the most poignant images out of a multigenerational shoot are ones of just the grandparents with their grandchildren. These pictures quickly become a treasured heirloom.

Additionally, we could photograph grandparents alone followed by parents as a couple, and then children also.

If there’s extended family, how about one of the young cousins together?

While additional poses take more time, they’re worth that extra time.

Our advice: Talk to your family about the goals for the portrait session before you call to schedule. We can discuss those goals further when you call us.

Lastly, inform everyone attending the shoot that there will be individual or family unit portraits taken in addition to the group pictures. That way, you avoid any last-minute surprises and people arrive ready to do multiple pictures.

Wall Art Collections

Once you decide on your goal for your portrait session, we can discuss our various wall art collections and other products we offer. That discussion will set you down the path of thinking about the products you might be interested in purchasing. You will find that it saves time later and it helps to avoid “conflicts” with extended family.

We offer beautiful wall art collections with various finish styles, including framed and frameless. We have something for diverse tastes and interior design styles. We also offer multiple price points because we understand our clients have varying budgets for their fine art portraits.

What’s Your Style?

Another critical element to consider is the style of your portraits.

Do you want a more formal look or more candid and casual?

Are the portraits meant to be a gift? If so, then the style of the intended recipient often helps dictate the style for the portraits.

If you aren’t sure which way to go, talk to us. We’re happy to offer some guidance. We have a lot of experience working with clients on styling their session, and providing you with clothing suggestions for the entire family is part of our process.

Styling isn’t just for portraits. It also refers to your look for the pictures. Check out some of our previous blog posts on wardrobe styling and selection for your session. Also, check out our Pinterest pages as well for ideas on what to wear and how to coordinate your outfits.

For multigenerational portrait sessions, it’s essential to decide on wardrobe coordination early on rather than waiting until a couple of days before the session, especially if any family members will be flying into town. You want to be sure that everyone has a chance to prepare their outfits.

While you might think it’s going to be challenging to coordinate the wardrobe of a family group, it doesn’t have to be challenging if you follow some of that advice.

Where?

Lastly, where would you like to do your portraits?

The style you select for can help you decide on a location.

For example, a more formal portrait, such as a black and white, is more likely to be done inside our studio.

A more casual and candid style lends itself very well to our beautiful outdoor portrait park.

Our advice is to make sure everyone knows the location, finds it acceptable and can get there easily. You don’t need family members getting lost! If they get lost, they won’t be happy, and a late arrival could delay the portrait session.

We hope these tips will help you! Please know that we are always available to answer questions!

We look forward to working with you on your multigenerational family portraits. We are one of the leading Sterling, VA area family photographers, and we have extensive experience working with family groups. Reach out to us!

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!

Professional Photographer

A Session with the Grandparents! | Northern VA Family Photographer

On a cold day, we had this wonderful portrait session inside our portrait photography studio. Tucked warmly indoors, not far from the Oakton, VA area, this loving, multi-generational session touched our hearts. We centered the portraits around the love and bond between grandparents and their grandchildren.

Liz and Travis wanted to have fine art portraits of their children with their maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather. They knew that the day would come for the children when these portraits would serve as a poignant legacy. Kathleen, Liz’s mother, and Floyd, Travis’ father, valued the opportunity to do this session with their beloved grandchildren. It didn’t take much to capture their joy in these portraits!

Multi-generational Photographs:

As a studio photographer, we urge you to consider multi-generational portraits. Not all grandchildren will remember their grandparents. Even when they do, not many will have beautiful, professional portraits to treasure for a lifetime.

Inevitably, the day will come when portraits will fill in the gaps of our fading memories. While the emotions of feeling loved by, and loving, someone will remain tucked deep within us, our mental portraits of them will begin to blur. Were it not for photographs, and painted portraits before photography, we’d struggle with our memories.

Multi-generational portraits are an extraordinary legacy you create for your children, and a gift you offer the older generation. Liz and Travis understood this which explains their investment in fine art portraiture of the oldest and youngest in their family. One day, Gabby and Christopher will be so grateful their parents ordered these portraits! We urge you to do the same for your parents and children.

Please contact our portrait photography studio near Oakton, VA to schedule your multi-generational portraits. Your family will cherish their grandparent and grandchildren portraits.

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

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

Home for the Holidays Family Portrait Sessions | Northern VA Family Photographer

When was the last time your beloved entire family was together? It was probably for a holiday. A family gathering is a unique opportunity not just to create loving memories but to capture them! As a family photographer in Sterling, VA, in Northern Virginia, and as part of a beloved extended family, we urge you to take advantage of everyone gathered to have a multi-generational family portrait session! Or maybe your kids are home from college! How long has it been since you’ve had portraits with all of your children and yourself together?

November, Thanksgiving:

We value and love our families as much as you surely do. They are a part of our lives, our loves, and our spirit. We know the critical importance of recording all of that through fine art portraiture. Given that so many of our clients’ families travel to gather around their Thanksgiving table together, our photography studio offers portrait sessions the day after Thanksgiving. It is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of having your family in town by having professional portraits done.

December, Christmas:

For many people, the Christmas is the only time of the year that they truly get time off from work. Families can get together and celebrate the family’s loving bond. Family members travel hundreds or thousands of miles to be together, particularly if they weren’t together for Thanksgiving. Our portrait studio offers portrait sessions for the week of Christmas and the week following Christmas. Home for the holidays takes on a new meaning when you can document your family’s bonds as you gather together for professional family portraits you’ll treasure for many years. It is a small investment of time that reaps immeasurable benefits as your family scatters again to their homes away from each other.

Fine art photography captures our love, our bonds, our spirit and energy as family. It stops time through the power of its print imagery – a poignant and priceless item for anyone who’s loved someone.

Our appointments for these special winter season sessions are limited, so we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible to schedule your family’s portrait session. As a family photographer in Northern Virginia, in Sterling, VA, we look forward to working with you and your family during that beautiful time of year.

Family Photographer

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

Cuppernull Family, Multi-Generational Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer

Some of the most precious moments we experience are with our families. You could say that capturing a few of those moments is what we do as a family photographer near Great Falls, VA and Tysons Corner, VA.

The Client

Last year, Carolyn reached out to us. Her family, including her parents, would all be in one place for the Thanksgiving holiday. She saw a window of opportunity! Carolyn asked if we could do multi-generational portraits for them. Can you guess our answer?

We understand how difficult it can be to gather family members – especially multiple generations – in one location long enough to take portraits. We were happy to work with the Cuppernull Family! As a family photographer, we know that today’s photographs are tomorrow’s precious memories.

The Portraits

In discussing the portraits, Carolyn mentioned that her mom Peg had strongly hinted at the idea of doing a family portrait during an upcoming visit. (Way to go, Peg!) Carolyn ran with the notion! She contacted us, she and Gary met with us at our studio for a consult, and arranged for a portrait session. Carolyn had never done professional photographs with her parents. She wasted no time in making arrangements to change that.

As family photographers, we love multi-generational portraits, and we were ready for:

* two busy and gorgeous young-adult daughters: Courtney and Caylee;

* two grandparents: Peg and Dave;

* two parents: Carolyn and Gary;

* and (last but certainly not least!) two beautiful Labradors: Amstel and Stella!

Courtney and Caylee are close to their grandparents, having vacationed with them every year. It was wonderful to see the closeness Peg and Dave share with their granddaughters. Capturing them together was poignant and our pleasure! These amazing girls have such a bright future ahead of them, and, oh, the places they’ll go!

Carolyn and Gary are a lovely couple and a true pleasure to photograph together. This couple is amazing and deal with all things, big and small, with such grace and graciousness. It was a such a pleasure to meet them and to photograph their family.

Carolyn’s main request was for outdoor fall portraits of the family and that we capture all of those family faces. Not a problem for us! Manipulating nature’s kaleidoscope of fall colors and muted light is one of our specialties.

We discussed the importance of coordinating outfits for a larger group, and Carolyn and Peg incorporated our suggestions perfectly. (We’ve blogged about this before because well-coordinated colors in a group portrait can have a significant impact on the final result.)

The Results

The results, as you can see, speak for themselves. The three generations of this family look stunning, loving, and joyful – just as in real life. Oh, yes, and the doggies look great, too! (Amstel had an especially great time as he jumped into the pond before the session; he looked so happy afterward, mud and all! But a little mud wasn’t going to hold any of us back, and after a bit of a cleanup, both he and Stella were perfectly poised for the spotlight!)

Working as a family photographer in the Great Falls, VA and Tysons Corner, VA area is truly an exercise in satisfaction for us. We treasure the opportunity to document memories for our clients through portraits. We would love to hear from you if you would like to work with a fine art photographer in Northern Virginia.

Family Photographer

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

Clivia, Mayra & Enriqueta, Family Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer

Women tend to bear powerful connections to other women in their lives. When it is three generations of women, then it is all the more powerful! Our dear friend Clivia knows the role photography can play in honoring these relationships, so she contacted us at our studio not far from Lowes Island, VA.

Clivia, who lives with her husband and three older children in Sterling, VA, asked us to photograph three generations of women in her family – her daughter, her mother, and herself. We were honored and excited to work with Clivia and her family! Rather than shoot the portrait in our photography studio, we opted for our Outdoor Portrait Park.

Three Generations

As you can see, the two younger women, Clivia and Mayra, lovingly leaned in and wrapped their arms around their matriarch, Enriqueta. However, what we also see is a beautiful pillar of strength in the center bound by two legacies emulating that force. There is no better example of the power of photography.

Photography, like a painting, can capture something that isn’t possible to do every single moment of our lives. In this case, it is the love and bond between three generations of one family. Clivia’s mother lives some distance away, making it difficult for the three generations to see each other often. Clivia, who’s quite close to her daughter, wanted a personal portrait of the three, their first professional portrait together.

The portrait, depicting the love and bond between them, captures a rare moment for them. All three are together. When they are apart, their portraits serve as a potent reminder of the love that binds a family together.

Outdoor Portrait Park

As a studio, we treasure the role photography plays in the lives of our clients. Photography allows us to capture something worthy of being documented and of being honored. While we took this portrait in the Lowes Island, VA area, if you are within driving distance we would love to work with you. Together, we can document that which you treasure most – your love for your family.

Family Photographer, Family Photograpy

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA, near Lowes Island, 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

Family Portraits, The Turner Family | Northern VA Family Photographer

When The Turner Family contacted us, it was because they were interested in continuing their annual tradition of professional pictures. This year, however, rather than do their usual studio portrait, the family wanted to take it outside. Our Dulles, VA portrait park was the perfect option for them!

This sweet family of four, Willie, Jante, little Willow, and grandmother Katherine, was excited for their portraits – well, almost all of them were excited! Adorable little Willow was a bit more skeptical, but who can blame her? She didn’t know us. However, with our years of experience with family photography, we consider ourselves experts at working with children and at putting them at ease. We know that our equipment can be just a bit scary for the little ones, so we go out of our way to make this a fun and exciting experience for them. We’re usually pretty successful!

Multigenerational Portrait Session

By the time our portrait photography session with The Turners’ was complete, we think Willow had opened up to us a bit. It didn’t matter so much, though, whether we won her over; with her big brown eyes, she’d won US over from the moment we saw her! Willow is one beautiful little girl!

It was fun to photograph this tight-knit family in a way we knew they’d love to see in a photo – warm smiles all around.

We really love it when our clients bring along multiple generations for their family portraits. Including grandparents in portraits with their grandchildren, as Katherine was included, is a wonderful way of showing the love sown between generations.

Outdoor Portrait Park

Jante and Willie had asked for a few shots of just him and his precious little girl which we were more than happy to take for them. Of course, we did the same for Jante! Usually, one parent is the photographer while the other the subject along with the children. This means that in every family there is usually far more pictures of one parent than the other. That alone is a great reason to do professional portrait photography. Professional portraits are a great opportunity to capture everyone in the family together in a portrait!

If you and your family live in the Dulles, VA area, or plan to be in the Northern VA area, and are interested in professional pictures, please contact us to discuss our services. With our expertise in working with families and children, as well as our beautiful outdoor portrait park, we will create a portrait of family you will be proud to display for decades.

Family Photographer, Professional Pictures

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