Choosing The Right Location For Your Portrait Session | Northern VA Family Photographer

Name: Ever After Portraits
Price range: $$$

Family portraits are a poignant reminder of a moment in your lives long after it has long passed. Families across Waterford, VA and South Riding, VA have entrusted us with their family pictures because they understand the thought we put into our work, whether inside our studio, in our private, outdoor portrait park, or another location. Choosing the right location of your portraits is always important.

Your family portraits are a marvelous gift, a legacy you give to yourselves to honor your family and your love for each other. While you’ll always enjoy looking at your family pictures, they become especially powerful and meaningful decades from now.

Location, Location!
Choosing the right location for each family matters considerably to us as family photographers because we know that it’s such an important part of your portraits. A background can set the overall tone for your family pictures and can say a lot about you and your family.

Here are some tips to consider.

Think Ahead
Often by the time a family reaches out to us, they have some thoughts already about where they would like to do their session. Some, but not all, have also thought about specific locations for their portraits. If you haven’t thought about it yet, we recommend you start giving it some thought. Search the Internet for places near you that you find appealing. Also consider what you want your family pictures to convey: seriousness, candor, nature, studio, urban, industrial, romantic, etc. If you’re stuck, we’re happy to provide some ideas and, of course, we always suggest you consider our scenic and very private portrait park which you will have all to yourselves for your family’s portrait session!

A Reflection of You
The best location for portraits can say something about you as a family. For example, are you drawn to the mountains or the ocean? Do you love the city? How about a setting that somehow reflects your interests as a family, whether it’s a local park or your own backyard? Are there any public monuments or historic buildings you’ve always admired? Don’t be afraid to think out of the box, and think creatively. The options are endless, so we suggest you keep a running list of places you love and are drawn to which might make a good background. We’re always happy to share some of our favorite locations!

Take Location Snapshots
Here’s a thought: How about snapping some pics of different places and see what you think of the background? You can have some fun snapping selfies or ask someone to snap a few pictures for you. Later you can compare the pictures and how the backgrounds look to you. It could help you pick a final setting for your professional family portraits!

If you live in the Waterford, VA and South Riding, VA or elsewhere in Northern Virginia and would like to discuss your professional family pictures, contact our studio. We offer all our clients use of our private, outdoor portrait park for their sessions. Whether you use our bucolic private park, our fully-equipped indoor studio, or a public site of your choosing, we’d be happy to create magical family portraits you’ll cherish for decades!

Family Photographer

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

Why spring is the best time of year for family portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer

We might be in the midst of winter’s short, dark days, but it’s time to start looking ahead to the splendor of spring and its opportunities! The winter landscapes of Fairfax, VA & Sterling, VA blossom into a perfect color palette for portraits, making spring one of the best seasons for outdoor pictures!

Our Outdoor Portrait Park

Winter’s chilly cloak will soon lift, and our 2.5-acre Outdoor Portrait Park once again welcomes our clients. You will have the entire park for yourselves without the interruption or hordes of strangers typical of public spaces.

Our idyllic park has been designed and groomed as an idyllic location for portraits. You can take advantage of our creek, ponds, rustic barn, charming rail fence or wooden bridge. The portrait park is decorated by nature’s bounty and draped in natural light. It is the perfect place to take outdoor photos!

Nature’s Stage

As the colors return to trees and flowers burst into bloom, spring offers photographers a fabulous stage and palette of colors. We love the warming temperatures and colors, and we know just how to take advantage of them for our clients. The dramatic browns of the forests give way to the richness of spring with lush foliage!

Spring Weather

After several months of winter, children are ready to head outdoors! The milder days of spring haven’t yet given way to summer’s heat and humidity. The fresh air and warmer temperatures make it the perfect time to candidly capture the joy and smiles of families but, especially, of your wee little ones!

We suggest that you reserve your spot now for your spring portraits. (Our appointments start to fill up very quickly for spring and summer.) Booking early gives us time to discuss your portraits with you and answer any questions you might have. We also encourage you to check out our Pinterest boards for lots of advice on outfits, colors, and ideas. You can also check out the products we offer. We promise, you’ll be excited to get started with you portrait session when you see them.

If you’d like to head outdoors for your portraits in the Northern Virginia area, including Fairfax, VA, and Sterling, VA, contact us today!

Family Photographer, Portraits

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

Family Portraits, The Limas | Northern VA Family Photographer

Not too long after moving his family from Miami to Northern Virginia, Kelvin decided it was time for portraits! He sought us out as a family photographer. When he first contacted us, our ears perked up immediately! We love hearing from the male in the family. It’s a different perspective than our typical client which is usually the woman. The Limas were delightful! We’re glad they are now our neighbors and that Kelvin contacted us to photograph his beautiful family.

Family of Four Outdoor Portrait Session

This family of four, with a sweet three-year-old girl, an adorable 10-month-old son, and a lovely mom, Caitlyn, seemed to radiate happiness and love with their infectious smiles. The late summer colors wrap around them, adding warmth and contrast to the white curves of the sofa and their blue clothing.

Kelvin told us he’d been searching for photographers because he realized it had been a while since they had done family pictures. He also wanted to be certain to capture his children at their cute ages right now. They didn’t have any professional pictures of Lucas, the youngest, even though he was almost a year old and was growing rapidly, and Nathalie’s portraits were last taken when she was 6-months old. The Limas were overdue for some family and individual portraits!

Wall Art

Although they were renting at the time, they were considering a collection of portraits to display in their home. They were looking for multiple pictures in varying sizes rather than one enormous portrait, which they said was a popular trend in Miami. It wasn’t too long before The Limas happily selected their favorite portraits from their session, choosing a lovely multi-portrait wall art collection and an album.

As a Purcellville, VA family photographer, we love clients who value photography and the role it can play in their lives. They get the importance of working closely with a photographer to receive the best possible results. We greatly enjoyed our session with this beautiful family!

Family Photographer

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

Brad & Elise | Northern VA Family Photographer

Ten years of marriage with no professional portraits together prompted active-duty servicewoman Elise to contact our portrait photography studio in the Potomac Falls, VA and Lowes Island, VA area. With nothing but military pictures of each other, she wanted couples’ portraits to display in their home.

Brad retired from the service in 2013, while Elise remains active spending much of her time stationed in New York. She wanted to schedule their portraits during one of her trips home to her husband in Virginia near our studios. As you can imagine, we were more than happy to accommodate this lovely couple.

Having browsed other photography websites, Elise told us that she loved the idea of a mother-daughter photography team. She also said our portraits looked as if taken by someone who cared about the people in the pictures. Astute observation, because we do care!

Candid Outdoor Portraits

So what does a military couple want in a portrait? The opposite of their formal military pictures, that’s for certain! This lovely, personable couple wanted something as candid as possible – nothing with posed, fake smiles. That’s great because we don’t do fake! We want to reflect each subject’s personality and spirit as naturally as possible.

The portraits were in great part to celebrate and honor their decade together. This fun-loving couple wanted something reflective of them and their personalities both individually and as a couple. However, as fun as this couple is, we knew that Brad didn’t particularly like being in photos. We had a small challenge, but we love challenges! We made it our goal to make him feel comfortable and completely oblivious to being in front of a camera. You can be the judge of whether we succeeded by looking at the final results of their portrait session!

If you are ready for your family portrait session with Ever After, contact our portrait photography studio. We are in Sterling, VA near Potomac Falls, VA & Lowes Island, VA.

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

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

What families are saying, The Gary Family | Northern VA Family Photographer

Portrait photography in Northern Virginia can be such a thrill! We have worked with so many wonderful families through both baby photography and family photography. With our studio located in Potomac Falls, VA, near Lowes Island, VA we’re in a great location for families all across the area.

The Gary Family came to us in the fall for their family portrait session, and meeting this amazing family was a treat for us. The love Chad and Jennifer share with their beautiful sons was such a joy to capture! Our outdoor portrait park was the perfect backdrop for this energetic and loving family.

Making Families Happy Is Our Top Priority

“Chad and I can’t stop looking at these images! We are beyond excited and happy to have these family photos hanging on our wall. Who knew that there was such a thing as photo glass?! Amazing! I never get tired of looking at these pictures and looking through our album. We can’t say enough positive things about Ever After Portraits! We will cherish these photos forever. We look forward to another photo session in due time; hopefully, a generational photo session! Thank you, again, to you and Joriana for capturing such real, honest, and beautiful photos of our family!!” ~ Jennifer Gary

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography

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

Photography Tips & Tricks: Get natural smiles from your kids! | Northern VA Family Photographer

We’re continuing our portrait photography series for our clients on Tips and Tricks for better photography! Our Potomac Falls, VA and area clients sometimes ask us how to achieve better snapshots. Smiling is one way! The more relaxed everyone is the better the portrait.

So here are some tips for getting children (and Dads, sometimes!) smiling:

Avoid the phony smiles!

1. Don’t try to force a smile. If you try to get your child to smile, if you say “Say cheese,” if you beg, it’s not going to work. Even if they crack a smile, it will appear forced. Shake things up a bit. The more spontaneous you are, the goofier you are, the more likely children are to respond.

2. What makes your child laugh? Tickles? Giggles? Telling them NOT to smile usually works too! Sing a silly song. Better yet, have them sing a silly song and be ready to snap the picture.

3. Every photographer knows that the best photos sometimes come at the most unexpected moments. Our advice is: Always to keep your camera nearby, battery charged, and ready to take a snapshot. If your children are doing something and having loads of fun doing it, pull out that camera and be ready to shoot some great candids. You’re almost guaranteed to get at least a few great shots of them smiling.

Have some fun and be ready to play

4. If you are setting up your personal photo session for your children, it’s going to be tough to get them to smile. What they see is their parent preoccupied in getting everything just right before asking them to pose. How much fun is that for anyone, let alone a child?! Turn the photo session into a fun opportunity with some interactive games or puzzles.

5. Fascinate them! What interests them? Have something ready that you know will captivate them. When you show it to them, make sure you are ready with your camera. Catching pictures of them when they see something that fascinates them will get you some rewarding shots.

Remember, you get maybe one good shot for every dozen or more, so shoot a lot of pictures!

When we shoot family or children’s portraits, we always tell the parents to let us handle the children. Let us be the ones to interact and provide the instructions or guidance. They are far less likely to rebel against us than their parents. Fun is key to kids’ pictures especially the younger ones. We enjoy those sessions as much as the kids end up enjoying them – which is usually quite a lot!

Contact us if you want great portraits of your family and your children — with natural smiles — at our portrait photography studio and outdoor portrait park in Potomac Falls, VA (Sterling, VA). We are just savvy – and goofy – enough with kids to get them grinning chin to chin!

Previous posts in this series:
Photography Tips & Tricks: Lighting tips for family snapshots

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography

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