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Preparing for Your Professional Headshot | Northern VA Professional Photographer
Preparing for Your Professional Headshot | Northern VA Professional Photographer
As a professional headshot photographer in the South Riding, VA and Round Hill, VA area, we work with many clients to capture their best looks for their headshots. It’s a growing part of our work!
Professional headshots – also known as branding or business photos – were once the stuff of promotional materials and conference programs. However, the Internet has changed all that! Professional headshots are regularly used today across all kinds of platforms including social media and websites. They are often the first impression you make on others before you even meet them. Where we once had storefronts, we now have the Internet and our branding images to represent us.
Why do a professional headshot with a headshot photographer?
As we said, a headshot is often the first impression you make on others in the business world, whether fellow business people or potential clients. It’s essential to have a high-quality professional picture taken by a headshot photographer who shows you take your job and career seriously.
A snapshot is an unprofessional way in which to represent yourself, and it won’t suffice today! It’s worth investing in a professional headshot that serves you well and shows you at your best. Snapshots can’t do that.
Investing in a professional portrait from a headshot photographer shows others that you believe in what you do and in yourself. It helps establish you as a professional willing to invest in yourself and your career. You are a professional who should be taken seriously.
Here are some thoughts you should consider before you do your headshot session.
Carefully select an experienced headshot photographer.
They should know how to take these kinds of business pictures because they are not an everyday kind of portrait. Your cousin might take good snapshots, but that doesn’t mean he can do a professional-looking headshot that does you credit.
Trust your headshot photographer!
A skilled headshot photographer is professional. They are experts in their industries just like you are in yours. Follow their instructions and guidance. Trust what they are suggesting. A skilled and reputable photography studio will not steer you wrong.
Dress well. Groom well.
Your clothes and how you look in them will say a lot about you, and you should put a lot of thought into how you dress for your headshot, and the message you want to send. Even if you are in a more casual industry where jeans and t-shirts are the dress code, be sure to wear nice ones to your headshot session! Clean, neat clothes matter even if you’re an artist having a “funkier” headshot taken.
Wear what best represents you and your industry, by all means – just make sure it looks good! Your headshot photographer should assist you with choosing the best attire to suit you and your brand. Experienced headshot photographers can also offer professional styling. More on that below, but seriously consider using a professional stylist!
Plan Your Outfit(s)
By all means, please do not wait until the morning of the session to pick out your clothes. Do it at least a week in advance to be sure you like what you have in your closet or have the time to buy a new outfit!
Hair
Do what you want with it as long as it looks neat and clean (those words again!) and translates well on camera. We don’t recommend changing your hairstyle dramatically for your headshot because people need to recognize you after seeing your picture and meeting you in person. Again, matching the look of your hair or clothes to the goal of your headshot is – a good headshot photographer can guide you on this.
Professional Hair Styling and Makeup
At Ever After, we can arrange for professional hair styling and makeup for any of our portrait sessions including headshot photography. Some people prefer this for their portraits, and we understand. It can be tough to get your hair or makeup looking as good as when a professional does it! Working with professional hair and makeup experts is a small investment that can pay off big for a professional headshot. When you use professionals for your session, you feel more confident in yourself, more relaxed, and that comes through in your portraits.
Relax and Breathe!
It’s tough for even the best headshot photographer to take great pictures if the subject is nervous or stiff. We always tell our clients to relax and breathe. We got this for you! We have a lot of experience working with clients in various industries doing their professional headshots. We understand the importance of these portraits to them and their careers. We take our time with each client during their headshot or branding session to be sure we get it right, and the final product does a great job of promoting or representing them.
That’s it!
Follow these pointers, and we know your headshot will be amazing!
We invite you to have a look at our Headshot and Branding Gallery to see some of our work. You can also check our Pinterest boards for hundreds of ideas and suggestions on selecting outfits for portraits sessions, whether headshot or family.
As a professional and reputable headshot photographer, we do headshots year round. Give us a call if you live anywhere in the Northern Virginia area, including South Riding, VA and Round Hill, VA, a to discuss our availability and how we can help you best represent yourself through an Ever After headshot!
You might also enjoy this article:
What’s a Headshot, and Who Really Needs One?
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Family Photographer, Professional and Headshot Photographer
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
What clients are saying, Traci | Northern VA Headshot Photographer
What clients are saying, Traci | Northern VA Headshot Photographer
We were thrilled to do a Headshot Session with Traci! She works with N2 Publishing and needed a new headshot for business use, something to showcase her fun and bubbly personality but still be professional. We enjoyed working with her to capture her personality! We’re now her headshot photographer!
“I do not enjoy having my picture taken but Ever After offered such a relaxed, warm and fun experience for me that I really enjoyed the shoot. The final product was wonderful and perfectly captured me, exactly how I wanted it to. Every step from beginning to end was impressive! I would absolutely recommend Ever After for anyone’s portrait needs. Class act!!! ~ Traci”
Family Photographer, Headshot 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
Traci, Headshot Portrait Session | Northern VA Photographer
Traci, Headshot Portrait Session | Northern VA Photographer
As a family photographer in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia, we’re often asked what other kinds of photography needs we can fill. We also provide branding and headshot photography to our clients.
We met Traci through our local Loudoun County business community, and she was in need of a new headshot. Traci works with N2 Publishing and wanted updated headshots that really captured who she is, warm, friendly and joyful, but always professional.
Traci’s session was so much fun for us. Her bubbly personality and beautiful smile were infectious and just us smile too! Although she doesn’t enjoy being in front of the camera, we all worked together to provide a relaxed atmosphere and put her at ease, and in the end, Traci enjoyed her session with us. As a result, she got the headshot portrait she wanted, one that showcased her warm character and attitude.
When was the last time you had a headshot taken? Is it time for a new one? Most likely it is!
For more info on why you need a NEW headshot, click through to this article:
What’s a headshot, and who really needs one?
Family Photographer, Headshot Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team, including headshot photography, 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
Why should you hire a professional makeup artist for your Portrait Session? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Why should you hire a professional makeup artist for your Portrait Session? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Although you may know many tips and tricks to apply your makeup for everyday wear, you’ll find that hiring a professional makeup artist will make for an even more beautiful you for your Portrait Session. Think of it like the difference between a DIY hair color kit and going to a professional stylist who specializes in blending shades of hair color so that the result is a more natural looking color, one especially blended for you. In the end, which looks better? The professional’s work, of course!
An Artful Eye
A professional makeup artist’s artful eye sees the beauty and potential in each face. Not only are they trained to apply flawless, enduring makeup, they are also skilled in the art of making you feel at ease in every aspect of the process, working with you to create a stunning makeup style unique to you, one that will be timeless.
Makeup for Photography
Many different factors can affect your look, and makeup for photography is decidedly different from everyday makeup. You will most commonly notice this with brides. How many times have you seen a bride that didn’t look quite right in her photos? Did her skin look uneven or shiny? Were her eyes lost in the photo? Most likely, the person who did her makeup didn’t understand how to apply makeup suitable for a camera! A pro knows how to apply makeup for the camera, uses the perfect foundation color to match your skin tone, knows how to contour to bring out the right amount of shadow or highlight, and can select the right colors to make your features pop in exactly the right way. A pro knows how to make you look your most beautiful for the photographer’s camera!
Professional Makeup Products
If you were to compare your makeup bag to a professional’s kit, you would see they are vastly different! Professional makeup artists know which products to use, where to use them and in what intensity. This ensures you will look good both face to face, as well as in your portraits. Pros have access to and use a wide range of products from vastly different lines to achieve that flawless look. The majority of their products are waterproof and even suitable for HD film/TV. That means they will last throughout your portrait session, even the entire day, while still looking and feeling incredibly natural. You’ll love how you look – and so will the camera!
Education and Experience
A professional makeup artist has been trained in the art of makeup either through a makeup artistry school and/or an internship under other pros, and will have years of experience in this field. (Keep in mind that someone being licensed as a cosmetologist doesn’t mean he/she is fully trained in makeup application or has the experience necessary to provide a perfect makeup application each time. In fact, most cosmetology schools do not offer makeup training!)
Expert Opinion
A Portrait Session with a professional photographer can be exciting! With that excitement sometimes comes nervousness, though, because you want to look great for your portraits. It’s good to have an expert opinion on how to look your best in your portraits. A professional makeup artist will take more time and be more purposeful in applying your makeup than you would be at home. They will come to your location or to the location of your Portrait Session, will be punctual and efficient, and will ensure you are ready for your session, often with time to spare.
Confidence
As mentioned at the outset, and perhaps most important, a professional makeup artist is a great investment because you will come to your session feeling amazingly confident about your look. Having professional makeup applied for you not only helps you relax and feel beautiful inside and out, but will give you amazing results. When a client feels great about herself, her confidence is caught on camera and her portraits are even more beautiful.
Behind every beautiful model, singer or movie star, there’s an experienced and talented makeup artist ensuring she looks great in every single picture that is taken. Your Portrait Session, whether it is a family portrait, a beauty portrait or even a headshot portrait, is your very own mini-celebrity moment, and you should look and feel as amazing as those stars. Hiring a professional makeup artist is one way to guarantee that!
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!
Social Media Safety Tips for Parents and Kids | Northern VA Family Photographer
Social Media Safety Tips for Parents and Kids | Northern VA Family 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
What families are saying, Amy & Jesse | Northern VA Family Photographer
What families are saying, Amy & Jesse | Northern VA Family Photographer
Amy and Jesse have two active little boys and spend a lot of time enjoying the beautiful Northern Virginia weather. Typical of a family of four, this family is very active, especially enjoying outdoor activities. However, a family portrait meant a lot to Amy, so they prioritized scheduling time for that family portrait! Amy found what she wanted when she saw our private portrait park near South Riding, VA.
Amy and Jesse wanted their family portrait to represent them as their family truly is: relaxed, natural, and casual. We do our very best to give our clients what they want!
Just like anyone else, we enjoy hearing kind words from our clients. When we make our clients happy, we’ve succeeded in our job, and we’re grateful when they let us know that!
“Working with Mindy and Joriana was such a pleasure! They made us feel completely comfortable during our family photo shoot and despite what I thought were two very rambunctious boys (our sons), they were able capture priceless expressions and moments between the two of them in photos that we will cherish forever. We had a lot of fun during our family photo shoot and it really shows in the final product, our family portrait and photo book! Thank you so much for capturing these moments that we can look back on forever!” ~Amy & Jesse
Family Photographer, Family Portrait
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
Upcoming FROZEN-Inspired Session! | Northern VA Family Photographer
Upcoming FROZEN-Inspired Session! | Northern VA Family Photographer
Every pint-sized princess deserves a portrait worthy of the highest royalty – especially if she loves the movie Frozen. We capture the magic and ethereal beauty of this beloved fairytale in a very special Limited Edition Frozen-Inspired session worthy of any princess. These portraits are treasures we offer for a limited time once a year for our clients across the South Riding, VA and Northern Virginia area. This is portrait photography at its most utterly adorable, taken in a unique themed setting!
Children love them, and parents love them even more. These portraits are an annual tradition at Ever After. Some of our regular clients with a little princess (or two) at home act very quickly to book a session because space is so limited!
Creating Lasting Memories
This year we are offering our Frozen-Inspired Limited Edition Session on Saturday, December 3, 2016. Your beautiful, pint-sized model will have as much fun being in the portrait as we have taking the picture! These sessions offer a unique opportunity to create a very unusual portrait your family will cherish for generations to come. Professional photography captures memories and stops time, as we like to say! These Limited Edition sessions do just that in a magical way.
We hope your princess is available to join us for a royal portrait on Saturday, December 3, 2016! If you live near the South Riding, VA area or the surrounding area, you and your little princess will appreciate the glamour and grace of our portrait photography!
For more information on this session, click here.
For more information of a few of our other Limited Edition Sessions, click here.
Family Photographer, Portrait 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!
Great places to visit in Maryland | Northern VA Family Photographer
Great places to visit in Maryland | Northern VA Family Photographer
At Ever After we specialize in professional family and childrens photography. But we know you all like to travel and you love to take snapshots of your travels. So grab the kids and head out to the Maryland coast! Whether you live in the South Riding, VA area or as far north as Baltimore, the smaller state of Maryland has plenty to offer when it comes to coastal scenery for pictures.
By the way, we always urge friends to grab their cameras and try their hand at taking pictures. But we wouldn’t be us if we didn’t also strongly encourage you to work with a professional photographer for fine art family portraits. The many differences between hobby and professional pictures justify the investment you make when you work with a professional.
Now, on with some travel info! Here are five places along the Maryland coast worthy of your time and attention:
Assateague Island is on the Maryland side and offers visitors more than 37-miles of a barrier island with beaches, coves, and beautiful marshes. You can’t miss with the wildlife photography here and the island’s gorgeous horses.
Annapolis and its harbor, along with its historic charm, offers some lovely scenery. You might have to battle the seagulls and tourists to snap a few great shots, but it’s at the very least worth a day trip.
At Sandy Point State Park you can enjoy 786 acres along the Northwestern shore of the gorgeous Chesapeake Bay. The park is well known for its breathtaking water views that overlook one of Maryland’s real treasures, the Chesapeake Bay.
If you’re looking for a more urban water scene, check out Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Keep in mind, though, just like Annapolis, you’ll be surrounded by people. That’s not to say you can’t take some great photos!
The Concord Point Lighthouse in Havre de Grace, Maryland was built in 1827 where the Susquehanna River meets the tidal flow of the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the oldest lighthouses in continuous operation on the East Coast. Fully restored, the Lighthouse and Keeper’s House are open to the public on weekends from April to October.
Olmsted Island is technically not on the coast but on the Potomac River near Washington, DC. You can get some great pictures of the falls at Great Falls National Park on the Virginia side and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park on the Maryland side. Both offer some great scenery and photo ops, but not your typical sandy beach landscapes.
With family and childrens photography being our specialties, we work with clients from South Riding, VA and all across Northern Virginia on a variety of photography projects and needs. With almost two decades of experience, we are always happy to discuss your photography needs. Contact us today!
Family Photographer, Childrens 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
What families are saying, Donald & Tarsha | Northern VA Family Photographer
What families are saying, Donald & Tarsha | Northern VA Family Photographer
As a photographer specializing in family portraits in Northern VA, near Round Hill, VA, we were privileged to be chosen as the photographer for Donald and Tarsha. This wonderful couple from Maryland initially chose us as the photographer for their wedding. So we’ve photographed their engagement session, wedding, and then later when their son Tre was born, we photographed him starting with newborn portraits, all through his first year. For Tre’s first year session, the whole family got in on the action for family portraits, including Tre’s grandparents and aunt!
Being able to capture three generations of this special family was a joy and a privilege for us.
We love making our clients happy, and it’s really nice to hear when they tell us how happy they are with their family portraits.
What Donald and Tarsha have to say about Ever After!
“Our experience was more than we could have ever imagined, and the Wall Art … and albums are breathtaking and ours to enjoy every day on our walls and in our home. The products speak for themselves and are always the topic of conversation when others see them. Mindy and Joriana are amazing and we are truly grateful to have found such wonderful, highly skilled artists to have captured our most precious moments.” ~Donald & Tarsha (of Maryland)
Family Photographer, Family Portraits
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Round Hill, 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
Our Core Values in Business and in Life | Northern VA Family Photographer
Our Core Values in Business and in Life | Northern VA Family Photographer
We went back to school recently by attending a fantastic seminar on the topic of core values. Have you given thought to what your core values are, personally or professionally? We thought we had, and this workshop really pulled it all together very well for us! It reaffirmed our longstanding commitment to remain true to ourselves, our clients, and to our family photography business across Northern Virginia, including Lowes Island, VA and the surrounding communities. Our blog is one way we serve and connect with our customers and community, so it makes sense that we do a blog post or two about our core values.
CORE VALUES
Trust & Respect
A business owner needs to build trust with their clients by treating them with respect. If we don’t show you respect, how can we earn your confidence in us or our work?! We are committed to working hard to earn your trust by being respectful, honest, transparent and fair with regard to our family photography and our pricing.
Relationships
To do great family photos, we need to build relationships with our clients. We want to get to connect with you, and have you connect with us! If you’re not comfortable with us during a portrait session, it could affect your pictures. This is why we do a pre-session consult with all of our clients, and we make ourselves available to answer any questions before your session. Our ultimate goal is your satisfaction and you returning to us as a client in the future.
Excellence & Quality
We believe that excellence and quality are both tangible and achievable if one works hard enough! We will always work very hard on your behalf. We take great pride in creating excellent photography and having excellent customer service. We source the highest-quality products we can for our clients. We haven’t built an excellent reputation as a top photographer in Northern Virginia by doing mediocre work, offering substandard customer service, and poor-quality products!
Artistry & Craftsmanship
We are fine art photographers, meaning that we create photographic art. That means that a point-and-shoot photo session won’t cut it for us! We put a lot of time into the artistry and craftsmanship of all the portraits we do for you, and we’re always confident in offering great quality products such as our handcrafted frames. We know that a lot of training and skill results in superior quality, great achievement, and artistry.
Crafting Emotional Artwork
We believe that great photography is the equivalent of emotional artwork, and we are committed to crafting for our clients the best possible photographic artwork. We strive to create portraits that both capture and evoke emotion. We want you to see the emotion we captured in your family portraits, and we want you to feel emotion when you see them displayed on the walls of your home.
Giving Back
Giving back to the community which has supported our small business is important to us. Honestly, we’ve been working night and day for close to two decades to build our business and brand. Now that we’re past the days of wondering if we could create and sustain a successful business, we will be giving more attention to giving back to our community in a sustained and thoughtful manner. It’s part of who we are as business owners and as women! Stay tuned!
If you would like to work with a Lowes Island, VA family photography business that believes in remaining true to its core values of excellence and integrity, you’ve come to the right place! Contact us to discuss your photography needs and how we can help you.
Family Photographer, Family Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter family photography team located 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