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The Gorgeous Bennett Family of Three | Northern VA Family Photographer
The Gorgeous Bennett Family of Three | Northern VA Family Photographer
The Bennett Family, a family of three, is outdoorsy and loves farms and nature. Mom Jessica grew up on her family’s farm in Missouri and now her daughter, Emma Claire, loves farms as well – although we think it might be all of those animals she loves the most! The Bennetts had only ever taken professional pictures in a big-box studio. Jessica contacted us for special family portraits in a more custom setting. A bonus was our portrait photography studio and outdoor portrait park’s central location in the Northern VA area, near Cascades, VA and Dulles, VA.
Outdoor Portrait Park Session
The Bennetts wanted outdoor, casual portraits just as Emma Claire gets ready to head off to kindergarten!
Dad Rod and the vivacious and beautiful Emma Claire arrived in almost-matching cowboy boots ready for their family photo session! Jessica’s warm smile and nature was always front and center. It was a hoot and so wonderful to photograph them and their obviously close relationship! The little girl with the big round eyes wore a dress with a giant heart in front which struck us as so reflective of this family’s bond.
Their previous family photos of the three had been taken mostly on the family farm in Missouri, so this was definitely a departure from that, and the big-box studios. With a natural and easy-going way about them, the Bennetts were so fun to photograph. No one was particularly camera shy. We tried various settings throughout our scenic outdoor portrait park. It wasn’t difficult to find a spot because this family is so naturally photogenic and pleasant.
Special clothing can add meaning to portraits!
One of our favorite picks, seen above in this post, is the loving parents on either side of their precious daughter – with that giant heart on the dress acting almost as an “equal sign” between the parents and child in the photo’s center! Sometimes patterned clothing in family photos can be distracting or clash with surroundings. In this case, we thought it was so reflective of the family and actually enhanced the portrait’s meaning and symbolism.
If you’d like to step outside of a traditional, big-box portrait photography studio and into our idyllic and scenic outdoor portrait park in the Cascades, VA and Dulles, VA area, contact us today! We will both have a lot of fun doing your portraits.
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography studio located in Dulles, VA, Cascades, 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!
Upcoming Limited Edition Session, Bubblegum Princess! July 22, 2016 | Northern VA Family Photographer
Upcoming Limited Edition Session, Bubblegum Princess! July 22, 2016 | Northern VA Family Photographer
Your wannabe princess and royal follower will transform herself into the Bubblegum Princess during this very special, Limited Edition Bubblegum Princess portrait photography session! This Limited Edition Session is based on the book: “Bubblegum Princess” book written by Julie Gribble. The story was inspired by Lady Kate Middleton’s very own princess story.
Your little darling will transform right before your eyes into a Bubblegum Princess in our outdoor portrait park near Cascades, VA. And, we will be there to photograph her!
You can see the portraits here from previous Bubblegum Princesses now ready to pass the crown down to the next princess – 12 of them to be exact as that’s how many session slots we have for this Limited Edition portrait!
A glorious tub of colorful gumballs await the next line of royals while their parents watch (parents aren’t royal, after all!) The opportunity to become a Bubblegum Princess will thrill the most pink of the pinkest princesses! And, the finished portraits will certainly please you as parents.
Although we are known for our candid family photography in the Cascades, VA area, we also enjoy offering these kinds of special sessions for children. It’s all about capturing your child in a fun and relaxed atmosphere while allowing the portrait to reflect their personality. It’s productive fun. It’s also a royal time for your little girl! The Bubblegum Princess Limited Edition sessions are perfect for the little princess who enjoys dressing up. You can see our Limited Edition calendar for more info on this session, as well as other Limited Edition themed sessions. But, hurry! These session sell out quickly!
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography
Ever After Portraits is the portrait photography team of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, located near Cascades, 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!
“I’m not photogenic. I hate how I look in photographs.” | Northern VA Family Photographer
“I’m not photogenic. I hate how I look in photographs.” | Northern VA Family Photographer
After more than a decade in the Cascades, VA area as a portrait photography studio, we have heard every imaginable reason for why a client has delayed or avoided professional portraits:
“I’m not photogenic. I hate how I look in photographs.”
“I need to lose weight first.”
“No one wants a photo of me and I always look tired!”
Making Lasting Memories
Sadly, we tend to hear these mostly from women. And, being women ourselves, we know we’ve all felt this way at some point in our lives! However, years from now, your children won’t be thinking any of those things about you. They will be looking at your portrait with love, emotion, and a tug at their heart. They will be so grateful to have a portrait of you – something that captures your image as they remember you. The value and importance of your portrait should outweigh any discomfort at taking a portrait.
Granted, there aren’t many of us who’d think they look beautiful in just any photograph. You aren’t the only one who feels a bit uncertain of themselves when they step in front of a camera. It’s all normal, as we’ve stated in previous posts.
As your professional photographer, and as an experienced portrait studio, we understand. However, we promise that you will look your very best in Ever After portraits! It’s not in any photographer’s best interests to poorly portray any clients. We wouldn’t have any clients left!
Schedule your portrait session today if not for yourself for your family!
We work hard to ensure your portraits become family heirlooms to be cherished for decades and well into the next generation. Consider the timelessness of a fine art portrait and its value to future generations in your family. We all feel some level of insecurity about ourselves. But waiting until you lose the extra weight or look less tired could be a mistake. You’ll look back one day and regret that you don’t have portraits from a certain period in your life. Those portraits, after all, aren’t just for you. They are also for your children and grandchildren.
If you are ready to visit your Cascades, VA portrait photography studio, please contact us! We understand your concerns because, at some point, we have had them as well. After all, a portrait is worth so much more than a little vanity.
If you’re still concerned, sign up for our newsletter to receive our free eBook “Top 5 Secrets to Look FABULOUS in Your Family Photographs!”
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio
Ever After Portraits is a portrait photography studio comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter team located near Cascades, 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!
Wall Collections or Groupings | Northern VA Family Photographer
Wall Collections or Groupings | Northern VA Family Photographer
Some would say that portrait photography is all about faces. We agree, but we believe it’s more than that. It’s about the emotions and love a family feels. As a family photographer in Northern VA, near Cascades, VA, finding a unique way to capture and also display the love within a family is our specialty.
Wall Art Collections
A wall art collection is the perfect way to gather a grouping of family portraits and show through photographs the dynamics within a family. Through fine art photography, we collect special moments which show off the family bonds you share with each other. That collection of moments is then turned into a beautiful wall art collection or grouping for the walls of your home. Each day you walk by that collection, you’ll feel those emotions well up in you, the happiness you felt on the day of your portrait session, and the fun you had with just being with your family that day.
With our design software, we size your collection to your walls, so it’s never too small or too large, but the perfect fit for the area. Whether your wall space is large or small, we can custom design a collection for you.
For more on why size matters when choosing wall art, please have a look at this post: Why Size Matters for Wall Art
In it, you’ll find size comparisons of different sizes on the walls and get a true look at the difference between an 8×10 and a larger size. You won’t believe your eyes!
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography
Ever After Portraits is the mother-daughter portrait photography team or Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson. We are located near Cascades, VA in Northern Virginia, and 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!
Portraits, Davis Family | Northern VA Family Photographer
Portraits, Davis Family | Northern VA Family Photographer
Some people are naturally photogenic, and cameras love them. No matter what they do, they shine in print! The Davis Family with their identical, glorious smiles are three of those people as you can see in their portraits! The New York City transplants to the Northern VA area contacted us last year interested in taking family photos done with a portrait photography studio. As we’re located in Northern VA near Cascades, VA, it was a perfect fit!
As a hobby photographer, Detra takes many pictures of her children. However, she told us that looking back, she wishes she’d had more professional portraits taken of her children. We hear this often from our hobby photographer clients. Even great photographers find it difficult to take a picture and be in it!
Mother/Children Outdoor Portrait Session
This lovely mom with two children under the age of seven, born just a year apart, is kept very busy! After looking through other photography websites, she reached out to us. She wanted us to do outdoor portraits for them. Our outdoor portrait park was perfect for their family session!
Fun Family Portraits
During her pre-portrait session consult with us, Detra explained that what she most appreciates about portraits is the memories that they capture. She also liked the idea of using professional portraits as holiday pictures, collecting them through the years and enjoying years later. She has dotted her home with both her photos of the children and past professional portraits. She was looking forward to updating the family photos with her Ever After session. The Davises enjoy doing family activities together whether it’s indoors or outdoors. For them, it’s more about doing an activity together. That includes family portraits.
Jon and Adlyn were a joy to photograph. Their laughter made us laugh!
During our portrait consult, we always ask our clients to tell us a little about themselves and their children. The more we understand or know about a family, the better it is for composing their portrait sessions.
If you’re looking for a skilled and reputable portrait photography studio in the Cascades, VA area, contact us! We would be happy to work with your family!
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 Cascades, 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!
Image of the Week, Motherly Love | Northern VA Family Photographer
Image of the Week, Motherly Love | Northern VA Family Photographer
Portrait photography is our business, but it is so much more than that. Seeing the love that a family shares and capturing that through professional photography is a privilege for us. As family photographers in the Dulles, VA/Cascades, VA area, we specialize in showing those loving bonds in portraits you will treasure.
Mother and Daughter Time
This week’s Image of the Week is a series of three photographs. Virginia and her daughter Isabella, were so wonderful to photograph! The love they shared was simply a pleasure to capture. This amazing feeling of motherly love shines through in this series of three portraits, and so does the return of that love.
The bonds we all share with our families are often beyond words. With portrait photography, you don’t need words. You can see and feel those emotions just from what you see portrayed in a beautiful portrait.
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography
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!
“We’re a busy family! We don’t have time for family portraits.” | Northern VA Family Photographer
“We’re a busy family! We don’t have time for family portraits.” | Northern VA Family Photographer
“We are a very busy family always running in different directions! I don’t think we have time to do family portraits!” As a Cascades, VA area portrait photography studio, this is something we hear so often. Time. It’s hard to make time for things outside the everyday schedule of work, school, play or sports. As family photographers, we have heard it all!
To tell you the truth, however, we can say that if something is important enough to you, you’ll make the time for it. Think of other things you make time for: A movie, a theater production, a concert, a professional sports event.
In our experience, what we find is that some people will put off scheduling photos of their cherished family until “some day,” usually when they realize they’re running out of time with their children or there’s a milestone such as a graduation. Now they find a way to make time!
Our lives are made of up hundreds, if not thousands, of precious moments. Those moments fill our lives to create memories we look back on – as long as we can remember them in the future! Portrait photography, however, records some of those moments for you. As humans, it’s impossible to recall every precious thing about our lives. As humans, we have become dependent on, first, oral history and now visual documenting to pass on our stories, traditions, and memories.
Family Portraits
A family portrait is valuable to you because, for the most part, your children will likely live with you as a family for 18 to 22 years. After that, they may move away, complicating the opportunity to schedule portraits together.
Your parents, their grandparents, will hopefully live long lives. A family portrait gathers all those loved ones precious to you, different generations, and captures them in a portrait. We know from our experience how coveted those portraits become later in our lives. No one lives forever, including us.
The photographer in the family is usually the one least captured in photos. Professional family portraits brings the family photographer out from behind the camera and into the photo with their beloved family. Professional portraits are a great opportunity to capture your entire family in a portrait.
It’s important to find the time to do a professional family portrait. Whether your children are still young or teenagers, prioritizing time to do that family portrait of all of you together will be time and money well spent!
If you live in the area of Cascades, VA or anywhere throughout the DMV and are searching for an experienced and talented portrait photography studio, Ever After can work with you to get that family portrait done and finished to perfection. We can discuss scheduling something that works for your family!
Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, mother-daughter family photographers located in Cascades, VA/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
5 Reasons You Should Have Wall Art of Your Family | Northern VA Family Photographer
5 Reasons You Should Have Wall Art of Your Family | Northern VA Family Photographer
We could easily give you at least a dozen reasons why you should have wall art of your family, but we’ll stick to only five in this post! We didn’t need to become photographers working with clients in Cascades, VA, or any Virginia town for that matter, to know that love is at the root of why people order portrait photography of their families! I think most people get that. But not everyone thinks of their portraits as wall art. And, they should! So, we want to talk about why your portrait photography should also be your wall art.
• Ordering fine art portrait photography is not like ordering on Amazon Prime!
It does involve a few (very worthy) steps. You will take the time to find a reputable portrait photographer whose style you admire (that would be us, of course). You will then schedule an appointment with the photographer and then attend your photo session. Each step is easy enough, but you will need to do each one. What does this say about you and your family? It shows your family that you love them enough to take the time to invest in portraits of them! It’s important to you. They are important to you!
Your portraits will become a legacy to pass on to your children and their children!
While there are other things you do to show your love for your family, professional portraits are a special legacy you leave to future generations.
• Quality wall art such as professional portraits will stand the test of time better than a snapshot or box store print.
Quality portraits come printed on museum-quality, archival materials rated for 100+ years.
• There are studies showing that displaying family photos including your children boosts their self-esteems.
Boost Your Child’s Self Esteem With Family Portraits
Decorating your home with art that will always be treasured truly makes it the most valuable art you could hang on your walls!
If you invest in beautiful portraits, why wouldn’t you display them in your home to admire and enjoy every day? What other piece of art could possibly bring so much pleasure and joy on a personal level?
If you’d like to honor and show your love for your family through portrait photography, we are your photographers in the Cascades, VA area!
Portrait Photography, Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Cascades, VA/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
Family Portraits, The Luft Family | Northern VA Family Photographer | Ever After Portraits
Family Portraits, The Luft Family | Northern VA Family Photographer | Ever After Portraits
Over the last three years, life has changed tremendously for the Lufts. First, there was a wedding. Then it was time to prepare their lives and home for an even bigger change: The arrival of a baby! Sweet, little Aubree arrived a few months ago. So the Lufts decided that it was time to find a photography studio in the Dulles, VA area for some updated professional portraits including all three family members. We were thrilled to be chosen by them!
It wasn’t that long ago that Natalie and Deniz found themselves preparing a pink polka dot nursery in their home for the highly anticipated arrival of a certain baby. Now they were getting ready for portraits in our delightful outdoor portrait park! That’s what love does for you!
“I want the picture to reflect us enjoying our baby and to show the joy she has brought us,” Natalie told us, adding that she wanted our photography to reflect how happy they are.
Well, they made it easy for us as photographers to capture the love and bond Natalie and Deniz have with this cute little baby! They truly adore and enjoy their baby and it shows. Natalie added that she realized that one day they’d be able to look back on their portraits and see how much the baby had grown.
She’s absolutely right. That’s one of the pleasures of doing portraits while your children are so young. The day will inevitably come when you look at the portraits and can’t believe your child was ever that young — or that small! We always suggest to clients who ask that they do portraits regularly throughout their children’s lives. It’s a brilliant and long-lasting way to document their lives through imagery.
Our portraits are all printed out on the best possible museum-quality materials with special finishes. We offer several framing types as well as additional products such as albums.
If you’d like to capture through fine art photography your special relationship with your partner and children, please contact us. We’d love to work with you. Our studios are in Dulles, VA (also known as Sterling, VA); however, our clients hail from all across the Northern Virginia area.
Photography Studio, Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is a family portrait photography studio, and is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter 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
A Sofa in the Woods of Virginia | Northern VA Family Photographer, Ever After Portraits
A Sofa in the Woods of Virginia | Northern VA Family Photographer, Ever After Portraits
Who in the world would set a beautiful, antique sofa in the woods for professional pictures?! We would! We plan each portrait session meticulously. But with almost two decades as a Dulles, VA area portrait photographer, we know that sometimes you need something unexpected in a portrait, something to catch the attention of the viewer.
We love to take advantage of the beautiful and seasonally lush Virginia foliage – whether in our private portrait park or elsewhere. The juxtaposition of a sofa placed strategically in the woods among the magnificence of nature has a tinge of the unexpected, feels a bit exotic, and is undoubtedly compelling.
Why A Sofa for Professional Pictures?
Did you know that the sofa was the first upholstered and padded piece of furniture ever created? Before that, people sat on straight-back chairs to visit or gather together – and likely to keep them awake from the uncomfortable seating! The sofa launched a movement toward more convenient and comfortable pieces inside the home, including an indoor toilet. Thank goodness for that!
What does all that have to do with our sofas and professional pictures? Well, maybe not much, but it was a fascinating tidbit of history regarding one of the most common pieces of furniture in homes around the world today. Aside from the kitchen table, the sofa is probably the most “social” piece of furniture in your home. We gather on or around our couches to spend time with friends and family.
Antique Sofa in a Rustic Setting
Whimsy meets the woods! The curves and elegant lines of an antique sofa in the midst of the rustic, raw woods create a vibrant contrast and a little bit of mystery. Now place someone (it could be you) into the middle of that composition, and the resulting portrait is striking. It’s unusual and draws the viewer straight into the scene.
Placing a social piece of furniture like a sofa in the midst of nature’s background, the contrast can be intriguing. Indoors meets the outdoors, so to speak. It is an interesting and mysterious juxtaposition.
Lastly, the sofa as a prop is also an ideal way to gather a family together for professional pictures, which is anything but boring. It visually grounds the image.
The candid, not so candid, professional pictures
Most of our clients now request candid and spontaneous family portraits which are very popular in family photography these days. To give them that type of picture, however, we still need to put a lot of time into designing and planning their portrait session. This isn’t sports photography where you shoot hundreds of action shots hoping for a great one.
Given the caliber of the professional pictures we create, we give a lot of thought to your portraits before you even arrive. We will discuss our ideas with you and ask you what you might like as a prop in your portraits. We’ll chat and ask you a series of questions to get to know your family a bit better before your session. We will even ask if you know where you plan on displaying your portraits! That can influence how we set up your photographs or which background we’d want.
So when a client asks for candids, we love it! We make sure that we set up a great background (more on this below) with visual interest to beautifully compose the shot. The key to successful professional pictures is a lot of pre-planning to create the perfect environment for capturing candid moments during a session. This is why we like to think of this style of portraits as the candid, not so candid portraits!
Backgrounds or Props in Your Professional Pictures
Clients familiar with our work sometimes request one of our sofas in the woods. If they don’t ask, we mention the idea as one possibility and then describe the various couches we have as props. (We also have other props we can use which we will discuss with you.)
At Ever After, we work with our clients to create the best possible professional pictures of their families. Often that means interesting backgrounds or props to enhance their positions in the portrait. The “star” of a portrait is always the subject – you and your family. The human eye is drawn to other humans, particularly in a portrait. Place a person or group of people in a beautiful, natural landscape, and the eye goes immediately to the people. It’s almost instinctive. But, that’s not to say we shouldn’t add props! Props can help enhance an image and even better direct the viewer’s eye.
We have several sofas we use with our clients: crimson (deep red), blue, gold, white, and black. When we take a sofa out and place it in the woods of our private Portrait Park, it looks beautiful framed by either the lush greens or winter browns of the woods surrounding it. Add a person or family, and it’s exponentially more striking, more interesting, more vibrant.
If you’d like to discuss your professional pictures, our props, or our private and serene Portrait Park, we’d love to talk with you. Contact us today! We work with clients across Virginia including Dulles, VA.
Family Photographer, Professional Pictures
Ever After is Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter family 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