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

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

Running a busy photography studio in the Dulles and Brambleton, VA areas has allowed us to build a broad client base. Most of the individuals we work with are savvy professionals who love their families and want to document their lives through family pictures. They understand the importance of portraits. However, we often hear from a new client: “I want professional portraits, but I have no idea how to display my portraits in my home!” We can help with that!

As a custom and full-service photographer, we use special design software to assist our clients with interior design and their professional portraits. In a few easy steps, you’ll be able to see what a portrait will look like on a wall without actually putting it up.

• As a client, you will receive a “Let’s Decorate” ruler from us. You will tape that on any wall you think you’d like to display your family portraits.
• Using your phone, you then snap a photo of that wall with the ruler in place.
• You’ll send/text us those pictures.
• We then upload your pictures into our design software and can create various custom wall concepts sized specifically for that wall.

The result is that you get to see EXACTLY what the finished product will look like on your wall! It makes it so much easier for you to decide which portrait or portraits you’d like to order. The design software not only simplifies the process; it takes the guessing out of the selection process. You can order your portraits and feel comfortable knowing exactly what it will look like when you hang it up in your home!

We’ve been doing this a long time, and we will work with our clients’ design tastes, styles, and preferences. As a photography studio, our clients come to us throughout the Dulles and Brambleton, VA areas, all across Northern Virginia. We believe in working closely with our clients and fostering relationships. This makes us better photographers and better business owners. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about our work.

Photography Studio, Family Photographer

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter family photography team located in Northern Virginia, in Dulles, VA. 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

Like most people, we rely on our work to pay our bills. However, we also believe that our work is so much more than just a paycheck! We are a small woman-owned photography business working with clients in and around the Broad Run, VA area, and all throughout the DMV. Our work allows us the opportunity to help clients document their loving families and relationships through fine art portraits. We also understand that not everyone can afford to just write a check and pay for custom portraiture, so we offer a plan for them.

A custom experience at Ever After means that our clients get nothing but the best from us and our portraits. As professional family photographers, we invest significant time and skills into each client – and we are happy to do it. The results are quality and highly-customized portraits. And, yes, that is more expensive than a big-box studio’s quick portrait. The quality difference between the two is significant, though.

We customize our portrait sessions and our wall art to each family, creating wall art uniquely for you. Every single product we offer is printed on archival paper with archival inks. Protective sprays are applied to our wall art products as well. These high quality products are rated to last for at least 150 years — outliving us all but becoming a legacy to future generations. Custom portraits are considered to be heirlooms and an investment.

We would love for everyone to have at least one beautiful, custom family portrait in their lifetime. They are gifts that you give to yourself, your family, and your next generation. This is why we offer an interest-free layaway plan with a 25% deposit. You will be able to make monthly payments until your order is paid in full. You will receive your portraits at that time.

We believe in the importance of our work and in the importance of professional family photography. We urge you to contact us about your portraits. We are one of the leading family photographers in the Broad Run, VA area.

Photography, Family Photographers

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

We are never surprised, but always saddened, to hear from friends and clients that, while growing up, their families rarely or never had professional family portraits taken. Sometimes, they even go on to say they’re not certain they need to do portraits of their own families today with a photography studio.

We get it. People in the Dulles, VA and Northern Virginia areas are busy, and it’s difficult to make the time for other activities. Professional family portraits are often (and sadly) not prioritized.

This often means that you have no family photographs with your parents and grandparents, not to mention your great-grandparents. This moves us on the next question, one that may sound a little morbid, but it’s just realistic: If something happens to you and you’re no longer around when your children have children, what photographs will they have to show your grandchildren who you were? And what about your great-grandchildren?

Family portraits fill a vital role in passing down a family’s heritage. A beautiful family portrait will be treasured and passed down as a family heirloom. Maybe you didn’t have family portraits growing up, but it’s time to start a new tradition, one that will continue to grow in value for your children!
 

 
Here are a few thoughts we usually share when we’re asked about professional portraits today versus when they (and we) were young:

• Scheduling with a professional family photographer in the 1960’s, 70’s, or even 80’s was an expense of time and money many of our own parents simply couldn’t afford.

• Studio photography was either inexpensive department store pictures with a generic background (usually with a quality reflective of both) or formal, pricey portraits for those who could afford such a luxury.

• Some of the family portraits or pictures remaining from our childhoods are spontaneous snapshots or Polaroids often with one or more family member not in the picture, and now yellowed and frayed in a sticky, cellophane album. (Do you remember those?!)

• More formal portrait photography was probably more sought after during our grandparents’ and great grandparents’ generation – irrespective of socio-economics.

• Those were the “war years” when people appreciated the value of portraits. Wars and the Depression often separated families and loved ones for good. Portraits became treasured family heirlooms to be carried with them as they left their loved ones behind. How many soldiers departed for war with their sweethearts’ tiny portraits in their wallets?

• American society began to change after World War II. Many families eventually became dual-income and were busy rebuilding their families and the country. Professional portraits were viewed by many as an extravagance of either time or money or both.

• Digital photography, however, has changed photography – for the better – and made all forms of photography more accessible.

• While fine art photography is not inexpensive, it’s certainly more accessible to families today.

• And as our society has continued to change with more young adults than ever before enrolling in college and moving away, Americans are more socially and geographically mobile.

• Professional portraits of loved ones have once again become valued and more desirable – as well as accessible.

• Families today understand that portraits perform a vital role in documenting our heritage. And, they understand this in great part because they have the beautiful, sepia-toned portraits left to them by their grandparents and great grandparents.
 

 
Start a new family tradition, one that includes portraits of your beloved family members.

Contact Ever After Portraits, our photography studio near Dulles, VA to discuss documenting your family’s heritage through portrait photography. You can indeed have professional portraits to enjoy today and leave for your children and grandchildren to one day enjoy and appreciate – just as you have with your grandparents’ portraits.
 

Photography Studio, Family Photographer

Ever After is comprised of Mindy Belcher and daughter Joriana Belcher Anderson, a family photography team 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

As a portrait photography studio in Dulles, VA, we specialize in capturing the perfect family portraits for our clients. This starts from the first time we speak to you all the way through to when you display your portraits on the walls of your home.

In our consult with you, we discuss your family, including ages and personalities. We want to get to know you before your session with us.

We also talk about styling your session to suit your family “vibe” (such as relaxed or formal), as well as your clothing for the session. We want every member of the family to look their best. We also discuss your home decor; this assists us in the styling, too. For example, if you plan to display your family portrait on a wall of your home which is red and that color won’t be changing any time soon, we will not recommend that you wear red clothing for your session!

Included in customizing your session to you and your family is having you take quick iPhone photos of any walls in your home upon which you want to display your portraits. After you text those photos to us, we import them into our design software. We can then design a collection for that wall, in the perfect size! After your portrait session, we can show you exactly how your portraits will look on that wall.

No matter the size of the wall, we can custom design the right collection for that wall.
 

 
You decide what you want, whether you want one large image on your wall or a collection of images. I’ll tell you that most families choose a collection because they want their walls to tell the story of their family.
 

 
Whatever your choice, we will ensure that it is the perfect one for you.

Tell your family’s story with beautiful portraits which will be treasured for generations.
 

Portrait Photography Studio, Family Photographer

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter family photography team located in Dulles, VA in Northern Virginia, and serving the Washington Metropolitan area. 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