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Single parents should have family portraits too! | Northern VA Family Photographer
Single parents should have family portraits too! | Northern VA Family Photographer
The word “family” means different things to different people. As a studio photographer for more than a decade in Northern Virginia, including Herndon, VA (and with Mindy as a mother), we know that love defines and binds a family. We also know that capturing that special bond in portraits is important no matter your family’s composition. Unfortunately, we have noticed that single parents are sometimes reluctant to take family portraits. We think that’s a shame! Every family should have a professional family portrait!
Single parents, compelled by the fierce love they have for their children, know the importance for a family to stick together. If you are familiar with the photography project known as Humans of New York, you’ll know how often its pictures depict family bonds. A recent story featured a young woman adopted by a single mother. In the story she discussed her very close relationship with her mom. As it had always been just the two of them, they were exceptionally close. Her story was a poignant reminder that while families come in all shapes and sizes, love always resides at their center.
Single Parent Portraits
Family photography is one way to demonstrate your family’s love for each other. It’s important to remember that photography is a legacy for future generations whether you are a family of two, three, or six. Single parent portraits celebrate everything your family represents. While we realize that family life is exceptionally busy in single parent households, taking the time to take and display professional portraits of your family reflects the importance of your family’s bond.
Family Wall Art
Beyond the family portrait, we also encourage single parents to consider a portrait of themselves. While we often see parents hesitant to do portraits of themselves, single mothers seem especially reluctant. However, we remind them that a beautiful portrait is a gift they can one day leave for their children. It will reflect those deep bonds you shared – no matter what your family looks like – because family is always defined by love.
If you’d like a portrait of either your family or yourself, please contact us! As a Herndon, VA area studio photographer, we’d love to discuss your portraits and work with you to decide what works best for you and your family. Whether you want an indoor studio portrait or a portrait in our 2.5-acre outdoor portrait park, it would be our pleasure and honor to participate in this beautiful legacy for your children.
Family Photographer, Studio Photographer
Ever After Portraits is Mindy and Joriana, a mother-daughter family photography team located near Herndon, 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
“I’ll do family portraits in the Spring/Summer/Fall.” | Northern VA Family Photographer
“I’ll do family portraits in the Spring/Summer/Fall.” | Northern VA Family Photographer
We hear these seasonal reasons for not having family portraits a lot! If you wait for a season, chances are you won’t ever get around to doing any portraits. When you look at your family photos, what draws you to the picture? Is it the fall foliage in the background? Is it the flowers? As experienced family photographers in the Herndon, VA area of Northern Virginia, we’d bet that what draws you into a family portrait are your family’s faces and their expressions.
What Really Matters
So, the time of year you do your portraits or whether it is inside or outdoors doesn’t really matter. When we know someone is considering family pictures, we always tell them: NOW is the time to have a family portrait! Don’t put it off.
We offer a fully-equipped portrait studio for your indoor portraits, but we also have a scenic 2.5-acre outdoor portrait park. Your family portrait will be beautiful no matter when or where we take it!
We work hard to capture the love you feel within your family, and that’s the most important part of a portrait. It’s not the season, and it’s usually not the venue. It’s the people in the portrait and the emotions conveyed within it which matters. It’s the love captured in those images which will always and forever draw you into the picture.
So, do seasons matter?
While seasons can set the background of a portrait, in the end, no, they don’t truly matter. Many clients prefer the fall foliage, and it is usually a busy time of year for us.
However, we can tell you that summer can be just as beautiful if not more so. We find that summer with children out of school can be a great time to do family portraits. Everyone is home at least part of the summer. They’re well rested, likely tanned, and you might find that you can include visiting grandparents as well! The florals and rich, green grasses provide a lovely backdrop to any portrait particularly in the gorgeous landscape of the Northern VA area.
During winter, our fully equipped indoor studio is the perfect place for a Today’s Classic family portrait or a Fine Art Black and White family portrait.
Again, keeping in mind that regardless of the season, Ever After is an experienced photography portrait studio whose goal is to produce the best pictures possible of your beautiful family. Call us to discuss scheduling your sunny summer portraits!
Family Photographer, Portraits
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Herndon, 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
Studio Family Portraits, Michelle, Isabella & Olivia | Northern VA Family Photographer
Studio Family Portraits, Michelle, Isabella & Olivia | Northern VA Family Photographer
As a family studio photographer in the Herndon, VA area, there is no greater compliment than a returning client with whom we enjoyed working. Recently, we had the opportunity to photograph the three lovely Laino women once again! A few months ago, we profiled the trio on our blog. Well, they’re back because of a significant milestone in their family.
Michelle wanted to update her portraits, and she shared with us that one of her beloved daughters would soon head off to college. Although college is still a little ways away, Michelle recognized this as an opportunity to do another portrait with Isabella and Olivia before one of them headed off to school. This one would mark a significant event in this close-knit family’s life.
The beauty of fine art photography is the versatility of it as a medium. For their first portrait with us, we photographed these lovely ladies during the final days of fall’s diminishing colors. The portraits captured the softening tones of the once richly colored leaves. Their outfits coordinated brilliantly with the surrounding backgrounds to create an almost monochromatic look. The mood was casual and fun. The portraits turned out perfectly; they were happy, and that meant we were happy as well!
Indoor Studio Portraits
However for this next set of family portraits, the look would be different. After a discussion with Michelle, we decided to go in another direction – a dramatic studio portrait instead. The drama for this session would come from its black and white composition instead of nature’s palette.
Black and White Photography
A black and white portrait can be warm, but it can also be stark in its contrasts of black and white. Black and white portraits recall the early days of still photography when color wasn’t an option. And, perhaps, because of its inherent drama, black and whites have become quite popular in recent years. We have to say that choosing black and white for this beautiful trio of ladies worked wonderfully!
We are a versatile and skilled studio photographer in the Herndon, VA area. We specialize in beautiful portraits both in our indoor studio or outdoors in our portrait park. Please contact us to discuss your next professional pictures. We love meeting new clients and turning them into repeat clients!
Family Photographer, Studio Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Herndon, 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
Should I put family portraits in my children’s rooms? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Should I put family portraits in my children’s rooms? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Would you put a professional portrait of your family in your child’s bedroom?
We hope you answered yes. Why wouldn’t you? What better place to display your family’s love? We have met so many wonderful families over the past decade working as a studio photographer in the Herndon, VA area. When they ask us about displaying professional family pictures in their children’s rooms, we strongly encourage them!
Parents decide to invest in professional photography for any number of reasons. However, most folks do it because of love. Family portraits can capture all the love your family feels toward one another. Hanging a family photo displaying just how much your child is loved, and how much your family loves each other, is validating and comforting for them. Studies have even confirmed how photos can boost self-esteem in children.
As your family bolts out the door each morning, running in different directions throughout the day, a glimpse at their family in a photo underscores to them the value of belonging together. You can easily display both professional portraits and family snapshots in your child’s bedroom and their playroom. The advantage with professional portraits is that they are specially coated and printed on archival paper to last generations.
Connecting with your child
Family portraits in children’s rooms can send a subtle but powerful message to them of the value of their family, its love, and their own place in the family unit. The children are reminded each time they see their family’s portrait on their dresser, desk or wall that they are part of something bigger than them. They are part of a loving family.
We hope that you will consider putting at least one family portrait in each of your children’s bedrooms. Imagine them falling asleep seeing their family’s portrait each night, and imagine them waking to the same image! They will be surrounded by love and they will feel it.
As both an indoor and outdoor studio photographer, Ever After is a mother-daughter family photography team in the Herndon, VA area with more than a decade of experience working as skilled photographers who enjoy doing family portraits!
Family Photographer, Studio Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Northern Virginia, near Herndon, 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
The Proper “Care & Feeding” of Your Wall Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer
The Proper “Care & Feeding” of Your Wall Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer
Many of our clients, including those in the Herndon, VA area, ask us if they need to take special care of their wall art portraits. The answer is yes! But don’t worry; it’s not that difficult! Keeping your beautiful and precious wall art safe after you take it home will ensure they last well into the next generation.
As we always tell our clients: We offer only the best portraits printed on the highest quality materials. It’s up to you to give them the best care. It’s not that difficult, though.
According to the UK’s Icon (The Institute of Conservation), simple things you can do to protect and maintain your wall art:
• It’s important to display (or store) photographic prints, including wall portraits, in a cool environment as this will help to slow any deterioration.
• Very damp or dry conditions aren’t good for photographs, and particularly fluctuations between the two. If possible, maintain humidity within the range 30-40%. So avoid hanging your wall portraits over heat and air vents.
• It’s important to avoid exposing your portraits to bright or high light levels or for extended periods of time.
• Using the right material is cost-effective and will ensure your wall art does not deteriorate. Our products are high quality and rated to last up to 150 years with the proper care, i.e. not exposing them to direct sunlight.
• If frames become dusty, use only a dry soft cloth to remove the dust. (Many cleaning sprays leave a residue or film which can ultimately damage your frame and/or the canvas, so do not use this on or near your wall portraits.)
A photographer who takes pride in their work as a professional will make sure that all of your wall art is printed using only the best materials possible, meaning archival-quality in most cases. That’s one of the reasons we make sure to only offer the best quality materials to our clients.
Taking good care of your wall art, mainly by keeping them out of direct sunlight and away from dramatic temperature and humidity fluctuations, will allow you to enjoy them for decades!
If you live near Herndon, VA and have any questions about how to take care of your portraits (even if we didn’t take them), contact us. We’re happy to provide some tips or answer your questions!
Family Photographer, Family Portraits
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Herndon, 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 if my kids won’t sit still for our portrait session? | Northern VA Family Photographer
What if my kids won’t sit still for our portrait session? | Northern VA Family Photographer
It is perfectly fine if your children won’t sit still for photographs – if we are the ones taking their pictures! Not only do we love photographing families and children throughout Northern Virginia, including Herndon, VA, as an experienced studio photographer we can work with any child!
Photographing Children
Acting up is perfectly normal for children even if it’s during a photo session. We’re family photographers and we have been for over a decade now, so trust us, we’re good with kids! Kids act up and sometimes they’re naughty. They’re kids; that’s what they do. And you know what? Sometimes those make the BEST images, the ones that will bring a chuckle when you look at them.
When it comes to photography, we have pretty much seen it all. So there’s no need to worry! We’re comfortable around children. Some of the images parents love the most end up being the ones we’ve taken when kids are acting like kids.
The key is to be a prepared photographer. Taking pictures of kids is a tiny bit like sports photography: You must be ready to shoot at all times, and you must take lots of images!
Once you arrive for your portrait session, we want the little ones to get comfortable with us and their environment. We want to connect with them as much as with you. We will play a bit with them when they first arrive. Then, when the time is right, we begin to settle them back down again. We start to draw their attention toward the camera at the right time.
Our Outdoor Portrait Park
One of the benefits of our 2.5-acre Outdoor Portrait Park is that children love it! They get a chance to stretch their legs and it isn’t formal and stiff. Parents love it for the same reason.
Leave it to us! We don’t want you as parents stressing out over your children’s restlessness or behavior. Let us do our thing. When you see your portraits, we can promise you that you’ll love them! If for some reason, however, you don’t absolutely love them, we will re-do your photo session at no cost to you or we will refund every penny of your portrait commission fee. We are committed to our clients, their experience with us and their satisfaction with their portraits!
If you are searching for a skilled and experienced studio photographer in the Herndon, VA or other Northern VA area, we can work with your family and your children – no matter how they behave. Don’t worry! We’ve got this! Contact us today.
Family Photographer, Studio Photographer
Ever After Portraits is Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Herndon, 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
The Nostalgia and Beauty of a Barn and Log Fence in Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer
The Nostalgia and Beauty of a Barn and Log Fence in Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer
What is it about old-fashioned barnwood and a log fence that we find so charming? Something about the nostalgia they evoke draws us to these iconic features – no matter where you’re from or where you were born. Any family photographer in the picturesque Great Falls, VA, and Northern Virginia area can tell you that clients frequently request these types of features or structures in their portraits.
Family Portrait Session
Unlike other photography studios in the area, we don’t have to search for these features; we own them in our private 2.5-acre Outdoor Portrait Park! We, too, are drawn, not just to nature’s beauty, but to these symbols of the countryside. As props in a family or child’s portrait, it doesn’t get much better than these. (We also have a lovely wooden bridge, pier, two ponds, and lots of trees.)
Outdoor Portrait Park
While authentic barnwood and a log fence lend themselves toward the rustic, believe it or not, you also can compose an elegant portrait with either of these in the background. We often use our antique couches placed smack in the middle of the woods or in front of the barn or fence for a dramatic and intriguing composition.
The contrast is striking. The portrait is beautiful. The possibilities are endless.
If you are interested in a Great Falls, VA area family photographer with their own photography studio and private outdoor portrait park and for your next portrait, contact us! We can discuss your many, many options for pictures!
Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Northern Virginia, near Great Falls, 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
Can I display family portraits in a formal living room? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Can I display family portraits in a formal living room? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Decorating your formal living room with precious artwork of your family is not as complicated as you might think. It can be done! If you are like many of our clients who live in the Northern Virginia area, including Great Falls, VA, you have a single-family home. Most of these homes have a formal living room and/or dining room. As professional photographers, we use an interior design software program that has been transformative for our clients!
Using our custom software, we simplify decision-making for our clients. There is no guessing as to upon which wall you could display your finished portrait. The software program allows us to show you exactly what any of your portraits will look like in your home! It’s a simple process involving you snapping a smartphone picture of the wall and sending it to us. We can then demonstrate to you what various portraits would look like directly on that wall!
Interior Design
Interior design should reflect your personal tastes. Some designers have hard and fast rules about where to display professional pictures, or any pictures for that matter. Other designers are more casual about displaying personal pictures.
We believe that your home should reflect those who live within it. It should also reflect your personalities and relationships. That is what makes a house a home, after all!
You can display professional pictures in a formal living room. Not every picture might be appropriate to display, but most will be. We always talk with our clients about where they think they’d like to display their portraits before we even use our software. We tailor our portrait sessions toward any style of portrait you like. In other words, if your living room is very formal and elegant and that is the style you would like for your family portrait, then we would create a more formal photo session, perhaps in our studio, perhaps in black and white. It all really depends on what you like and what emotion you’re trying to convey with the portrait in the room.
Some clients prefer to add a more whimsically-styled portrait to a formal room. That’s a wonderful idea as well. The portrait becomes a statement piece or a focal point. Again, our special software will give you the chance to see exactly how the portrait will look on that wall.
We look forward to being your professional photographer and working with you on styling portraits for your formal living room. Our studios are in Sterling, VA but we draw clients from Greats Falls, VA and other Northern Virginia cities and towns.
Family Photographer, Professional Photographer
Ever After Portraits is Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Great 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
Why don’t you quote over the phone? | Northern VA Family Photographer
Why don’t you quote over the phone? | Northern VA Family Photographer
We love talking with our clients and potential clients! As a family photographer near the Great Falls, VA area, we believe in building relationships with our clients. In our years as a photographer, we’ve been asked many different things. We can usually give clients and potential clients most of what they want to know over the phone. One of the questions we often get is: How much will this cost? Although we can tell you our Experience Fee (the fee which includes your Design Session, your Portrait Session and your Ordering Session), because our photography and products are custom-designed for each client, exact pricing
can’t be given over the phone in our first conversation.
We encourage clients to schedule a consult with us so we can discuss your portrait needs. We are not trying to be rude or evasive. Photography products (the final portraits you fall in love with and purchase) are highly customized and personal to each client.
Here are three reasons why we as a family photographer, as well as other professional photographers, don’t give price quotes over the phone:
• We want to be thorough.
To quote you a price on a family portrait session which includes wall art, an album, or other products, we need to know exactly what you want: How many portraits; sizes, finishes, framing, etc. We want to make sure that we are thorough when taking into account what you’re looking for in your family portraiture. To know what you want, we need to have a consult with you and understand your needs.
• We want our cost quote to be accurate.
We can quote you the price on set things like finishes, frames, and sizes. But giving you a final price over the phone, without knowing exactly what you would like to order, would be misleading. To aid us in giving you pricing for wall art, we ask that you send us iPhone photos of the wall(s) in your home upon which you want to hang your family portraits. With those photos, we can design a wall collection or grouping in exactly the right size for the space, not too large or too small.
• Each client is unique.
The wonderful thing about fine art portraiture is that it is highly customizable. Each client looks for something different than the previous, and we are only too happy to oblige. Some clients want certain finishes, while others don’t. Some will want a certain frame, while another will only want frameless. See? It’s all custom to individual tastes.
We really do care about our clients and their vision for their portraits. We want each client to be happy with their final products. We also want full transparency with our clients and good, open communication. As the small business owner we are, we will always be fair and we always encourage dialogue with clients.
If you live in or near the Great Falls, VA area, we are always happy to discuss your vision for your portraits. We are one of the leading family photographers in Northern Virginia.
Family Photographer
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Great Falls, VA 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
“All of my pictures are on social media. Why would I need to print anything?” | Northern VA Family Photographer
“All of my pictures are on social media. Why would I need to print anything?” | Northern VA Family Photographer
“All of my pictures are on social media, so I don’t need to print anything!” Honestly, that comment makes us cringe as a professional photographer! Yes, we all have dozens if not hundreds of pictures on social media. Everyone is a photographer these days, and clients in the Great Falls, VA and Cascades, VA areas are no different. Heck, we’re no different. We aren’t past pulling out a cell phone and snapping a quick shot. However, those don’t and can’t compare to professional portraits.
Is that the photo legacy you want to leave behind?
Social media overexposure can make us forget that this could be the only legacy we leave to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren! Do you really want that to be the photo legacy you leave to grandchildren and great-grandchildren yet to be born? We know we don’t! We’d rather have beautifully composed portraits to leave our descendants. Candids are one thing, but snapshots of us in sweats aren’t legacy-worthy. Actually, the majority of us would rather very few people ever see those kind of snapshots!
Those images posted all over social media will have very little value years from now; they’re practically disposable. Do you remember what you posted last week, last month, last year? Do you look at the images you posted online even 5 years ago? You might look at them if you take the time to find that file or post online, but it’s not the same thing as professional fine art portraiture displayed in your home, artwork you can see and admire every day.
Wall art versus snapshots
A wall art family portrait that will hang on the wall of your home, one that you and your children walk by every day, will be of so much more value to you – and to them! Every single day, your children will see themselves in a family portrait and feel the love and happiness they felt when the portrait was taken. Every single day, they’ll see how very much they’re loved.
Fine art portraiture has an inherent value that simple, everyday snapshots don’t. It is a legacy you leave, a legacy embodying the love you have for your family. We hope you will take the time – at least once but preferably more – to have professional family photography taken. It’s not a decision we have ever seen anyone regret!
If you would like one of the leading professional photographers in the Great Falls, VA and Cascades, VA area to do your family portraits, please contact us. We’d love to discuss your session with you!
Family Photographer, Professional Photographer
Ever After Portraits is the mother-daughter portrait photography team of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a portrait studio located in Cascades, VA, near Great 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