Blog
blog/bläɡ/noun – a regularly updated web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
Why should I decorate my home with Family Portraits? | Northern VA Family Photographer
The choices we make in life usually reflect how we live, think, and even behave. How we decorate our homes is no different. Our choices of furniture, wall colors, and accessories all speak to who we are. So when our clients from around the Ashburn Village, VA area ask us if they can (or should) use their portraits to decorate their homes, our answer is always a resounding YES! We say that because our choices also reflect the love we experience in our lives. Family photography is particularly important; not just taking pictures of your family, but doing professional portraits and then displaying them in your home for all visitors to see. When you hang family portraits in your home for everyone to see it is a direct reflection of what you value and prioritize in your life: your family.
Importance of Family Photography for Your Children
Most psychologists agree that photography, especially family photography, can play a significant positive role in the dynamics of a family. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun newspaper some years ago, psychologist David Krauss said he believed that family photography was critical. He was referring to both taking and displaying your children’s portraits, and he found the idea of a family portrait gallery very appealing. “What it says to a child is, ‘I’m important in this family.’”
Kraus went on to say that family portraits can show a child that they are a meaningful part of their family and, equally important, that he or she is meaningfully connected to others. It is a profound message to offer children about their role and connection within their family unit. It is a way to further demonstrate to them how deeply they are loved.
The Reasons for Family Photography
Since its invention in 1839, photography has always been a powerful medium. It is a visual storyteller that lives beyond our lifespan to our stories beyond us.
The reasons behind why you choose to have professional pictures taken are the very same reasons why you should decorate your home with those same portraits. Does this sound familiar? It should because we often repeat it!
If you are savvy enough to leverage the power of family photography, then there is no possible reason not to display those portraits. You chose family photography by a professional because you love your family and you want to capture them in print to enjoy in the years to come. Those are the very same reasons for decorating your home with your beautiful and precious portraits!
Family Photography Evokes Emotions
If you reflect on the last time you visited someone’s home, what caught your eye? Did you see any family portraits and did you feel drawn to them, moving in closer to better look at the images? Those baby pictures of a youngster now in college or with a family of their own, a beautifully-captured family portrait, or a lovely sepia portrait taken long ago of grandparents now gone, all evoke emotions that no other material item ever could.
Those portraits connect you to past, present, and the future in ways not many objects ever could.
We have a friend who told us once of visiting the very stunning (and very large) vacation home of some acquaintances. What she remembers most from the house, though, was the powder room! The homeowner had grouped family photos from throughout the years – all in black and white – and displayed them in a line circling around the room just above the wainscoting. Although an unusual place to hang family photos, it worked perfectly. It was like a timeline of the family’s life as the children grew up, and it demonstrated their family bonds throughout the years. Even though there were some stunning design features in the powder room, the photos were what stood out and what our friend remembered most.
Decorate with Family Portraits
When you think about decorating your home or even your office, you should always make it a point to decorate it with your family portraits. As professional pictures, they are high-quality, high-impact images which will last for decades, even generations. (All our portraits are printed on archival-quality paper rated to last more than 100 years.)
Fine art family photography is not ordinary photography, and it sure doesn’t look like most snapshots people do today with digital cameras or smartphones! Fine art family photography, taken by a reputable and experienced professional, can take the place of pride in your home or office, gracing your walls just as art would. It can be as visually stunning and aesthetically beautiful as any piece of art. It can be more sentimentally valuable, eventually becoming a family heirloom to be handed down to the next generation.
Keep in mind that snapshots are interchangeable and considered temporary. Without proper archival framing and materials, printed pictures won’t last for generations like professional portraits will. It likely won’t be possible to enlarge and display in your home in the same way you would professionally shot family portraits.
To ensure you will have portraits that will be around for future generations, be certain to choose a family photographer who offers high quality printed products! Years from now, your family will be grateful to have beautiful family photography to treasure!
If you live near us in the Ashburn Village, VA area — or anywhere in the Northern Virginia area — we would be happy to talk to you about how to decorate your home using family photography. We have special design software we use to show you exactly how your portraits will look on the walls of your home!
How Family Portraits Make Your Family Feel Cherished!
Family Photographer, Family Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy and Joriana Belcher, a mother-daughter family photography team located in Northern Virginia, including the Ashburn Village, VA 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!
View Our Portfolio | professional photographer
Should I want archival material for my family pictures? | Northern VA Family Photographer
We have been professional photographers in the Ashburn Village, VA area for years. And if there’s one thing we learned years ago, it’s the importance of archival materials. Family pictures are likely the most precious things you own. Properly storing and displaying them using archival materials can ensure you’ll have them to enjoy for years to come and be able to hand them down to the next generation.
Framing and Materials
If you are taking the time, and investing the money, in photography studio portraits, you should protect your pictures. This is why we urge our clients to professionally frame their pictures. It’s not just investing in wall art; it’s investing in memories.
Proper museum-quality framing will use acid-free or pH neutral mats, if mats are used. Any frame, and any of its materials, you order from our photography studio will be archival.
The American Museum of Photography offers some guidelines on protecting your photographs. Keep your photographs from:
• Direct sunlight, insects or rodents, adhesives, sulfur compounds (given off by wood or rubber), and high humidity.
• The museum also warns against improper framing which could allow for deterioration.
The museum recommends the use of archival materials. read more…
Why is Customer Service Important? | Northern VA Family Photographer
As a small business owner, we give constant thought to customer service – what it is and why it’s important to us. We know that if folks across the Northern Virginia area (including Ashburn Village, VA and Sterling, VA) only wanted family pictures, they could do that practically anywhere. What brings you to us, and has you returning, is the quality and personalized experience we offer you. Simply stated, a happy client is a return client. We strive to make all our clients happy, and excellent customer services plays a large part in that.
So why is customer service important to us?
read more…
Family Portraits, The Petersons | Northern VA Family Photographer
The sweet Peterson Family of three reached out to us for professional family photography. This lovely family lives just minutes from our Sterling, VA studio, and we were so pleased they chose us as their family photographer. As the parents of a precious 18-month-old, they were interested in updating their family portraits. As we specialize in family and children photography, we were more than happy to work with them!
Having done newborn photos as a last-minute idea, Lori and Rob were ready to capture their little doll in new photos. Their earlier portraits had been taken at a local mall, and the results weren’t quite what they were hoping for. Now with a walking toddler, it was time to update their family pictures. They sought us out and liked the idea that we specialize in family photography.
read more…
Image of the Week | Fairytale | Northern VA Family Photographer
Limited Edition Fairytale Session
This week we celebrate children photography with Images of the Week from our Limited Edition Fairytale Children’s Session! At our Northern Virginia studio, located near Ashburn Village, VA, we fulfill the fairytale dreams of your precious little girl with this special session.
She’ll don wings like Tinkerbell, or a poufy princess dress. Maybe she’ll wear Riding Hood’s red cape. She’ll become a part of her favorite storybook fairytale! This portrait session is just for little girls and their vivid imaginations.
Little Girl’s Dream Come True
Preserving Your Story with a Gold Fine Art Album | Northern VA Family Photographer
The Native Americans believe that “storytelling is writing the past, living the present and preserving the future.” How true – and how wise! How do you preserve your family story? How do you share it? As portrait photographers, our clients depend on us to help tell and preserve their stories through a series of family pictures. Many of our clients find that ordering one of our Fine Art Albums allows them to better capture and share their story through additional pictures displayed in a beautifully-bound album.
Fine Art Album – Gold
Your Ever After portrait studio session will result in dozens or hundreds of pictures. Whether individually or collectively, each one could help tell your family’s love story. After your very favorites are chosen for the walls of your home, our Fine Art Albums tell the rest of your story.
Our Gold Fine Art Albums are beautifully-illustrated museum-style picture books, except the works of art inside the book are your portraits, your family. They are exceptional quality and guaranteed for more than a hundred years. Your grandchildren and great grandchildren will one day be able to look through your Gold Fine Art Album!
Each album is custom designed to illustrate your story. We spend time getting to know each client prior to their portrait studio session. This allows us to better help them tell their story through our photography. It’s a more symbiotic relationship which means a better photographic depiction. read more…
Why Family Portraits Should Be Taken NOW! | Northern VA Family Photographer
We are an experienced mother and daughter photography team in the Ashburn Village, VA area of Northern Virginia. We have long valued the importance of family and children photography. We know that there are many reasons to get family portraits done now and not wait to do them. We even wrote about this very same topic last year. In case you missed that post, we wanted to discuss it again but with some added thoughts.
“I’ll Schedule A Portrait Session When…”
When To Update Your Family Portraits
We’d like to offer you several reasons (of many!) on why you should have family portraits taken now. These reasons are based on our years of experience with fine art family and children photography.
Because of Time!
We know how busy your family is, how you’re being pulled in a million different directions, but we know that you CAN find a way to make the time, that you SHOULD somehow find a way to make time.
Just think: The reason it’s so important to have your family photographed NOW is for the same reason you’re not scheduling them: Because of time. Children don’t stay young for very long. Mindy knows that because she’s Joriana’s mother and saw how in what felt like the blink of an eye, she had turned into an adult woman.
So, even though you’re busy raising your family and you don’t have a lot of time on your hands, you should find a few hours every year (or at least every other year) to sit for professional family portraits. We promise that you won’t regret investing that time. No one ever does regret it!
Remember that children’s photography plays such a valuable role in family’s lives – not just for today, but for tomorrow when you will truly appreciate that you have those portraits!
Because You Love Your Family!
You love your family, and you want to capture memories of them together. There is no better reason to remember that photographs aren’t just for you as parents! They’re for future generations of your family, starting with your children.
Sitting for portraits today allows you to chronicle your kids as they are now, so you’ll have those portraits in the future – for yourself, for your kids, and for your grandkids. It will show them just how much you loved your family, that you were willing to prioritize having their portraits taken.
One day, your kids will be so very, very grateful that they have those precious family portraits to cherish! That’s not something we just say; it’s something we know from our clients.
Because Someone is Missing!
You have just realized it’s been a very, very long time since you had a family portrait. You might have hundreds, if not thousands, of family snapshots, but where’s the photographer in those pictures? There’s always someone missing out of the family photos! Usually that’s Mom!
Meanwhile, your children are growing up and changing so much along the way. You’ll never be able to recapture this time with them or the opportunity to do pictures with them. Professional family and children photography helps keep the memories of those special years with your kids fresh in your mind AND ensures that the missing photographer of the family is included in your portraits!
Because You’re Missing Children Photography!
You are looking through photo albums with your kids, and your 7-year-old asks why you have a bunch of albums with you and your dogs and cats (or even with the older siblings), but not with this particular child. Mmm…there are only a handful of pages with the kids at all, or maybe just of your youngest! Whoops! It’s time to call us as the professionals to even things out picture-wise!
While we can’t go back in time (wouldn’t that be neat?) to take pictures, we can help you move forward. We love doing family and children photography, and we’ll capture that extraordinary portrait that shows your family as they are, personalities and all.
So Make Time for Family and Children Photography…
A recent study in England conducted by a large photography corporation focused on the importance of making time for family portraits. “Our research shows how important it is to find the time to capture the real essence of a family. In today’s time-pressured world it is becoming increasingly difficult to spend good quality family time. However, when we look at photographs, we remember how we felt when that picture was taken,” according to Richard Mayfield, Director of Photography of Venture New Generation Portraits.
Need we say more than that? We don’t just speak as professional photographers when we stress the need for portraits. We also speak as a family, as a mother and daughter who understand the value of capturing memories. We, like most people, have lost those we love, but thanks in great part to their portraits, we keep them close in our hearts and thoughts.
As experienced and reputable family photographers located near Ashburn Village, VA, we’d love to make your portraits happen sooner rather than later – at least before your 7-year-old starts reminding you! We can help you to document your family and child’s life in ways that will be authentic and memorable.
Our family and children photography is the cornerstone of our work. Contact our studios to schedule your portrait session or to ask about our work. We love hearing from clients and potential clients alike!
[show_if not_one=’Free Resource Member’]
[/show_if]
Family Photographer, Children Photography, Fine Art Photography
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy and Joriana Belcher, a mother-daughter family and children photography team located in Northern Virginia, near Ashburn Village, 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!
View Our Portfolio | professional photographer
Fine Art Gallery Wraps | Beautifully Created for Your Home | Northern VA Family Photographer
Capturing your family in a memorable family picture can mean the world to you – today and years from now! Whether you live nearby in Ashburn Village, VA or anywhere in the Northern VA area, you can take your precious family pictures home on a Fine Art Gallery Wrap canvas. It’s one of the many options you have for your family portraits from Ever After. The museum-quality finish of the Gallery Wrap ensures that you will have your family portraits to enjoy for many years. These aren’t snapshots. They’re your family captured in art.
A Fine Art Gallery Wrap is equally impressive displayed in a modern home or in a traditional or transitional space. Its look is clean-lined with the focus entirely on the portrait.
Other photography websites might offer gallery wrap, but the Ever After Gallery Wrap portraits are of the highest quality. They are precision-folded around a sturdy and solid wood frame to ensure its stability over time. All our portraits are professionally stretched around the frame onto the back side, not just the frame’s sides. We want your canvas to last for generations which is why we offer the highest-quality products in the industry.
At Ever After you have three great options for Gallery Wrap finishes: high-gloss, semi-gloss, or matte finish. Each one will be laminated to protect from minor scratches, scuffs or cracking with time. The laminate will also protect it from UV light damage. (We usually recommend you try and keep it from receiving direct sunlight anyway).
Don’t worry! If you would like some guidance or advice on your framing options or on the Gallery Wrap, we’re here to help.
If you’d like to talk to us about a family portrait session, contact us! We are located in Sterling, VA but serve Ashburn, VA and the surrounding communities. We know how important your beautiful family pictures are to you. You’ll display them for years in your home and smile each time you look at them and remember that moment in your family’s lives.
To learn about our other Wall Art products, follow this link.
Family Photographer, Family Pictures
Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy and Joriana Belcher, a mother-daughter photography team located in Northern Virginia, near Ashburn Village, 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!
View Our Portfolio | professional photographer
Limited Edition Mother-Daughter Session | Divas and Darlins, 04.08.2016 | Northern VA Family Photographer
Divas and Darlins Limited Edition Portrait Session
There’s nothing more poignant and emotional than your relationship with your little Diva or Darlin. No one knows this better than us – a mother and daughter specializing in family pictures across the Northern VA area, including Ashburn, VA and Sterling, VA! This is why we offer the Diva and Darlins Limited Edition Portrait Sessions. This will be a fun girls-only session!
Mothers and daughters share a very special relationship. The Divas and Darlins Mother/Daughter Limited Edition Session is the perfect chance for the two of you to dress up, spend some time together and have wonderful images to show for it! As photographers, this is one of our favorite sessions!
It doesn’t matter if your daughter is a toddler, a teenager, or if they have long flown the nest and you have other family pictures! This is a lovely gift for the two of you to share. As experienced photographers, we can tell you that the result will be images you will cherish forever.
WHO
Mothers who cherish their daughters, and daughters who know how very special their mothers are!
WHEN
Friday, April 8th, 2016
read more…
Remember Your Family and Childhood | Northern VA Family Photographer
Family and Children Photography Creates and Captures Memories Today
Do you remember your childhood? How will your family remember theirs, or how will they remember you? Many of the clients we meet are asking themselves these very same questions and searching for a photographer sensitive enough to do poignant family and children photography. As a Northern Virginia area photographer, located near Ashburn Village, VA, we specialize in family photography.
Some of our most precious possessions are photo albums, family portraits, and family pictures. Those lovely, sepia-toned portraits of your grandparents, so gracefully captured by a long-ago photographer, still hang in your childhood home today. One day, those portraits will also grace your walls because they are your connection to your roots, and, of course, one of your parents. Today, portraits so often serve as our connection to our history. As a photographer, we understand this.
In fact, these are my grandparents, Joriana’s great-grandparents, Thomas and Belle Langford, and I am so grateful to have this portrait of them taken on their wedding day.
Family photographer
It’s not unusual for families – even those who aren’t wealthy – to have a long-lasting relationship with a photographer. An experienced photographer can and should put you at ease to capture the best shots, and the better they know you, the better the results. So, once you find a photographer with whom you feel relaxed, and whose work you love, it’s a great idea to continue using them. They can be like a family physician: They get to know you as your family grows and changes. They know you and know what to look for in the shot they frame of you. They know how to use photography to best capture who you are and preserve it in a portrait for years to come. This is one reason many famous models will only work with the same handful of photographers through the years. They know them and trust them. It’s no different with a family photographer.
read more…