Why Size Matters for Wall Art | Northern VA Family Photographer

As a professional photographer located in Northern Virginia, we specialize in family photography and creating beautiful custom portrait art which you’ll treasure for years to come. This includes ensuring that your family’s portraits look perfect on the walls of your home. But in an age of comparisons, how do we know what size is best when considering our client’s home’s walls and decor?

Don’t Hide Your Beautiful Portraits

Consider this: Why would you go to all the effort and investment of hiring a professional family photographer to capture your family’s portraits, only to hide your beautiful memories in a tiny size on your wall or in a dinky frame?! Unless you walk around your home with a magnifying glass or want to have your guests squish their noses right up against your portraits, steer away from small portrait sizes!

Now what is small, you ask? Portraits should be 60% to 70% real life size to accurately see the detail in a person’s face. With each additional person in the portrait, we need to go up a size so that each face can be appreciated. After all, emotions show on the face, and that’s what you want to see, the love, joy, pride your family has for each other.

Custom Portrait Art Print Sizes Relative to Living Space

Have a look at the to-scale guide below to see how different print sizes would look relative to your living space. There’s a huge difference, isn’t there?!

Light is Light!

Let’s do a test. First let’s assume you’ve had your family photographer capture your family in a portrait session with quality lighting where each person’s eyes are properly lit. We’ve all heard the saying “the eyes are the window to the soul,” and they should be the most important part of a portrait. Although the “in vogue” thing you’ve heard lately is “natural light,” this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better or worse than artificial or strobe lights. Whether it’s natural or man-made, light is light! The real power lies in how it’s crafted.

Now we have our well-lit portrait. A good test is to hang your custom portrait art up and then take 3 steps back. If you can’t see the color of the person’s eyes, the portrait is too small. This means that a family portrait of three family members needs to be a minimum of 20×30 inches to fully appreciate it.

Size Matters

In design terms, the wall where you hang your art creates negative space around your portrait. This negative space “swallows” the portrait and makes it appear smaller. So even though you may think an 8×10 is “big” up close, when hung on the wall it truly looks pitiful. See how small that 8×10 is on the wall below?!

Your Custom Portrait Art Shown on Your Very Own Walls

A wonderful way of deciding on the most ideal size for your portraits is for you to see them displayed large during your Ordering Session. Not only that, but at our studio, each client provides iPhone (or other smartphone) snapshots of their walls. With those iPhone pics, we use our specialized design software and your wall snapshots to create wall concepts and show them to the client directly on their very own walls! In this way, we are able to guide our clients through the process of selecting the perfect custom portrait art for their walls.

For many of us, imagining what a portrait will look like in a room is very hard. The human brain needs something to compare it to. (This is why we love flipping through those fashion or home catalogs; we can see how the clothes fit on the model, and see exactly how big the furniture looks in a room.) It’s much easier to see something you like and say “I want that!” It’s the same when you see an appropriately sized portrait on your wall. See how much more stunning the portrait below is when it’s properly sized for the wall?!

Much better, right? Now here it is with the family portrait zoomed in a bit and then framed.

The Ideal Size for YOUR Custom Portrait Art

The piece de resistance at our studio is this room view feature. We’re tickled pink for you to see how easy it is to show you your portraits appropriately sized in an image of your actual room, a room you provide to us in iPhone pics. With this design software, your portraits will always be perfectly sized for your home!

Better still is the wall grouping feature where we can put together a display of complementary sizes to create a WOW showcase. A group of portraits hung together have even more impact and design style than a single portrait, thereby occupying more positive wall space. Besides, so many homes today have gigantic walls just begging for beautiful artwork!

It would be our pleasure to create beautiful custom heirloom artwork for you, artwork of those you cherish.

Northern Virginia Family Photographer, Professional Photographer, Custom Portrait Art

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy and Joriana Belcher, a mother-daughter photography team located in Northern Virginia, near Lansdowne, VA. They specialize in timeless and emotive custom portrait art for families throughout the area.

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

Why Should I Hire a Fine Art Photographer instead of a Shoot and Burner? | Northern VA Family Photographer

At our Northern Virginia studio not far from Oakton, VA, we create fine art portraiture. Occasionally, a current or potential client will ask us if there is a difference between fine art portrait photography and that of a big box photographer. That’s a great question, so let’s talk about those differences.

Fine art photography is an artistic and powerful form of portrait photography. It is not ordinary, and not an everyday form of photography. It is the result of years of training, and a carefully cultivated skill.

If you want a “shoot and burn to a DVD” photographer who ushers you into your session as quickly as they usher you out, you might not want to schedule with our studio. That’s not what we do.

Creating Excellence:

We create art for those who believe in the power of photography to tell their story in a beautiful, elegant, and authentic manner. Our portraits are an investment of time and treasure on our part as well as yours. We prepare meticulously for each portrait session, and no two are alike — just as no two clients are alike. Our fine art portraits are for the discerning clients interested in a tangible memory through fine art portraiture.

Commissioning Art:

There are so many ways to demonstrate your love for your family, but commissioning a fine art portrait with a skilled family photographer is one way. It shows your family how much you love and value them because fine art is more than a photograph. It is an elevated art form of photography.

We don’t give you a DVD and send you on your way to figure out what to do with those files. Your portraits are made into art for your walls, moments you can proudly display and which your children will see every day.

Our Clients:

Our clients come to us because they don’t want a big box photographer. They want a fine art photographer who will take their time before, during, and after a client’s session. Our clients don’t want an ordinary experience or ordinary portraits. They don’t want a cookie-cutter studio or an inexperienced photographer. They want a reputable portrait studio and a highly skilled family photographer who goes the extra mile for their clients.

If you would like to commission fine art portrait photography from an Oakton, VA area studio, please contact us. We would be happy to discuss our work with you!

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Oakton, 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 is Fine Art Photography and Why is Your Family Worth It? | Northern VA Family Photographer

Your family is priceless to you. It’s that love of family that drives so many of our clients to come to us for their fine art photography. But, why “fine art” instead of “retail” photography like you might find anywhere in Northern Virginia, including Oakton, VA? The answer is simple: Your family is worth the beauty and excellence of a fine art portrait. And, unlike snapshots or retail images, fine art photography will last for generations to come, carrying on your family’s story.

Defining Fine Art Photography

If you looked up the definition of “fine art,” it would say: A fine art portrait is a cut above and begins with artistic vision as expressed in the creative choice of the portrait artist; it is technically excellent and provides the viewer with the enjoyment of the artwork that expresses emotion.

The process of taking pictures has become extremely easy. We think you understand that few pictures today are considered fine art. Fewer are worthy of prominent display in your home.

To be regarded as fine art photography, an image has to transcend ordinary photography, rising well above a snapshot. It needs to be something that stops the passerby and draws them in as viewers.

What Fine Art Photography Means to Us

We create portraits of the highest caliber for our clients and those they love. We don’t believe in creating portraits that are just technically proficient in how they are printed and then displayed in your home. We believe in creating portraiture that captures emotion and is compelling. We have dedicated our career to fine art photography because we genuinely think it is an important medium for the families we serve.

Fine Art Photography vs. Retail Photography

There are significant differences between what is known as retail or big-box photography and fine art photography. As we have said, fine art is an elevated and artistic photography genre. Typically, it is poignant and subject-authentic and subject-centric, meaning it is an accurate reflection of its subject.

Fine art portraits don’t have to be stiff and formal. They can be informal, indoors or outdoors. It should evoke emotion and offer insight into the subject, even to a stranger, but certainly to those with a personal connection to the subject.

With a big-box retail photo session, you make an appointment, and you show up to have your pictures taken. It tends to be more of a professional snapshot. That’s typically all there is to it. It might sound easier and quicker, but it’s not going to give you the same depth and reflection you receive from fine art portraits.

While big-box retail photography can be good pictures, they’re not at a level of poignancy, emotion, and reflection that they could be. The conditions in which they’re shot make them something entirely different than fine art photography. As an example, we would cite annual school pictures taken on a school day versus fine art senior photography. The quality and difference is immediately apparent!

Ever After as a Fine Art Photographer

As a fine art studio photographer, we invest a great deal of time into every portrait session, even before the client arrives. It is vital to our process and to the portraits that we know something about each client before they come. For example, we want to know their vision for their portraits – if they have one. At the very least, we like to know what styles they like (candid or formal) and what ideas they might have for their portraits.

We also like to know where they hope to display their portraits because that provides insight and guidance for us as their photographers. We ask them about their family and/or those who will be in the portrait. With all this information in hand, we can carefully plan for each session before it takes place.

We aren’t just a point-and-shoot photographer. We are highly-trained and experienced photographers who understand the value of getting to know our clients. We don’t just invest time to plan a session; we take our time during each session to engage with the client or clients. Our attention is focused entirely on that family because that level of personal engagement goes a long way toward creating excellent portraiture. It is what allows us to honestly reflect their personalities in their portraits.

Is Fine Art Photography Ordinary or Extraordinary?

We like to say that fine art photography is not ordinary photography or portraiture. It is extraordinary, something that exceeds everyday photography and imagery. It’s something so very worthy of your family’s time and money because family is worth the quality and memories created by fine art photography.

The emotions you feel when you look at a fine art portrait is what truly makes it “fine art.” It is what makes it worthy of being displayed prominently in your home or office.

Fine art photography is something clients take the time to do because they love their families and they treasure the opportunity to capture that moment of their lives in print. They understand that what they are capturing isn’t just for today, but for tomorrow’s generations as well.

With almost two decades of creating fine art photography at our studios (both indoor and outdoor) near Oakton, VA, our work remains completely client-centered. Without that focus, our work would be anything but fine art. We hope you will take the time to browse and enjoy our Gallery of work!

Family Photographer, Fine Art Photography

A Session with the Grandparents! | Northern VA Family Photographer

On a cold day, we had this wonderful portrait session inside our portrait photography studio. Tucked warmly indoors, not far from the Oakton, VA area, this loving, multi-generational session touched our hearts. We centered the portraits around the love and bond between grandparents and their grandchildren.

Liz and Travis wanted to have fine art portraits of their children with their maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather. They knew that the day would come for the children when these portraits would serve as a poignant legacy. Kathleen, Liz’s mother, and Floyd, Travis’ father, valued the opportunity to do this session with their beloved grandchildren. It didn’t take much to capture their joy in these portraits!

Multi-generational Photographs:

As a studio photographer, we urge you to consider multi-generational portraits. Not all grandchildren will remember their grandparents. Even when they do, not many will have beautiful, professional portraits to treasure for a lifetime.

Inevitably, the day will come when portraits will fill in the gaps of our fading memories. While the emotions of feeling loved by, and loving, someone will remain tucked deep within us, our mental portraits of them will begin to blur. Were it not for photographs, and painted portraits before photography, we’d struggle with our memories.

Multi-generational portraits are an extraordinary legacy you create for your children, and a gift you offer the older generation. Liz and Travis understood this which explains their investment in fine art portraiture of the oldest and youngest in their family. One day, Gabby and Christopher will be so grateful their parents ordered these portraits! We urge you to do the same for your parents and children.

Please contact our portrait photography studio near Oakton, VA to schedule your multi-generational portraits. Your family will cherish their grandparent and grandchildren portraits.

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

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

One Family’s Wall Art Collection and Album | Northern VA Family Photographer

Our professional fine art photography creates remarkable portraits and amazing wall art. However, we’ll warn you that it can be challenging to select only one portrait during your ordering session at our Sterling, VA area studio. You will fall in love with so many of them! When this happened to Liz and Travis, they knew just what to do.

Curating a Portrait Collection:

As an experienced and reputable fine art portrait studio, we offer our clients various product options for their fine art portraits. You won’t have to limit yourself. Liz and Travis decided that one portrait wasn’t enough for them. So, they ordered multiple portraits and we created a beautiful portrait collection for their home. For the finish option, they went with the Frameless Gallery Wrap Finish because it blends seamlessly with their home’s style.

But they didn’t stop there! Liz and Travis also ordered an exquisite archival-quality portrait album for additional favorites. Their impressive collection of professional family portraits will live on as a legacy for their children. It’s a wonderful gift to give them when they are adults one day!

Preview of How Portraits Will Look in Your Home

We are happy to work closely with you on your selection process. As part of the service we offer all of our clients, you can see exactly how your portraits will look in your home. It’s simple! You snap a picture of the wall in your home where you’d like to display your art and send it to us using your smartphone. Using our interior design photography software, we can show you how your portraits will look on your wall. It’s a simple process with significant benefits. There’s no need to guess how your portraits might look in your home or even if they will fit on a given wall. We eliminate the guessing!

As a fine art photography studio in Sterling, VA, the customer experience is an important part of our business focus. You will have various options and our expertise to guide you every step of the process.

Family Photographer, Fine Art Photography

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.

Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,

Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

Professional Photographer

Create a Portrait Legacy of Parents and Grandparents | Northern VA Family Photographer

As family fine art photographers in the Northern Virginia area, it is not often that we are asked to do professional photography sessions for older individuals or couples. For whatever the reason, it seems that as people age, there are fewer professional family portraits of them to treasure when they are gone. We wonder if it’s that as a society, we somehow lose confidence in our aging selves? Or, is it that we get busier and don’t prioritize family fine art?

We often write about the importance of family and children’s professional photography. However, we haven’t written much about fine art portraits of our aging parents and grandparents, the older generation. We thought we would discuss the importance of doing fine portraits of the older generations in our families. After all, they are loved and valued as much as other generations.

With almost two decades as family fine art photographers, we have learned so much about life, family, and portrait photography. We have also learned much about the family dynamics of family life and how to portray them through our craft. We have learned much about what to treasure, and we have learned about what to let go of in life.

We are sure you would agree that those we love are what we cherish most and rightly so. Nothing else matters quite as much. Family fine art photography is a beautiful way to capture what we will one day lose.

The Greatest Generation in Family Fine Art Portraits

Think about the family pictures you have of your grandparents. If you have any at all, we bet you have far more professional portraits from them as younger adults than as older adults! Not many people have professional fine art portraits of their grandparents as older adults, even if it’s important to document the lives of those we love while we still have them with us. We say this not out of self-interest for our studio or to be morose in any way. We say this because we know it from experience. We’ve all lost loved ones, and often memories are all we have left of them.

We know how much our memories fade as times goes by – no matter how beloved someone is in our life. So, if there is one thing we’ve learned through our work, it’s to prioritize family fine art portraits. We’ve learned not to wait to do portraits of the Greatest Generation in our lives.

A Legacy of Love through Family Fine Art

When a client asks us for multi-generational portraits, we look forward to taking them. They are among the most poignant and bittersweet pictures we take of clients because they highlight the love from one generation to the next.

We know that most professional family fine art portraits of elderly parents or grandparents are not from their final years with our clients or us. Those sepia-toned or beautiful black and white photographs are often (and sadly) a legacy of their youth. Rare is the portrait we see of an elderly grandparent in their final decades.

This is why we often urge clients to new legacies – ones that represent a life well lived by their parent or grandparents. If you are thinking of doing a family fine art portrait, please consider including your parents or grandparents. In fact, you can even include other older relatives with whom you are close. We promise that you won’t regret including them in your portraits, and they will be happy to have been asked.

Family Fine Art Portraits Create a Legacy of Love for Future Generations

While the memories of our parents’ and grandparents’ lives exist within us, memories also reside in their portraits. Therein lies the value of family portrait photography. Each time in the days and years to come, when you see their portraits, you will remember them. Their images will trigger a memory long buried deep in your mind until you glanced at their portrait. Suddenly, you’ll remember something about them. And, you will be glad to have had that picture of them.

Indoor Studio

We have both an indoor studio and an outdoor portrait park. Both are perfect for multi-generational family fine art portrait sessions.

We will be happy to discuss your vision for your pictures as well as what might be most comfortable for the older generation in the portraits. We are glad to work around them and what best suits them. We will try and accommodate their needs as best as possible. What matters most is that we find a way to shoot your family fine art portraits so that you and your parents can treasure these portraits for the heirlooms they will be in your family!

Below are portraits from a family session in our indoor studio of grandparents and grandkids together!

Outdoor Portrait Park

The family below preferred a portrait session in our outdoor portrait park. For this family, we had grandparents, parents and granddaughters, three generations of this lovely family together! It was such a pleasure to do their portraits, and they truly enjoyed themselves.

Not only did the background of our Outdoor Portrait Park work out ideally for this family’s portraits, but the portrait session itself created more memories for this family. Years from now when those granddaughters look at these portraits, they will remember their loving grandparents as well as the session itself. The portraits will serve as a symbol of this family’s intergenerational bonds.

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If you would like to schedule a professional photography session with your parents or grandparents, or even with great-grandparents, to create some beautiful family fine art at our studios or elsewhere in the Northern Virginia area, please contact us right away. We would be happy to discuss how we can create their portraits in the way that will be most authentic to who they are!

Family Fine Art Photographer, Professional Photography

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA, in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits.

Family means everything and capturing those precious moments to preserve forever will mean family heirlooms for you to share for years to come.

Best,

Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

Professional Photographer

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