After more than a decade in the Cascades, VA area as a portrait photography studio, we have heard every imaginable reason for why a client has delayed or avoided professional portraits:

“I’m not photogenic. I hate how I look in photographs.”
“I need to lose weight first.”
“No one wants a photo of me and I always look tired!”

Making Lasting Memories

Sadly, we tend to hear these mostly from women. And, being women ourselves, we know we’ve all felt this way at some point in our lives! However, years from now, your children won’t be thinking any of those things about you. They will be looking at your portrait with love, emotion, and a tug at their heart. They will be so grateful to have a portrait of you – something that captures your image as they remember you. The value and importance of your portrait should outweigh any discomfort at taking a portrait.

Granted, there aren’t many of us who’d think they look beautiful in just any photograph. You aren’t the only one who feels a bit uncertain of themselves when they step in front of a camera. It’s all normal, as we’ve stated in previous posts.

As your professional photographer, and as an experienced portrait studio, we understand. However, we promise that you will look your very best in Ever After portraits! It’s not in any photographer’s best interests to poorly portray any clients. We wouldn’t have any clients left!

Schedule your portrait session today if not for yourself for your family!

We work hard to ensure your portraits become family heirlooms to be cherished for decades and well into the next generation. Consider the timelessness of a fine art portrait and its value to future generations in your family. We all feel some level of insecurity about ourselves. But waiting until you lose the extra weight or look less tired could be a mistake. You’ll look back one day and regret that you don’t have portraits from a certain period in your life. Those portraits, after all, aren’t just for you. They are also for your children and grandchildren.

If you are ready to visit your Cascades, VA portrait photography studio, please contact us! We understand your concerns because, at some point, we have had them as well. After all, a portrait is worth so much more than a little vanity.

If you’re still concerned, sign up for our newsletter to receive our free eBook “Top 5 Secrets to Look FABULOUS in Your Family Photographs!”

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

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

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

Best,

Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

Professional Photographer

Some people are naturally photogenic, and cameras love them. No matter what they do, they shine in print! The Davis Family with their identical, glorious smiles are three of those people as you can see in their portraits! The New York City transplants to the Northern VA area contacted us last year interested in taking family photos done with a portrait photography studio. As we’re located in Northern VA near Cascades, VA, it was a perfect fit!

As a hobby photographer, Detra takes many pictures of her children. However, she told us that looking back, she wishes she’d had more professional portraits taken of her children. We hear this often from our hobby photographer clients. Even great photographers find it difficult to take a picture and be in it!

Mother/Children Outdoor Portrait Session

This lovely mom with two children under the age of seven, born just a year apart, is kept very busy! After looking through other photography websites, she reached out to us. She wanted us to do outdoor portraits for them. Our outdoor portrait park was perfect for their family session!

Fun Family Portraits

During her pre-portrait session consult with us, Detra explained that what she most appreciates about portraits is the memories that they capture. She also liked the idea of using professional portraits as holiday pictures, collecting them through the years and enjoying years later. She has dotted her home with both her photos of the children and past professional portraits. She was looking forward to updating the family photos with her Ever After session. The Davises enjoy doing family activities together whether it’s indoors or outdoors. For them, it’s more about doing an activity together. That includes family portraits.

Jon and Adlyn were a joy to photograph. Their laughter made us laugh!

During our portrait consult, we always ask our clients to tell us a little about themselves and their children. The more we understand or know about a family, the better it is for composing their portrait sessions.

If you’re looking for a skilled and reputable portrait photography studio in the Cascades, VA area, contact us! We would be happy to work with your family!

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

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

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

Best,

Mindy & Joriana – Contact Us!

Professional Photographer

Ever After is a mother and daughter family photography team serving the areas in and around Broadlands, VA and Sterling, VA. We specialize in family and fine art photography and love reaching out to others about our work! We use our blog as a service to our clients. It’s a terrific way for them to get to know us, read photography advice, and learn about our special offers! We hope you’re enjoying our series. Just three more to go!

We are on Blog Tip #7: How to Understand & Work with Your Photographer: Unless they offer, don’t ask them to change their style!

Would you ask your doctor to change the way they do surgery? Probably not. It’s the same for your photographer. Please don’t ask a photographer – even your photographer friends – to change their style for you!

For example, if you are looking for fine art photography from a sports photographer, you could find yourself very unhappy with the results of their pictures! It’s not to say they can’t take fine art portraits, but that’s not really their specialty.

Photographers, like most artists, spend years honing their craft and their style. They also spend money perfecting their style through education and practice. Given how much time, money, and passion they have invested in their craft, asking them to change their style could cause offense, but more than that, you could end up very unhappy with the results.

It’s always a good idea to find a photographer whose work you admire and whose style you’d like for your own family portraits. So how should you select a professional photographer?

Start with photography websites.

• Browse their gallery of pictures. Like what you see? Be sure to read through their website and get to know them.

Call them!

• A reputable photographer should be more than happy to answer your questions, show you more samples of their work, and supply references if you’d like.

Ask around

• Ask your friends whose professional portraits you admire.

Referrals

• Find a local professional photography club or association and see if they offer a referral list. Take down names and get browsing on their websites.

Overall, however, you want the right fit for your family. Use social media to browse and gather information and recommendations. More than anything else, though, look at photographer’s websites. It all comes down to: Do you like their style of portraits? Finding what you like first will get you on your way to choosing the right photographer for your family.

If you hope your outcome to be fine art photography from a local Broadlands, VA photographer, then that’s where you should start your search!

Other tips in this series:
Tip #1, Understanding the Process
Tip #2, Don’t ask for more photos than the ones we present to you
Tip #3, Don’t Expect Free Photography
Tip #4, Don’t Crop Out the Watermark
Tip #5, Don’t Edit a Photographer’s Images
Tip #6, Think Twice When Hiring Friends!

Family Photographer, Fine Art Photography

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter photography team located n Northern Virginia, near Broadlands, 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

We’re celebrating fathers and children this week, with Images of the Week from our Daddy and Me Limited Edition Session! At our Northern Virginia studio, located near Broadlands, VA, we take true pleasure in these special father/child fine art photography sessions. Being chosen to capture this unique bond through portrait photography brings joy to our hearts.

This Limited Edition session is open to all ages.

And, Mom, this would be a wonderful gift for Dad! Not only will he spend some one-on-one time with his son or daughter, but you’ll both have gorgeous portraits to cherish forever.

Our next Daddy and Me Limited Edition Sessions will be held on May 30, 2016. We welcome all of you daddies and kids to our studio!

Family Photographer, Fine Art Photography

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

Every photographer has an ideal client. This client is the one that the photographer loves to work with and the one they know will cherish the family portraits created. So you may wonder who OUR ideal client is, and why they select us for professional photography in the Northern Virginia area, including Broad Run Farms, VA. That might also bring you to this question: Are we, Ever After Portraits, the family photographer for you?

Our ideal client, and also usually our typical client, is:

We usually hear from the mom of the household. She’s our ideal client because she loves and cherishes her family so very, very much. Realizing that time is passing by so quickly, with her children growing so fast, she wants to hold on to precious moments and beautiful memories. She does many things for her family to make their house a home and forge strong family bonds. Her children’s special drawings are joyfully scattered around their home. She holds tight to those she loves, and she’s so much more than simply the glue that holds everything together. As a family, she knows they can face anything together!

She chooses Ever After Portraits because she wants her children to have great and lasting memories of family. She knows that professional photography, especially children photography, can help illustrate her family’s precious love. She plans to adorn the walls of their loving home with her children’s professional portraits, and she has a special space picked out for the perfect family portrait, the one that showcases their personalities and lets the love they feel for each other shine through.

Family Bond

The strong sense of family and the importance of cherishing each and every moment, is usually behind every woman we hear from who is interested in an Ever After portrait! She is our ideal client!
 

 
As a mother and daughter team, we truly love seeing the strength of these family bonds. We are able to capture these bonds in our portraits. We document the essence of each family’s love and unique bonds, whether it’s with a family portrait or children’s photography.

Years from now, our ideal client will look at her family’s Ever After portraits on the walls of her home, and she’ll be thankful she has those portraits to cherish. She will be able to look at them and recall those long-gone years captured in her family’s portraits! In many ways, her memories will live through those portraits.

We love working with our ideal clients! Their love for family brings so much richness to our portrait sessions. It’s a true pleasure to capture each family’s precious moments together.

Our ideal client realizes how important it is to capture the moments today through professional photography that will last for generations. (All of our portraits are printed on museum-quality materials guaranteed to last at least up to 100 years!) If you live anywhere in the Northern Virginia and Broad Run Farms, VA area, we’d love for you to be our next ideal client!
 

Family Photographer, Professional Photography

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