Our Happiness Project | Northern VA Family Photographer

Do you know what makes you happy in your life? As a Potomac Falls, VA portrait photography studio, we might be the last people you expect to ask what makes you happy. However, it’s an important question and one that Gretchen Rubin posed in her bestselling book, The Happiness Project. After an epiphany one day, Ms. Rubin realized that life is short and she wasn’t focusing on the things that mattered to her. She dedicated the entire next year to what she called her “Happiness Project” – her exploration of different avenues to being a happier person.

Happiness comes from within ourselves

So, how about you? What makes you happy? We know what makes us happy. Besides our family, our work brings us tremendous joy and happiness. Unlike some people, we are so fortunate to be able to follow and live our passion as photographers. Do you practice what you love each day? Do you work in a job or profession you’re excited to be a part of each day? Sometimes we don’t have a choice and need to work to make ends meet. However, that’s not to say you still can’t find ways to practice happiness in your life. Jobs can be a means to an end while what we do outside of the job can bring joy and meaning to our lives.

We Love What We Do!

We have spent decades building up our clientele and establishing a highly-reputable studio working with families and individuals throughout Northern Virginia. It hasn’t always been easy, and certainly some days were far better or more interesting than others, but we feel incredibly fortunate. We spend our days pursuing an art form we respect and enjoy honing and perfecting. More than that, we enjoy connecting with people and being a part of their lives. We have the privilege of being entrusted with our clients’ important moments in life. Every time we see the happiness we bring others through our work, it’s personally satisfying to us as well!

Seek your happiness in whatever way you can! Start your own happiness project if you haven’t already. Trust us: The hard work on the path to finding happiness will be well worth it! For about 20 years now, we have built our professional lives around our Potomac Falls area portrait photography studio. We would do it all over again if we had to! It’s been OUR happiness project!

Family Photographer, Portrait Photography Studio

Ever After Portraits is a portrait photography studio in Potomac Falls, VA, in Northern VA. It’s comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter photography team. 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

Clivia, Mayra & Enriqueta, Family Portraits | Northern VA Family Photographer

Women tend to bear powerful connections to other women in their lives. When it is three generations of women, then it is all the more powerful! Our dear friend Clivia knows the role photography can play in honoring these relationships, so she contacted us at our studio not far from Lowes Island, VA.

Clivia, who lives with her husband and three older children in Sterling, VA, asked us to photograph three generations of women in her family – her daughter, her mother, and herself. We were honored and excited to work with Clivia and her family! Rather than shoot the portrait in our photography studio, we opted for our Outdoor Portrait Park.

Three Generations

As you can see, the two younger women, Clivia and Mayra, lovingly leaned in and wrapped their arms around their matriarch, Enriqueta. However, what we also see is a beautiful pillar of strength in the center bound by two legacies emulating that force. There is no better example of the power of photography.

Photography, like a painting, can capture something that isn’t possible to do every single moment of our lives. In this case, it is the love and bond between three generations of one family. Clivia’s mother lives some distance away, making it difficult for the three generations to see each other often. Clivia, who’s quite close to her daughter, wanted a personal portrait of the three, their first professional portrait together.

The portrait, depicting the love and bond between them, captures a rare moment for them. All three are together. When they are apart, their portraits serve as a potent reminder of the love that binds a family together.

Outdoor Portrait Park

As a studio, we treasure the role photography plays in the lives of our clients. Photography allows us to capture something worthy of being documented and of being honored. While we took this portrait in the Lowes Island, VA area, if you are within driving distance we would love to work with you. Together, we can document that which you treasure most – your love for your family.

Family Photographer, Family Photograpy

Ever After Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located in Sterling, VA, near Lowes Island, 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

Pass on your family legacy & bring your old photos back to life | Northern VA Family Photographer

There are many ways to tell a story. More than a decade ago, we chose photography as our form of storytelling. It’s not just our profession; it’s our passion here in the Lowes Island, VA area. Long before the invention of photography, written and oral storytelling were how families passed down generations of history. Although those forms remain invaluable today, combining the three is a powerful way to retell our stories through the generations.

Not long ago, our friend and fellow photographer was fortunate enough to experience all three forms of storytelling: oral, written, and photographic. Her story reminded us that many people have old photo albums and pictures collecting dust somewhere. It’s time to pull those out and do something with them!

Our friend, Sabina, had the opportunity to enjoy weeks of visits with a beloved grandmother before the older woman’s passing. During their visits, Sabina and her grandmother sat and looked through old family photos. The older woman recounted memories and the stories behind the pictures. As her grandmother talked, Sabina wrote down her stories. It was a rare opportunity and precious gift from one generation to another.

After her grandmother had passed away, Sabina gathered the stories from her visits, as well as the photos, and created an album for the family. Thanks to Sabina’s visits, the old photos and the stories shared by her grandmother and written down by Sabina, a precious legacy was left by Sabina’s grandmother for future generations of family.

Creating a Legacy

We all have old pictures and old albums (remember those sticky pages and plastic covers?) lying around our homes somewhere. Whether you have an older generation who can share their stories or not, you too can create a legacy by gathering old photos and restoring or scanning them. There are numerous internet companies where you can upload your old photos and create albums.

Share your Story through Pictures

It’s time to tell your family stories through pictures and, more importantly, create your legacy for the next generation in your family. We aren’t all as fortunate as Sabina to have those precious weeks worth of visits with our grandmothers. Use your family photos to document your history. Create new family portraits to tell the story of your family.

If you’d like to do family portraits with Ever After and add to a rich collection of memories through photography, contact us. We are within easy driving distance from Lowes Island, VA and many other Virginia cities and towns. It would be our honor to help you document your family’s story and help pass on your legacy.

Family Photographer, Family Photography

Ever After Portraits is the mother-daughter portrait photography team of Mindy and Joriana, with studios located near Lowes Island, 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

My portraits, will I like them? | Northern VA Family Photographer

A client might like our style and want to commission our studio for their portraits. Although they love our photography on our website, they nervously wonder if they’ll like their own family portraits. In case you are wondering it as well, we want to provide some reassurance. As a longstanding photographer in the Lowes Island, VA, and Northern Virginia areas, we want to get your portraits just right for you. As professionals, it is paramount to us that we do!

We do all we can before your session to understand your vision for your portraits. We will share our ideas with you, and together we will create a stunning portrait. We understand that your pictures are a time and financial investment for you. More importantly, we know that professional portraits are a legacy one generation gifts to the next.

A beautiful portrait’s value extends far beyond its cost. It has a priceless emotional value.

Here are a few things you should know:

• We have an initial discussion with each client to get to know you better. The more we understand you and what you’re looking for in a portrait, the better the results.
• Your session will have two photographers with two sets of cameras and equipment. This means more images, two perspectives, and a wider variety of portraits from which you can select.
• We offer our clients a private 2.5-acre Outdoor Portrait Park exclusively for our clients, as well as a fully equipped Indoor Studio, both in Sterling, Virginia.
• For those clients requesting it, we offer sessions on location within the D.C. Metro area.
• As a full-service, fine art portrait studio, we offer beautiful, high-quality wall concepts – customized and created specifically for your walls, your decor, and your home.
• We offer custom styling suggestions for clothing, tailored to your personal style.
• We offer our assistance in your image selection.
• You will be able to select from artfully designed products in a variety of styles – available only through professional photographers.
• We offer editing, retouching, and custom products.

You will have a customized experience.

As a full-service portrait studio, we customize and plan your portrait session and experience. We also can plan the session and portraits so that it complements your home’s interior. We use state-of-the-art interior design software to help us show you how your final portrait will look upon your own wall! As a full-service photographer, your portraits leave our studio already ready to display.

But, you’re still wondering if you will like your portraits! Our years of experience and extensive training aren’t all we offer you. A great photographer strives to reflect the character of their subject. That’s always our goal! Our uniquely keen eye for composition as well as a sincere interest in our clients (and who they are) are what set us apart from many photographers. It’s what has helped us build our reputation as skilled and caring professionals. It’s what helps us create photographic works of art. We are happy, when are clients are happy!

If you are searching for fine art photography with a highly-reputable photographer in the Lowes Island, VA area, please contact our studio. We would love to create beautiful portraits for you and your family.

Family Photographer, Family Photography

Ever After Portraits is Mindy and Joriana, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Lowes Island, 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 is it worth the time to do high quality professional family portraits? | Northern VA Family Photographer

The difference between professional family and childrens photography and the quick snapshots you may take of your children is – well, to state it rather bluntly, significant. We say this as a professional photographer in the Reston, VA area who loves their clients. However, we also say it to answer the question of whether it’s worth the time to do professional portraits.

As busy professional women, we realize that time is a precious commodity, a luxury, actually. You cannot take back time, and it always seems to be slipping through our fingers like water. However, it is indeed worth taking the time to do professional pictures.

So, why should you use your valuable time for professional pictures? More importantly, how do you find time to have professional pictures done? Here are some thoughts we have on these two questions – and, they are brief since most of us don’t have a lot of time!

Why should you use your valuable time for professional family pictures?

The answer is rather simple, really. You should find the time to do professional pictures because your children will only be young once in their lives living with you, and we only live once. You won’t have a never-ending opportunity to capture their childhood. If you don’t make it a priority to schedule portraits, your children will be grown and gone before you realize it. You might, though, be able to schedule professional pictures for your grandchildren then!

We don’t have re-takes in life. Make the time NOW to capture your family and, especially, your children in fine art professional photography. The portraits, printed on archival-quality materials, will last beyond a lifetime.

How do you find time to do professional pictures, family and childrens photography?

Prioritizing and planning are how you can find the time to sit for and order professional portraits. You need to prioritize portraits if you really want them to happen. Those nights where you’re laying awake thinking of all the things you need to get done, think about the value of a beautiful portrait of your entire family. Think of children’s portraits and how much you’ll enjoy them in twenty or thirty years, when the children are adults, maybe with their own kids.

In the morning, whip out that family calendar and call us. You can look for an open slot even if you have to look several weeks or months ahead, and we will coordinate with you from our end. Then block off that time slot for your family portrait session. That’s it. You’re done. It didn’t take more than perhaps 15-minutes in total – not counting your sleepless night thinking about your to-do list! Now you have one big one you can cross off your list.

If you’ve decided to prioritize your family and childrens photography here in the Northern VA, Reston, VA area, call us. We will pull out our calendar and coordinate a date and time with you! You won’t regret making the time to do these portraits. You’ll see how they are so much more than a snapshot. They’re a work of family wall art!

Family Photographer, Childrens Photography

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

Creating Treasured Art as a Legacy | Northern VA Family Photographer

There are so many gifts we make during our lifetimes to our children – some more valuable than others. Family pictures are the priceless ones, though. As a Reston, VA area family photographer, we know how much our clients, and later their adult children, cherish their family portraits. This is why you deserve beautiful family art like the ones we produce for you at Ever After to be handed down through generations.

An exquisite portrait comes through the communication and relationships we build with our clients. We don’t just take a picture and usher you on your way. We will talk with you before you ever arrive for your portrait session. We want to capture everything you are and represent, within your family or relationship that we are photographing.

It is important to us that our portraits convey your family story in some way. We want to capture the love within your family and the happiness it shares. Those are the portraits which will be handed down through generations.

When you compare our work to other photography websites, you will hopefully see that we believe in emotion, creativity, and high quality products. We believe in photography as a skilled art created by perfectionist experts.

We also believe in building relationships with you to produce the best possible representation of your beloved family and its story. The greatest compliment a photographer can claim is the client they photograph throughout the years, those who return to us to capture their lives and families as they change and grow, including their significant milestones.

Our photography also is about the exceptional client experience, and we achieve that through open communication with you at all times. We put a lot of work into planning your session and into discussing your vision for its outcome. Our portraits are works of art of your family to be displayed proudly in your home. We will discuss with you possible placement in your home, and we offer an exclusive software design program to help you decide just where your finished portrait should go in your home!

If you would like this level of photographic art in your home, please call us today to discuss your ideas. We’d love to get to know you and your family and work with you to create a beautiful portrait that celebrates your family’s story and love!

At Ever After Portraits:
• We will have a consultation with you before your session. We do this with each and every client.
• Our unique interior design software can show you exactly what your finished family portraits will look on any wall in your home.
• The day of your session you only need to arrive rested and ready to go. If there are children in the portrait, please bring clean snacks and toys. You will receive specific instructions, though, from us before your session. We make it as easy as possible for you!
• Not long after your session, you will return to preview the amazing results of your portrait session. It’s that simple!

Our fine art portraits are a legacy for the future generations of your family. Your family will have a beloved and treasured portrait by which to either remember you or “know” you through your beautiful images.

If you are in the Reston, VA area and searching for truly meaningful family pictures from a skilled and reputable professional photographer, please contact us. We know you will enjoy the experience and be thrilled with your finished portraits.

Family Photographer, Family Pictures

Ever After Portraits is Mindy and Joriana, a mother-daughter portrait photography team located near Reston, 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