While our clients will receive loads more information before their newborn portrait session, we thought we’d share some information to think about as you consider newborn photography. As Northern Virginia photographers doing baby and newborn photography, we work with clients throughout Virginia, but especially in the Dulles, VA and Sterling, VA areas near our studios.

We always tell our clients that it’s important to start thinking about newborn portraits way before you plan on doing them. Start thinking about them way before your due date! Once the baby arrives, it will be tough to get everything planned at the last minute. Planning ahead will help to avoid stress and ensure you get the type of portrait you want and dream of!

• Remember, your little bundle might decide to come a couple of days or weeks early! Be ready at least a month before your due date. What that means is to pick out your photographer (we do vote for us, of course) and talk to them about what you want out of a portrait session.
• Think about who you’d like in your newborn’s portrait – just the new parents? Grandparents? Godparents? Siblings? (It might be a good idea to include siblings in at least one photo.)
• Pick out several outfits for the baby even if you’d like some baby shots “au naturelle.”
• Are there any accessories you’d like in the portrait? An antique rattle which once belonged to you or a grandparent? A special blanket or toy? The birth announcement?
• If you are planning on being in the portrait, what would you like to wear? Outfit colors might differ between black and white portraits and color, so it’s important to plan on more than one outfit. Seek advice from your photographer.
• Select the outfits for others in the newborn photo and think about how you want hair and makeup to look. We can recommend a professional hair and makeup person if you’d like one.
• Bring changes of clothing for everyone in case of any baby “accidents” on someone! Babies can’t control themselves, after all, and we’re used to that.
• If you’re bringing an older sibling, think of how long they’ll have to wait around. Bring snacks, toys or books. You might want them to be picked up by a family member so they don’t have to be bored waiting around.

Those first few days after your precious child arrives are a whirlwind and exhausting. Planning ahead for your newborn’s portraits will make life so much easier. If you are pregnant and thinking of newborn photography in the Northern VA area, we are happy to speak with you, address all of your questions, provide you with a lot more details regarding our newborn and baby photography, and then await your baby to make their entrance into the world!

Newborn Photography, Baby Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is Mindy and Joriana, a mother-daughter baby and newborn photography team in Sterling, VA, in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art portraits, including newborn and baby 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 | Ever After Baby Portraits

There is an old Cuban saying that says babies arrive with a loaf of bread under their arm! It means babies bring good things with their arrival. We could not agree more, especially as mother and daughter. And, as a mother and daughter photography studio in the Sterling, VA and Dulles, VA areas, we certainly know what babies bring! This is why we include newborn photography (newborn portraits) in our portfolio of services to our clients.

To say life changes when babies arrive is clearly a great understatement. There is no love like the love you feel for your children. Your lens for how you view life is suddenly different. There is now nothing more important than your baby. Somewhere in the midst of that change, however, we encourage you to sit for newborn portraits. And when we say “newborn,” we mean within days of the baby’s birth!

Newborn photography is one of the most touching portraits we do as a photography studio. It is truly special and is one important way to show your love for your new baby! We offer our clients a newborn and baby portrait plan, our Bebe Coterie Baby Plan. It includes a portrait session within days of birth, around their 6th month when they can sit, and then when they’re standing or walking at around a year. It’s a special way to capture that whirlwind first year of milestones!

We know you will be telling your child daily how much you love them. However, a portrait of you as a couple with your new baby honors that love and will pay tremendous tribute to the baby’s arrival.

That aura of sheer joy and love for your baby is captured so beautifully, so carefully, and so aptly in an Ever After newborn portrait. Our Sterling, VA (Dulles, VA) area portrait studio would be honored to photograph your baby during its first days in your lives.

Newborn Photography, Baby Photographer

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

Our studios in Sterling, VA are centrally located in Northern Virginia so we draw many clients from across the area. As a family photographer offering newborn and baby photography, many of our clients ask us how often they should do professional portraits of their children.

That’s a great question and we love to hear it especially from our clients with newborns. We believe the earlier you start, the better! As parents and as professional photographers, we know that time is like water – try to hold it and it slips through your fingers.

Here is a rough timeline we suggest to our clients with regard to newborn and children’s portraits:

• We strongly urge our clients interested in newborn photos to contact us months in advance of their due date so we can reserve a place for you on our calendar. Once the baby has arrived, newborn photos should be taken within the first few days after the birth.

• Consider one portrait per milestone that first year. We offer a first-year portrait plan, our Bebe Coterie. It includes a Newborn Session, a 6-to-8-month session (when your baby can sit up without assistance), and a 12-month session (when your baby is standing or maybe even walking a little). However, if budget permits, portraits around the time of other milestones is the same as creating a precious visual journal of your child’s young life. Years from now you will be thankful you did.

• Once babies are able to stand erect and begin walking, their bodies change. Toddlers’ big bellies begin to change as they get closer to starting school and their weight shifts with their daily growth. These are years when changes happen quickly. Recording those changes through photography is wonderful.

• Between the ages of about 6 to 8, you’ll notice that your child’s baby face is changing just as they are losing their baby teeth. Baby’s chubby cheeks are thinning out.

• From about 9 to 12 years old, their looks are once again changing dramatically but more slowly than as toddlers. (We won’t mention their changing attitudes and eye-rolling. We’ll let you experience that for yourselves!)

• The teenage years of late middle school and early high school brings physical changes and before you know it the kindergartner walks into your kitchen one day looking like an adult. Who are they?!

• Their final milestone while living at home full-time is likely to be their high school graduation.

So, how often should you take baby and children’s portraits?

Now that we’ve completed this mini-child development lesson, we can go back to that great question of how often to take professional portraits of your children. When they are young (baby, toddler, early elementary school) is when you see the biggest changes. Photography taken more often during these periods can record your changing child.

As they arrive in middle school, changes slow down, so waiting more time between professional portraits won’t have you missing too much. We recommend several portraits between middle and high school.

Obviously, your budget will dictate how many portraits you do and/or what type of professional portrait you do. We are always happy to do a free consultation with you to create a fine art, professional photographic “journal” of your child or children. We offer many options and price points. We’re happy to discuss those.

If you live near us in the Sterling, VA or Dulles, VA area, or anywhere throughout the DMV, contact us to arrange a consultation. We value and understand the importance of documenting our children’s lives through newborn and children’s portraits. We would be honored to help you.

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located in Sterling, VA in Northern Virginia. We specialize in timeless and emotive fine art family portraits, including newborn and baby 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 | Ever After Baby Portraits

Some of the best and most poignant wall collections of portraits we have seen can be called Life Galleries. These are professional portraits taken throughout a child’s life as a timeline of their growth and life. You can see how the baby photography “grows” into middle school years and ultimately high school senior year portraits and sometimes college graduation or even a wedding portrait. As Sterling, VA area photographers, it’s not unusual for us to help a family create their child’s Life Gallery even if they’re not aware that’s what they’re doing!

The resulting effect of a Life Gallery is very poignant as it documents a life right before your eyes with portraits which are usually displayed proudly in a family room, stairwell, or hallway. It’s always fun for us to see a child’s growth from their last session with us!

Occasionally, we are asked by a new parent how often they should do professional photography of their children. There are several options to consider:
• You should consider your budget. We realize that true fine art photography isn’t inexpensive, but it’s certainly worth it! We offer new parents a first-year baby plan, our Bebe Coterie Baby Plan. We realize that many new parents want to invest in their family memories to be enjoyed for generations to come, and our Bebe Coterie plan allows them the opportunity to do that.
• We believe you should start with newborn photography no matter what your budget.

Tre’s parents joined our Bebe Coterie plan, and he was such a handsome little man in his Newborn Portrait Session!
 

 
• If you are an adoptive parent, then start with the first day or week you welcome your child!
• Babies change tremendously in those early weeks and months, so more than one professional portrait during their first year of life is recommended.
• If you’re on a stricter budget, you can spread out your portraits a bit especially as your child ages and doesn’t change as quickly.
• If you’re desirous of creating a Life Gallery, we usually recommend annual portraits after the first year of life to better reflect your child’s growth.

Here are couple of images from Tre’s 8-month and 1-year portrait sessions, followed by a Wall Collection of images from throughout his first year.
 

 
If you live anywhere in the Sterling, VA or Northern VA area and are interested in documenting your baby’s life through your own collection of portraits, call us. We’d love to talk about a vision for your child’s Life Gallery! We can begin with newborn photography, baby photography, or even child photography. The idea is to simply get started!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer

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