Documenting Your Baby’s Life Through Photography | Northern VA Baby Photographer

by Mindy Belcher | Dec 7, 2017 | Sterling VA Newborn photography

Documenting Your Baby’s Life Through Photography | Northern VA Baby Photographer

How do you capture your child’s life using photography? As an experienced family and children’s photographer, we recommend you set aside time for baby pictures and professional portraits to create a comprehensive visual record of your child. We suggest starting with professional newborn portraits such as the ones we offer through our Bebe Coterie Plan, portraits taken at our Tysons Corner, VA area studios.

Here are some ideas for documenting your child’s life in between professional fine art photography:

Milestones:
Document those important milestones in your child’s life with baby pictures you shoot, as well and professional archival-quality portraits. Ever After’s Bebe Coterie Plan offers a comprehensive package comprised of those significant first-year milestones: newborn portraits, sitting up, and walking. These lovely portraits can be displayed in your home for decades to come either in a grouping (creating a lovely timeline of that first year) or individually. We offer several archival-quality wall art products, as well as albums and a unique portrait box. We also recommend annual professional portraits of your child. You’ll also want to supplement those with your own amateur baby photography showing baby’s growth. Those spontaneous moments you capture at home combined with our professional portraits will form a treasured record of your child’s life.

Month:
For those who value the role of photography in their lives, monthly snapshots, especially that first year, are a must-have. Monthly pictures taken throughout 18-years of a child’s life might sound like a lot to tackle, but you’ll never regret having too many pictures of your child!

Numbers:
Find interesting ways to represent the number of months or years they are at the time the picture is taken. Signs are a favorite and easy enough idea. You can buy an inexpensive small chalkboard and change the number each month. You can order a professional sign where you can just change the numbers out accordingly. Use toys or other items and add one for each month as they grow. Regularly taken photographs to mark a child’s growth display particularly well as a gallery. We recommend using the same background, if at all possible, for visual continuity.

Days:
How often have we seen that first day of pre-school and school pictures?! They provide a well-documented and contextual record of a particular day. Rather than shooting them at your front door, try in front of the school’s sign; this way you document each school and phase of life. You could also try at your car door or at the school bus each year. The trick is to pick a symbolic day and stick to it. We shoot home-for-the-holiday portraits each year for families, so why not take a picture of your child each December?

Toys:
You could include your child’s favorite toy through the various phases of their development. We usually suggest to parents that they bring a beloved toy to their child’s portrait sessions with us. Imagine shooting a portrait every year using the same beloved bear. You’ll easily be able to see the child’s growth relative to the size of the bear.

Venue:
One clever idea is to re-create pictures taken many years earlier when the now-adults were children. In anticipation, why not pick a spot and begin shooting your child’s picture there each year? We saw one news story of a man who took pictures of his children at the same highway sign once a year as they traveled past it. The sign had some special meaning for their family and looking back through almost 20 years of photos in the same spot was particularly poignant for them.

We’d love to help you document your children’s lives through our fine art photography including our Bebe Coterie Plan. We do many of our baby pictures at our studios not far from Tysons Corner, VA, but we also shoot at our private outdoor portrait park or a venue of your choice. Please contact our office if you’d like to discuss your child’s portraits.

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Baby Pictures

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located near Tysons Corner, 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

Tips for Capturing Your Own Hospital and Labor Baby Pictures | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

by Mindy Belcher | Nov 23, 2017 | Sterling VA Newborn photography

Tips for Capturing Your Own Hospital and Labor Baby Pictures | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

Although some new parents choose to have a hospital photographer present for labor and delivery, many don’t because it feels intrusive and – let’s face it – you’re not at your best at that time. So you don’t need to hire a hospital photographer to take beautiful photos right there in the hospital. Why not shoot your own mother and baby pictures in the hours before and after you give birth? As baby photography experts in the McLean, VA area, we can offer you some ideas for taking some memorable baby pictures.

While you can take some of the snapshots yourself, we suggest having someone designated to take over as you get closer to the delivery.

Why Not Hire a Professional Hospital Photographer?
Because during some of the most important hours of your lives, doing these intimate pictures yourself offers an emotional component and personal perspective. The pictures might not turn out technically perfect compared to a professional, but they will be so much more reflective of your experience.

There’s always time in the days following the birth for our studio to do professional, fine art newborn portraits for you! In fact, we encourage that to get poignant and special portraits of this wonderful new addition to your family, portraits which will become cherished family heirlooms.

But those hours in the hospital during labor and delivery are your special hours. All you need is a good smartphone or small camera to take a few baby pictures.

Here are some things you might consider shooting for the day:

Details of the Day:
The best baby photography begins before the baby is born! You can start shooting pictures before you leave for the hospital. Capturing the last day or hours of your pregnancy is a bittersweet and exciting time. The details of any important personal event are what add meaning.

To portray those final moments of your nine-month journey, we suggest photographing some key details in the hospital. When you later view them together, you will delight in the story they tell.

Consider capturing these details:
• mom and baby hospital I.D. bracelets
• baby’s hospital crib including the baby’s I.D. card on the crib
• baby’s weight noted somewhere
• baby’s first outfit before they put it on and once they’re wearing it
• your partner and you holding the baby
• your baby’s tiny hands and feet

But you don’t need to stop there. Here are a few more ideas:

Baby Bump:
Don’t forget to get one final picture of that baby bump before you give birth! If you’ve been doing themed-pictures as your belly grew throughout your pregnancy, you can continue. You can do it at home before you leave for the hospital or once you arrive. Either way, have fun with it! It’s your last baby bump picture before your sweet child arrives!

Labor & Delivery Room:
You should take a picture of your hospital room, the labor and delivery room or hospital’s sign. It documents the final stage of your pregnancy while offering visual context to the start of your labor and delivery.

Visitors:
Don’t forget to capture candids with special family and friends when they first meet your child at the hospital! And, yes, selfies can be cute, but do take some individual pictures of first-meetings and focus on their expressions! Don’t forget to have the visitors take snapshots of you and your partner with the baby! It’s the perfect opportunity to hand over the camera or smartphone and let someone besides your or your partner be the photographer.

Leaving the Hospital:
You don’t need to be a celebrity leaving the hospital to be photographed. Ask a nurse or aide to shoot some pictures as you wheel your way toward a new life together as a family. Take candid snapshots of the baby in his/her new carrier and car seat.

Your snapshots will help create a visual story of the final chapter in your pregnancy. You will look at them one day with deep fondness and gratitude for the gift of having those baby pictures.

If you’d like post-hospital, newborn baby pictures with a professional photographer in the McLean, VA area, please contact our studios. We would be happy to do your newborn’s fine art portraits!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Baby Pictures

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

Why Hire a Professional Newborn Photographer? | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

by Mindy Belcher | Nov 22, 2017 | Sterling VA Newborn photography

Why Hire a Professional Newborn Photographer? | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

As experienced professionals in family and newborn photography in the McLean, VA area, we’d like to make a case for why you should hire an experienced newborn photographer.

We hope you would select us as we’d love to work with you and your baby! However, if you don’t choose us, please be sure to select another reputable and experienced professional with reliable references.

Fine art baby photography is far more than a financial investment. It is an opportunity to masterfully and beautifully capture your baby’s portrait to cherish for generations to come.

Safety:
When you have newborn or baby portraits done, you are entrusting your child into the hands of, let’s face it, someone who’s likely a stranger unless you’ve worked with them in the past. A photographer will pose and handle your baby and use heavy equipment around them. It’s critical that they know what they are doing and how to do it safely and correctly. They should know how to handle newborns and how to ensure that any equipment in their vicinity is well secured. We realize that everyone needs to start somewhere (we certainly did) but the ideal newborn photographer is well trained and you’re not their first newborn portrait session!

Experience:
Experience matters when it comes to infant and newborn photography, as we’ve said. The more experienced a photographer is with photography and babies, the better the outcomes. Working with big and little humans is a dynamic process, and the technology around photography is always evolving. So, unless you know the photographer very well and have full confidence in their ability to handle your baby, you don’t want to be their first newborn portrait session.

Investment:
Fine art photography is an investment, both financially and emotionally. This means that you usually get what you pay for. When you are taking the time to invest in fine art baby photography, pay for the best you can afford. Do not select a photographer without first doing some research into their background, their style, and their reputation as a newborn or baby photographer. You shouldn’t hesitate to ask for references.

Pricing:
Most photographers set their prices based on several factors including their education, level of skill, equipment, insurance, business overhead costs including license, taxes, post-production editing including hardware and software, and services offered. When you select a newborn photographer, you are picking someone who’s likely factored all of this into their pricing. They will also need to factor in their profit margins to make a living. Please note that pricing doesn’t always equal quality. It’s not unheard of to have a mediocre photographer overcharging and a fabulous one undercharging. One thing you do want to see, however, is full transparency when it comes to their rates. There shouldn’t be any hidden fees and they, like us, should be willing to answer all of your questions before you hire them.

We hope you will call on us for your baby or newborn photography needs in the McLean, VA area! Our specialty is capturing today’s moments to create tomorrow’s memories.

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer, Newborn Photography

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

Max, Newborn Portrait Session | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

by Mindy Belcher | Nov 2, 2017 | Sterling VA Newborn photography

Max, Newborn Portrait Session | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

The heartwarming aspect of baby photography never grows old for us. But, shooting newborn portraits following previous multiple sessions with the child’s parents is especially poignant for us here in our studio near McLean, VA.

Knowledge is Power:
You might be surprised to know that the adage “knowledge is power” applies quite aptly to family photography. Doing multiple sessions with a client is a unique opportunity for family photographers and documentarians. It means we get to know the clients – which is what happened with Amy and Scott. We had already photographer their engagement session, wedding, and maternity portraits by the time Baby Max arrived in the world!

Now acting as their newborn photographer, we were able to use our longstanding relationship with Amy and Scott to plan for our session with Baby Max. Knowing his parents and their personalities, allowed us to have some insight and to anticipate some of what they might want. Even so, we spoke to them about their vision for Max’s portraits. We were more than ready by the day of their session, and we were excited to meet Max!

New Clients:
If you haven’t worked with us before, that doesn’t mean your portraits won’t be poignant or personally reflective of you. When you schedule your session with us, we will get to know you through conversation, and an in-person consult if you prefer. This helps us to understand you and your vision for your portraits. The more you share with us, the better we are for your session before you arrive!

Here are some of the typical questions we will ask you:

• Do you know where you’d like to display your portraits?
• Do you prefer color or black and white?
• Would you rather do indoor or outdoor portraits? (For newborns, we prefer our indoor studio so temperature is carefully controlled!)
• Do you have a particular outdoor site in mind or would you like to use our private, outdoor portrait park?
• Are you considering individual portraits of each family member?

Doing baby photography in the McLean, VA area gives us the opportunity to welcome new life through our fine art portrait work. It’s an enjoyable and rewarding aspect of our family photography. And, as we’ve said, it never gets dull!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team near the McLean, VA area 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

Interesting Facts About Newborns | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

by Mindy Belcher | Oct 30, 2017 | Sterling VA Newborn photography

Interesting Facts About Newborns | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

Newborns are delightful for us as photographers – even if they can be somewhat exhausting for the new parents! As Joriana’s mom, Mindy already knew quite a bit about newborns before she ever picked a camera professionally. Even so, our baby photography work in the Waterford, VA area has taught us quite a bit about newborns.

Working with infants and children is never dull for us. It means we have to do careful preparation for their session and keeps us nimble during the session. Children and baby photography are one of the most enjoyable aspects of our family photography practice!

Here are a few interesting things you might not know about newborn babies:

• Their fontanel, the soft spot on their skull, might pulsate because it’s over the blood vessels covering the brain.
• Newborns won’t respond to you with coos or smiles until after about the six-week mark.
• Newborns are nearsighted so you’ll need to get within eight to ten inches of their face so they can see you. That works to our advantage during our newborn sessions! You end up with gorgeous close-up baby pictures to treasure.
• After the first week of life, you can expect about five to six wet diapers a day, and at least one or two stools.
• Dry skin in newborns isn’t unusual!
• By their third month of life, most infants can sleep for about six-to-eight-hour stretches at night. Before that, it’s more like two-to-three-hour stretches.
• Newborns have a “startle reflex.” When they are startled by sudden movements or loud noises near them, they will shake or jitter, throw their arms back and forth – as if you told them to hold their arms up during a bank robbery.

As an experienced baby photography studio in the Waterford, VA area, we are happy to answer your questions or to schedule an appointment for a portrait session for your newborn or child. We look forward to hearing from you!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer

Ever After Baby Portraits is comprised of Mindy Belcher and Joriana Belcher Anderson, a mother-daughter baby photography team located near the Waterford, VA area 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

Differences in Posed and Lifestyle Baby Photography | Northern VA Baby Photographer

by Mindy Belcher | Oct 23, 2017 | Sterling VA Newborn photography

Differences in Posed and Lifestyle Baby Photography | Northern VA Baby Photographer

When discussing baby photography, there are generally two categories into which it falls: lifestyle and posed. These days, most of our clients across Northern Virginia, including Waterford, VA, request posed for their newborn baby’s portraits. Let’s break down the two styles.

Posed:
The posed-style of baby pictures has been around since the earliest days of photography. If you have ever combed through an antique shop’s old pictures, it’s not unusual to find sepia-toned baby pictures shot in this style. Our first inclination is to say that the style has lasted so long because it is simpler to shoot and so very classic. The baby is usually asleep for these sessions, making it simpler to photograph them, but that is not always the case. Older babies often wake up in the middle of the shoot, need to be fed, and we wait and start again. It might be easy, but it’s not always the fastest style of photography for babies! These types of portraits are done with planning and patience!

When done right, portraits done in this classic posed style become gorgeous heirlooms to hand down to the next generation and beyond.

Lifestyle:
This style of baby photography can be shot anywhere. It doesn’t have to be in a portrait studio, and the child isn’t usually asleep. It’s a more candid style of photography which lends itself to older babies, toddlers, and children rather than newborns. For example, baby or children’s pictures taken at a party or park tend to be lifestyle photography rather than posed.

As you can see, there is a significant difference between the two styles of baby photography. We are happy to discuss your needs and vision for your next baby portraits.

If you would like newborn or baby portraits in the classic posed style, we’d be happy to do your newborn’s or baby’s session in our studios here near Waterford, VA. Lifestyle portraits can be taken in our outdoor portrait park or elsewhere (although we normally wait until the baby is a bit older than newborn before doing an outdoor session). Give our studio a call and we’ll answer any questions you may have!

Baby Photography, Baby Photographer

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