Capitol Hill Maternity Session | Washington DC Family Photographer

There's no denying that kids make documentary sessions fun. They're unpredictable, full of spirit, and often unaware of the camera, which makes for great photos. So what if you're still working on growing the kid? Is documentary-style a good choice for a maternity session?

Documentary sessions are wonderful for maternity sessions and especially for first-time moms, as I found with this awesome mama in Washington, DC. Together we planned a session that reflected and celebrated both her life and interests before baby and her love and excitement for her growing baby.

Living and working in DC area is a joy for her and I had a wonderful time capturing some beautiful pregnancy images at the Capitol Building on the National Mall.

After that, we captured her love for cooking during a cozy in-home session. Much of pregnancy, especially in the third trimester, is spent marveling at a wondrous belly and imagining the baby growing inside. Documenting that is a beautiful part of maternity images.

Most of all, I love thinking that someday this baby boy will look back on these images and see not only how loved and anticipated he was but also how beautiful and interesting his mom was, even before she became his mom.

Stay tuned for more of this beautiful mama. I'll be sharing her fresh 48 newborn session soon!

Visit my session information page to learn more about documentary maternity or newborn sessions or contact me today to begin planning your custom multi-session package to document the arrival of your little one.

A Fun Day with Mama | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

One of my favorite things about shooting family sessions is getting to connect with other parents, especially mothers. When I became a mom, I was pleasantly surprised to learn I'd unknowingly joined a special community of women that had always existed, but was invisible to me before I became a mother.  A community that brings an abundance of support, advice, and humor to one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs there is.  It was such a pleasure to get to know Sy and watch and learn from her with her two little ones, especially since I was due with my second soon after our session. :-)

There was also the added bonus that Sy is a small business owner herself, based in Northern Virginia. Like many parents, she finds inspiration in her children and family and channels that into koko's nest, which features beautiful blankets and accessories for nesting families. (You'll find one of her adorable blankets featured in my Instagram feed from time to time. :-) 

I hope you enjoy these photos from our session.  We spent a fun morning in home (with muffins!) and a trip to a neighborhood park in Old Town Alexandria. I have a special love for photographing moms with their children. So often, we're behind the camera making sure family adventures get documented and we often miss out on being in the picture.  It's so special to be able to provide moms with sweet moments like these that demonstrate their love and dedication and how important they are to their family.

Check out more from Sy and koko's nest on Facebook and Instagram.

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Photographing Summer at the Playground | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

Even though my son isn't in school (and doesn't have a summer break) and my husband's and my work schedules haven't changed, there's still something magical about summer.  Maybe it's carryover from my own childhood - a sense that when the weather is hot and the days are long, life is just different.  A little more carefree and spontaneous.  A little less scheduled and serious.

Summer brings an abundance of life.  In Northern Virginia, we're graced with green and growth everywhere. Towering trees, vibrant wildflowers.  Even the thunderstorms that roll through are welcome, bringing restorative rain and a bit of respite from the heat.  Summer just seems to ooze childhood and fun and evoke calls for dripping watermelon and melting ice cream. Sprinklers in the backyard and walks to the playground.

The playground is one of my favorite places to document family life.  Play is such a vital part of childhood and the playground is a perfect place for imagination, social interaction, and physical exertion.  From new games to new friends, it's been fun to track my son's growth as he masters more complex equipment like going down the "big" slide for the first time or graduating to successfully climbing up the big slide using well-practiced muscles and sheer will after weeks of trying.  These are things I want to look back and remember.  Things I want my son to look back on and be able to see glimpses of himself at such a young age.

This summer I've made an effort to document more time at the playground.  Here are a few of my favorites so far with some tips I've found useful for making images that unique to your family.  In each case, it's all about perspective and choosing an angle that best frames the story you want to tell.

1. Get far.  Often the neighborhood playground is a special place for families.  In our case, it's within walking distance from our house and a place where we can make impromptu visits and catch up with neighbors and friends.  Showing that context can be a powerful way to tell the story of your family's playground.  

In this image, we were visiting family who've lived next to this playground since their teenage kids were very small.  The playground is on the school property where they've attended all their lives.  So I knew I wanted to capture part of the environment as a reminder that this wasn't just any playground, but their playground.  

It can be a challenge to incorporate all the equipment and activity in a way that isn't cluttered and chaotic.  Using lines to frame your subjects or draw the eye into the image can be a good way to minimize the distractions.

2. Get low.  With the variety of platforms and places to climb, it can be fun to play with perspectives at the playground.  One easy way to do this is to get low to the ground and shoot up.  This can minimize distractions like playground equipment or random people in the frame.  

Summer sun can be bright, especially mid-day, but it can also be fun to play with sun flare at this angle.  To combat the harsh light and shadow during the middle of the day, I exposed for the sky here and brought up the shadows in post processing.

3. Get high.  Similar to getting low, climbing up to look down is an easy way to show a unique perspective and minimize distractions.  With all the angles and lines at a playground, it can be fun to use them to frame your subject.

What are your tips for capturing summer?

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Print Your Photos - Part I | Quick and Easy

We document and share our daily lives through pictures more than ever before, but we’re printing less of them.  It’s almost as if having so many images (smart phones, tablets, cameras…) to choose from makes it harder to decide on any to print at all (at least that’s my personal dilemma).  And who has wall space for all those prints?  I'm not arguing printing ALL our photos, but there are few excuses to at least print more of them when we have access to so many different (and easy!) printing options today.  Online photo labs are inexpensive and quick and innovative companies make it even easier with smart phone apps that can automate the process for you, organizing your digital images and shipping products right to you. 

So, today I’m beginning a "Print Your Photos!" series sharing the reasons and ways I print and display my photos.  There are so many wonderful reasons to print your photos and I hope you’ll come away inspired both to print more of your own photos and share your ways of making the process easy and fun!

But, first, a plea.  Please, please back your photos up.  It’s super easy to back up smart phone photos for free and there are many options for backing up pictures on your home computer as well.  We all know (or are) a person who’s lost or damaged their phone or whose hard drive dies, losing all their images.  It’s especially heartbreaking when there are irreplaceable family photos lost.  So, please go back your photos up!

Okay, now that your droves of photos are safe in the digital realm – how often do you actually look at them?  It’s nice to have the Facebook timeline reminder of images you posted years ago, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg of meaningful moments in your life that have been abandoned to electronic memory storage.  There are some arguments why these files may not even be accessible years from now, but even if they are, will you be spending much time looking through them?  Not likely.  But you will appreciate being reminded of special moments while walking through your house putting away laundry or working (or playing) at your desk.  And think of how fun it will be looking through physical albums with your children or grandchildren, recounting the stories behind those moments years from now.

Framed prints and photobooks are both great ways to get images off your phone or hard drive and into your daily life.  I’ll share my ideas for both these options in other posts, but I want to start this series with my favorite quick and easy way to print images: Artifact Uprising’s square print sets.  If you post lots of images to Instagram like me, you might notice how fun it is to see all your images together on the grid in the app.  That’s what I find so great about AU’s square print sets.  Every few months I pick my most recent faves and, using their online application which connects to my Instagram account, I just drag and drop the ones I want to print, enter my promo code (more on that in a second), click submit, and I’m done.  A week or so later, my prints arrive and I get to figure out fun places to put them.  And AU connects to your home computer and other photo platforms just as easily as to Instagram.

I have them all over my cube at work and in front of my son’s car seat to keep him company. ;-)  I’ve used them to add a personal touch to gift wrapping.  And most recently, I created a grid on a not-so-pretty wall in our home office.  And the best part?  AU frequently has promo codes for free square print sets, so for the three sets I’ve ordered over the past six months, I’ve only have to pay for shipping.  [A quick disclaimer: I'm not being paid or receiving anything from Artifact Uprising for this gushing endorsement.  I just really like their prints and how easy the process is. :-)]

Pros:

-     Quick (set of 25 chosen and ordered in less than 5 minutes) and arrives within a week or so with standard shipping

-     (Practically) free, except for shipping, when you catch a promo code

Cons:

-     Not accessible to order via smart phone, so you have to order through your home computer

For fun, here's a behind-the-scenes look at how I created the gallery wall grid in my office. Artifact Uprising has a convenient blog post about other fun ways to display your prints, which is where I got this inspiration.  And I promise to post a code to my Facebook page as soon as I see the next one, so go like my page if you want in too!  Happy printing!

Getting Dads in Front of the Camera

I've written a lot recently about the importance of us moms getting into pictures with our children.  It's equally important, of course, for dads to get in the frame too!  In our family, this happens all the time since I'm so enthusiastic about documenting our family life. But in many families, Dad may be the family photographer.  Or perhaps Dad just isn't comfortable being in front of the camera.  In honor of Father's Day, here are some of my favorite pictures of awesome Dads in the picture with their kids.

Regardless of who might be the primary family photographer, I think both moms and dads can see the value in parents being in pictures with their kids when they look back on photos like these that show the connection, love, and devotion that is so special between parents and children.  One great thing about documentary, candid photography is that it takes the formality and discomfort out of family photos.  When all you have to do is what you'd be doing anyway - enjoying time with your family - you tend to forget about the camera and beautiful real life moments happen.

Having such visual reminders of these ordinary, but special moments months and years from now when our children have grown and changed so much helps us remember a time and place that, while gone, is just as meaningful as it was when we were living it.  As Rose Kennedy said, "Life isn't a matter of milestones, but of moments."

It can be easy to underestimate how much the everyday matters, but when you have images that capture the love and connection of your family, you can easily remember the value of such time well spent.

I love documenting these moments for parents to look back on, but what makes my heart smile even more is thinking about the children having these moments documented to look back on. Moments they may have been too little to remember.  Moments that allow for glimpses into who they were from the very beginning. And glimpses into who their parents were when they were children and maybe too young to realize how special that time was.

Happy Father's Day to all the awesome Dad's out there young and old!

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Capturing Time with Grandparents | Northern Virginia & DC Documentary and Lifestyle Family Photographer

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes." -  Henry David Thoreau

We live further away from our family than we'd like and cherish the time we get to spend with them during visits home.  On Easter, we were lucky to have grandparents from both sides come to stay with us.  One of my favorite things about visiting with family is watching my son play with them.  It's so rewarding to see the love between them and to appreciate how all our lives are enriched with their presence.

One of the hardest things about family visits is trying not to document every single minute of it.  Even I don't want to wade through that many photos.  But just as importantly, I want to be a part of the memories, not just capture them.  And that can be hard to do when I'm fighting the urge to capture every moment. :-)  Oh, and I'd also like to be in the pictures occasionally too!  But more on that next week...  

We were lucky enough (after several years of trying!) to time the visit with peak bloom of the Cherry Blossoms in DC.  And it turns out the Jefferson Memorial makes for great toddler climbing (as long as you can catch them before they go for a swim in the Tidal Basin!).

Whatever pressure I feel as the family photographer is worth it when my son climbs into my lap and asks to see these pictures again and again.  It's hard to say goodbye, but the distance is made a little easier with moments like these captured to remember for a lifetime.  

All In a Day's Fun | Northern Virginia Documentary and Lifestyle Family Photography

My husband and I have been friends with Jill and Justin since we first moved to Virginia (before we were married, dating, or even friends ourselves, really).  In fact, Jill was probably my first friend in this area and her social gatherings played a big role in my husband and me getting together. (Thanks Jill!)  Happily, we've all stayed in touch through marriage, new jobs, and the addition of children.  :-)

A couple of Sundays ago, I joined Jill, Justin and their two kids for a family documentary session.  Even though it was an unusually chilly day for April, we had a blast at swim lessons, family time at home, and a friendly backyard soccer match.

And I have to note, this mama did all you see here after running something like ten miles to start her day on what was her last prep weekend before running the Boston Marathon last Monday.  Go Jill!

Contact me to learn more about a documentary session for your family.

A Photographer’s (and Mother's) Manifesto | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

(Or why I fell in love with documentary photography and how I hope you will too)

I have a tendency towards nostalgia.  I used to find it annoying to get all sentimental about things others seemed to brush off, like the change of seasons or packing up to go home from a family camping trip. And when my son was born, there came even more reasons to get sentimental. Every milestone seems to signal an end to a period of his childhood.  His growth is beautiful to witness, but I’ll probably always reminisce about how, as a newborn, he could sleep anywhere and through anything (as long as it was on me!) or how he loved to climb everything to change his view of the world. 

Northern Virginia family lifestyle and documentary photography, child climbing on furniture to play at window

As I document more of these moments with my camera, rather than lamenting sentimentality, I try to use it as a tool to recognize and capture moments that matter. What’s more, I'm coming to think of nostalgia as a reminder that what we do in our daily lives is important and worth remembering and being sentimental over. Even the monotonous and mundane make up who we are and contribute to the lives of those around us and, especially, those closest to us. In short, the little moments matter.  Like the silly songs I sing to get my son to open his mouth so we can brush his teeth.  Or how he loves to snuggle in close while we read to him.

I'm often reminded (especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed by my to-do list) of the popular Annie Dillard quote, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." Dillard explains, "What we do with this hour, and the next one, is what we are doing." Focusing on the next activity before I'm finished with the first is so hard not to do.  I have an unending list of things I want to do (don’t we all!), but at the top, of course, is spending time with my family. Undistracted, present, quality time.  It's a learned skill, for me at least. I can be easily distracted by the running dialogue in my head (dinner, dishes, dirty laundry, work, etc.), but I like to think I’m getting better.  And it helps that my son is old enough now to participate in some of these mundane activities, like cooking dinner or feeding the cats and dog.  

Alexandria Virginia family lifestyle and documentary photography, candid child playing in window

An ever growing appreciation for the value in spending my moments wisely (even when I'm utterly failing) are reasons I love photography. I can capture candid, fleeting moments, whether part of a special day or simply revealing of the sweetness in the routine, to savor and discover anew when one day I've perhaps forgotten, for example, how my son tilts his head to the side and furrows his little eyebrows whenever he's thinking hard about something. Or how peaceful weekend mornings can be when the house is quiet and we stand at the window and marvel at the sunrise.

I used to think, "How could I ever forget something like this?"  But my memory fails me in so many ways. Life's daily demands have a way of overtaking space for even the sweetest moments that make up our days. Writing these moments down, taking pictures and videos - are all so important to helping us remember that what we do every day matters.  Hopefully, passing these memories on to our children and theirs will help them remember this lesson too.  As Aristotle put it, "You are what you repeatedly do." I'd like to repeatedly be present and appreciative of the simplest gift in life. Time to be with and celebrate loved ones and friends. And I want to capture that time beautifully to be remembered again and again.

Sentimental or not, this is why I’m passionate about documenting family moments. What are the moments that you want remember? And here's another manifesto, a more eloquent and farther reaching call to action than anything I could attempt, and one that inspires me to live more fully (and document along the way!). 

"Life is about the people you meet and the things you create with them." - from the Holstee Manifesto

Learn about my documentary photography sessions in Northern Virginia and surrounding areas here.