Richmond VA Engagement Photographer | Rachel and Taylor

Years from now when their kids ask about their wedding they also will be able to also tell the story of their engagement session and how it took place IN their very own yard.  I always ask if couples have a specific place in mind that is important to them or if there is a specific hobby that they want to include, because your engagements should be a representation of who you are as a couple.  When I met Taylor + Rachel they had just bought a house and wanted to incorporate it in their session.  

Mature trees, cute porches, and lots of little nooks around the house it was the perfect place for their engagement session.  Some have no idea but still offer suggestions like, "lots of trees, or a water view, or the cityscape and old buildings"  I mainly and exclusively have shot in and around the Richmond area for my almost 10 years as a photographer so if you have an idea I can certainly work with creating the perfect spot for you. 

When Rachel called about booking me for her wedding we hadn't even met in person!  It's always an honor to be able to connect with someone over the phone and with them looking at your portfolio them being confident that YOU are the person they want to book for one of the biggest days in their life.  

Here are some of my favorite images from their session:

Richmond VA Newborn Photographer | Tessa Rose

Years ago I had the pleasure of shooting this couple's engagement session, and then recently they came to see me for maternity and newborn portraits as well!  Tessa's middle name is Rose, and in the maternity pictures we included a sweet little rose to honor the upcoming birth of their little girl. I think it's sweet when clients bring a little item or two to really personalize their session.  For Rose's newborn portraits we also incorporated the "rose" into one of the backgrounds!  And before we did family pictures we also used our winter wonderland set since she's so close to being a Christmas baby!  This is such a photographic family, and I'm going to need Ashley to give me makeup tips, isn't she stunning? 

Here are a few peeks into two of my recent sessions with this cute family:

..and here are a few of Ashley's gorgeous maternity pictures! 

Richmond VA Family Photographer | Lancaster Family

Stella's (middle child) 1st birthday cake smash session popped up on my Facebook news feed the other day, and it just made me smile to think about how long I have been working with this family!  Having clients (more like friends at this point!) continually come back to me is the greatest joy in my business.  These kids always make me laugh as they're silly and fun (and obviously SO cute!) and just everything you'd want when photographing families!  I know all too soon I'll be meeting them for their senior portraits and then we will really have some fun pictures to look back on from over the years! ;) 

Here are a few of my favorites from our recent session together: 

Richmond VA Wedding Photographer | Hi! I'm new here

December 2016 will forever be burned in my head as the year GoDaddy wanted to take down my almost 9 year old business. They somehow deleted the database to my website, AND the backup, and I lost EVERYTHING.  Originally discovered yesterday, but received notification that their restore team couldn't actually restore it (i'm changing their name to bore team, or a few other words I cannot type online!)  By 5 something my amazing friend Liz said, "I'll make you a new website! Just come to Squarespace" and by 7AM we were importing pictures to make my new home on the web all pretty.  It's now noon and I feel like i've lived for 3 weeks ;) 

There's a few things I have learned today:

1. Back things up yourself. Don't expect a server in a far away land to actually do it's job.  I will have to figure this out for this new site.  My old site was automatically emailing me back ups, but somehow that ended in 2012. Oops. 

2. Juggling too many balls only means there's a matter of time before something crashes. As a small business owner (or working mom, or stay at home mom, or teenager, or anyone else reading this blog!) You cannot go through life alone.  I only in the past two months outsourced my blogging.  (Sorry Sarah now we have to do it ALL over again, ha!) But for the past 8+ years I have been a photographer, accountant, tax prep'er, design builder, communication coordinator, IT support, blogger, editor, driver, designer, seamstress (really! Always carry a sewing kit to a wedding, you'd be surprised how many times i've used it) and countless other titles.  The point is, we all need help because it's just too much for one person to run. 

3. If something goes horribly wrong, freak out! But only for a few minutes!  We all have our moments when everything spirals out of control.  Take a second, have a good hard cry that you've "lost everything" and then remember it's just your online presence and you can build it back up.  So chin up, buttercup!  Pull those boot straps up and get to work.  Hard work hasn't stopped you before!

4. Embrace the change. So now I have a new website, new blogging platform, and new EVERYTHING!  But that also means that now I can implement the changes I wanted to do on my last site but dragged my feet on.  My galleries will be updated with only the latest and greatest.  My blog will have the same content AND I will also start a few new series I've been thinking about adding. 

5. Focus on the good. It would have been so easy to go back to bed and sulk the whole day, but with a quick kick from my friend Liz to jumpstart my new website, I am feeling pretty good about where I stand right now!  

So friends, I am glad you are here!  I hope you will keep coming back and leaving comments so I can climb back up that crazy SEO ladder to be where I was as a Richmond VA Wedding Newborn and Family Photographer.  

*Thank you Joanna for the picture!