Creative Ways to Share Children’s Photos with Grandparents | Northern VA Baby Photographer

Creative Ways to Share Children’s Photos with Grandparents | Northern VA Baby Photographer

Creative Ways to Share Children’s Photos with Grandparents | Northern VA Baby Photographer

How do you share baby pictures with family, especially grandparents? As McLean, VA area family photographers, we know that wanting to share photos and actually sharing them are two different things – with the former being easier than the latter! Social media aside, it’s easier and more creative than ever to share baby pictures of your children.

We, of course, encourage all families to have a professional family portrait done, one from which beautiful wall art and albums can be created. All of our wall art finishes are of museum quality and guaranteed for at least 150 years, and our albums are of the highest quality. However, if you have snapshots of your kids from years past, then you can use them to create memorable gifts online, especially for the grandparents.

Photo Calendar:
Spread the love throughout the year with a printed and customized photo calendar of your child. You can give one any time or as a gift. A photo calendar lets you assign one picture per month or create picture collages. You can create a photo calendar relatively easily online. Shutterfly and iPhoto offer two good options. In Shutterfly, you need to make an account, select a product (they offer many), and then upload pictures. To make an iPhoto calendar, you just open the program on your computer, click on File, and scroll down to Calendar, and select the photos you would like to use.

Photo Album:
You can create any imaginable style of album using your children’s or baby photography. You will need to account for both designing, production, and shipping time. Artifact Uprising offers some beautifully-crafted albums. Both Shutterfly and iPhoto also have customizable photo albums. For the creatively challenged among us, you can select from templates or auto-placement of your pictures. Shutterfly even lets you pay them to design your album. Our tip: Save your work as you go along rather than waiting until the end. You don’t want to lose any of it!

Ornaments:
You can give a pre-printed photo ornament or photo-insert ornament (usually less expensive). Pre-printed ornaments come in glass, aluminum, and other materials. Snapfish offers photos printed on glass, aluminum, and maple wood. Walmart offers pre-printed photo ornaments as well as ornament frames. If you prefer to make your ornament, here’s a tutorial.

Frames:
If you don’t have time to print and frame (or custom frame) a picture of your child, let someone else do all the work. Framebridge makes it possible with a few easy clicks. You just need to upload the image (or mail it in), select a size and frame, and voila!

Online Photo Sharing:
If rather than creating a product, you would prefer to share photos online with grandparents, there are plenty of options. Most start out for free with limited storage with the opportunity to upgrade for a fee. Dropbox, Flickr.com, and SmugMug are all well-known, reputable sites.

*Please note that we do not endorse any of these or other companies nor do we earn any royalties from other companies.

Again, we encourage you to schedule a family portrait session with us so we can create something truly wonderful for you, a portrait your family will cherish for generations.

If you found a wonderful way to share your children’s photos, please let us know! We’d love to learn about them. After almost two decades of shooting baby pictures in the McLean, VA area, we know how important these photos are to grandparents. The joy they bring is immeasurable!
 

 

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

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Tips for Traveling With a New Baby | Northern VA Baby Photographer

Tips for Traveling With a New Baby | Northern VA Baby Photographer

Tips for Traveling With a New Baby | Northern VA Baby Photographer

Our treasured baby photography in the McLean, VA area means we have the opportunity to talk about babies! How delightful is that?! Today’s blog post focuses on tips for how to travel with a baby. Traveling with a child is never easy, but it’s not so daunting that you should stay home!

If you’re the parent of a newborn, you will probably want to avoid unnecessary travel the first several months of the baby’s life. Besides the heaps of items needed for traveling with a baby, there’s also the idea of exposure to icky germs. Most pediatricians recommend waiting about three months before you head out on your first big journey with your baby. When you do head out, here are some tips to make things go a little smoother. (The key is to anticipate, plan, and then pack accordingly!)

* Health summary: Put together a health summary of your child including names and phone numbers of health care providers, vaccinations, and medicines. (Whether you travel or not, it’s always a good idea to have this sort of information handy.)

* Medicines: Bring all medicines, as well as a list of the medications including dosages. Keep that list separate from the medicines, just in case. Be certain you have enough medicine to get through your vacation or be prepared to refill while on your trip. Always keep any medicine with you rather than in checked luggage.

* First aid kits: To avoid any middle-of-the-night trips to a 24-hour pharmacy in a strange city, bring a first aid kit filled with over-the-counter medicines and equipment a child might need such as pediatric cough syrup, nasal syringe, thermometer, pediatric Tylenol or Aleve, band aids, and such.

* Pack well: If you’re heading to the beach or plan on being outdoors in the sun quite a bit, pack accordingly and include hats and sunscreen for the entire family. Discuss with your pediatrician at what age you can safely apply sunscreen to children. Don’t forget snacks, formula, and any food favorites that are non-perishable. (We suggest bringing enough to get you through the first two days, after which you can shop locally.) Don’t forget to carry more snacks and diapers than you think you’ll need for a flight. A two-hour flight can turn into a five-hour journey with delays!

* Toys: It is important to keep the baby and young children entertained throughout the voyage, both for their sake and yours! We suggest packing several new toys to capture the baby’s or child’s interest. You can bring a few favorites, but be careful not to leave a favorite teddy bear behind! You might not get him back.

* Camera: Of course, as a children’s and newborn photographer, we’d tell you not to forget your camera or smartphone with a built-in camera and video!

With almost two decades of family, children’s and baby photography in the McLean, VA area, we look forward to hearing about your family vacation! We also look forward to capturing beautiful memories through our fine art baby photography.
 

 

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 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

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6 Tips for New Moms Going Back to Work | Northern VA Baby Photographer

6 Tips for New Moms Going Back to Work | Northern VA Baby Photographer

6 Tips for New Moms Going Back to Work | Northern VA Baby Photographer

As an expert in baby photography in the McLean, VA area, Mindy understands the challenges of being a working mom. If you are planning on working outside the home, here are a few tips from her experience as well as a terrific article in Cloudmom.com:

1. Efficiency will be your best friend both at work, where you will want to get things done as efficiently as possible so you can get home, and at home where you want to spend time enjoying your baby when you return home at the end of your day. Prioritizing your work in either location will make life easier and smoother. Do what you can, when you can. Don’t sweat the small stuff and be realistic with your expectations. There isn’t such a thing as a Supermom!

2. You will probably be missing your child far more than she or he is missing you. Babies don’t have the same sense of time that we do. So, while you’re at work watching the clock (while trying to be efficient), they’re elsewhere being a baby and enjoying their day.

3. Practice patience. Be patient with everything, but especially yourself. It will take time to adjust to your new life back at work as a mother. You have to expect a few mistakes and lessons along the way. That’s okay. All moms have “been there, done that” at some point! Remember, again, there’s no such thing as a Supermom!

4. Practice acceptance. Not everything will work out as you planned (or hoped) – such as an unexpected work trip for you or your spouse. Just go with it. Learn to say no, and ask for help when needed. There’s a reason there’s the adage, “It takes a village to raise a child.”

5. Guilt: Feeling guilty for being at work doesn’t help you or your baby, especially if you need that paycheck or want to continue your pre-baby career. Put the guilt aside!

6. Lastly, the most important piece of advice we can offer you as newborn photography experts, and Mindy as a mother, is this: At the end of the day, nothing else matters but your baby and your family. Spend time with your baby when you arrive home. Everything else can wait. They’ll be leaving for college before you realize it!

If you’d like us to do your baby photography, including newborn photography, we would be happy to discuss our work. Our studio is located near the McLean, VA area, and we serve clients throughout the Northern Virginia area.
 

 

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 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

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Max, Newborn Portrait Session | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

Max, Newborn Portrait Session | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

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

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Interesting Facts About Newborns | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

Interesting Facts About Newborns | Northern VA Newborn Photographer

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

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