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off to the beach! | leesburg children’s photographer

we are off on a well-deserved and much-anticipated vacation to the beach. we hope to do much sunbathing, swimming, and as many kid-friendly activities as we can cram into 5 days. see you next week!

here’s a peek at our beach vacation last summer…

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(the baby was there too, but he was a reflux-y, gangly, ball of newborn-ness that was determined to make any attempt at photographing him on the beach a complete failure. we’ll try again this year with him at one year old - his birthday is today!!)

modeling for little butterbeans | northern virginia commercial photographer

we had great fun this week modeling some products for little butterbeans, an etsy artist making super-sweet aprons, dresses, and accessories for stylish little girls. Etsy is an invaluable resource for finding beautiful, unique handmade clothing that is well-matched for the style of portraits I do.

i am excited about these aprons and the possibilites they present for portrait sessions with little girls - i tested out one of my ideas with my own daughter this time. a tea party with her favorite doll made for some sweet images:
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Layers always add interest to portraits and these aprons are a great way to add a splash of color to an otherwise basic portrait outfit - making for more choices without a lot of clothing changes for the child. coleen at little butterbeans has a wide range of cute prints and colors to choose from - I just loved this pink and blue combo!
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we also modeled one of these beautiful pillowcase-style dresses! the fabric pairing here was really sweet. i love the innovative tie at the shoulder, too. we loved this dress!
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be sure to check out little butterbeans on etsy!

roberts photography is now available for commercial photography in the loudoun county, northern virginia area and across the u.s. contact julia at 571.271.4327 or robertsphotographyva@gmail.com for more information.

July 13, 2009 - 9:14 pm mackenzie - oh, avery. what a gem. i love the american girl cameo! cute, cute photos!!

all in the family | leesburg child photographer

I had the pleasure of photographing my niece last week - what a hoot she is! All energy and sweetness wrapped in this little bubbling, bounding, never-stopping ball of cuteness. I don’t get her in front of my lens nearly enough since my sister’s family lives a few hours down south, stationed near Norfolk . My awesome brother-in-law is in the Navy and currently overseas for a short time away from his family. I know this little beauty misses her Daddy, but she’s doing great while he’s gone and luckily he will be home soon! With any luck, he may be able to see these images of his beautiful daughter from where he is!

We started out just getting her comfortable in front of the camera. Not all 4 year olds are ready to be photographed the second we start - but sometimes these little moments can yield some beautiful “introspective” looking portraits.
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My sister did a great job picking out some super cute stuff from Everything But The Princess. These Kaiya Eve outfits are just perfect for little girls. They can use them for portraits and keep them to play dress up in after!
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I love how she’s looking at her toesies (and a little vintage processing)…
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another great Kaiya Eve set, and some serious ‘tude (but I was loving it!!)…
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then I just had to do more of my favorite backlighting, i might just have to do it with everyone until i get sick of it.. can’t get enough of it.. =) the sideways ponytail might be my absolute favorite of the session. i loved this outfit too - colorful on top balanced with simple on the bottom. though i usually advise keeping it simple, this goes to show you that some colorful patterns CAN work in children’s portraits if they are balanced like this.simmons6

she’s just the cutest, isn’t she?! we love you, e!simmons7

blog special! | middleburg photographer

i’m sneaking in for a quick post to add a little blog-only special!  this is a quick and dirty special - sessions must be booked by july 15th. call 571.271.4327 or email julia at robertsphotographyva@gmail.com and say you saw it on the blog!

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blue-eyed beauties | northern virginia children’s photographer

these two beautiful blue-eyed girls are so near and dear to me. i was so honored to get them in front of my lens; it’s been a while since i’ve had the privelege of photographing them. they came out to the new “outdoor studio” here in leesburg for the first part of our fun outdoor session, and then we headed to one of my new location finds in downtown leesburg to finish up. here’s a start of a sneak peek.. i can’t help myself while editing, i may just have to post more..

I have been dying to get these angel wings on a girlie forever!
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A is 5 and big sister M is 8. Together they are the sweetest pair. we picked out these outfits with mom at old navy (yes, old navy!) earlier in the day and i think they turned out great - coordinated but not too matchy matchy!
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this one would be huge on my wall if it were my kids.. something about the togetherness, with no smiles, in black and white just speaks to my heart as a mom.
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we did some more down in the sweet light here as the sun set. i have a spot that gets just the right amount of backlighting at just the right time of day… i am so lucky! =)
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M is really just about the most interesting kid I know. She is mostly a tomboy though, so I do appreciate that she gave me these big smiles even though we dressed her up in a shirt that contained a ruffle. =)
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we did some more in our open-sided “baby barn” with some sweet sidelighting. i love their body language in these.
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then we headed to a more “urban” location for a different look so we could capture more of M’s true style. love the scooter!
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we also grabbed some more of these for mom & dad.. =) love, love love her freckles.
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i was treated to some serious “america’s next top model”- material stuff from miss A next. this girl has got the posing down PAT! so fun!
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she may know how to pose, but she’s really just made of sweetness. evidence:
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would you look at those baby blues? be still my heart.

thank you girls for such a fun afternoon!

June 29, 2009 - 11:25 pm tisha - Gorgeous!!!! I so love your work!!! :-)

horses, horses everywhere! | leesburg children’s photographer

I’m taking a break from the seniors to post about my kids’ awesome experience at Red Gate Farm’s Pony Camp in Hamilton, Virginia, in beautiful western Loudoun County. My two olders were big enough to attend the preschool pony camp together this year, and were so enamored with the experience we went back for an extra week.

We have been eating, sleeping, and breathing horses for the past two weeks, and my husband and i have learned more than we ever knew about the different types of horses courtesy of our five year old… but it’s all worth it when you see how they light up when they get up on that horse =). both of them are so proud of themselves and they really learned quite a bit in just two short weeks!

red gate farm is a great place to ride, and a great place for kids to attend camp. their horse camps are running all summer and my kids will be going back for another week at the end of july. my daughter will be starting lessons there too. the instructors are wonderful and really relate to the kids. the kids learn so much including how to take care of the horses, and they even got to make a craft each day. i highly recommend those looking for a horse camp experience this summer check out red gate! they can be reached at their website http://www.redgatefarmva.com or (540) 882-3530.

here are some snapshots from my kids’ riding experiences in the huge indoor ring - they got so much time on the horses every day of camp, it was a real treat to watch them improve even over a matter of days!

Hudson, 3 1/2 yrs, riding Cici with Ms. Mackenzie’s help:dsc_3199-061409

He didn’t have proper boots, but he managed just fine =) He even got to ride backwards!horses2

Avery, 5 yrs, with Beau leading Hershey. Going over the poles with proper form - someday, she’d really like to learn how to jump, and this is a great first start!
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it was interesting to watch my girl in the barn and around the horses. she could not be more girly if she tried - she is a true princess in every sense of the word. yet she was able to hold her own when it came to the chores, learning how to groom them and also how to sweep the barn (if only i could convince her it’s just as fun to “broom” the floor at home!) something about this girl’s love for horses makes getting dirty worth it. =)
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i even got every mother’s dream snapshot (major cheese and all):dsc_3195-061409

thank you christine, mackenzie and hannah for making our camp experience so great!

week of grads, day four | ashburn senior photographer

miss taylor was quite the talented girl. we met “downtown” for some funky stuff before heading over to one of my favorite fields to try out some of her dance moves. i have photographed a couple of senior dancers and their flexibility and athletic ability never ceases to amaze me.

congratulations on your graduation taylor, and keep dancing!  =)

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i love it when girls bring their prom and party dresses. i’ve never been to a prom (i was homeschooled) so it’s fun for me to see all these. plus this one is my absolute favorite color - RED! and doesn’t she look great in it?!
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she also brought another gorgeous dress which we put to good use in the field…
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then the fun stuff! i don’t think i could bend like this - amazing =)
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and the last few on the pink chair we fought the fading light for, but i’m glad we did…
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congrats to grads, day three | purcellville senior photographer

Day 3 of my Congrats to Grads week brings us to Jessie - this beautiful girl could not have had a sweeter family. I just loved working with all of them! On the day of Jessie’s session we got to do some family shots as well including their family pets who could not have been cuter. Of course, I have a soft spot for labs. =)

What I love about working in Loudoun County, especially western Loudoun, is being able to work right in clients’ back yards and having beautiful scenery right at my fingertips. Jessie’s home was no exception; we held the session on their property and the results were great - not to mention how easy it made the wardrobe changes!

Congratulations Jessie, with your strong foundation & wonderful family, I have no doubt you will go far in life!

(you made dad’s shed look GOOD! =)jessie1

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another benefit of photographing at client’s homes or at mine… we can set up a quick little studio scenario for some of these too:jessie5

congrats to grads, day two | leesburg high school senior pictures

time for more of my awesome 2009 seniors! meet regina… regina and i met up at her school early in the morning (kudos to her for getting up *early*!!) to beat the high sun for some awesome shots out on the track. i love it when we can incorporate a senior’s interests and activities into the session.

once we finished up at the school we headed over to a little nature park close by and found this beautiful patch of yellow flowers. i loved how they contrasted with the fun, funky clothes she brought to her session (as you can see, like i recommend to all of my seniors, regina brought a couple changes of clothes for variety and we used most of them!).

congratulations on your graduation regina! i hope you have a wonderful summer and best of luck to you next year!

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congrats to grads, day one | leesburg senior photographer

seeing as how my fabulous ‘09 seniors are currently enjoying their last weeks and days of official classes, i thought it would be a good time to extend my heartfelt congratulations to each one of you for accomplishing something so great! making it through high school in one piece is no small feat. =) i enjoyed working with every one of my seniors this past year and wish every one of you the very, very best on the next leg of your journey, wherever you may be going.

let’s start with the beautiful miss megan! megan is beautiful inside and out as you can see.

(i just loved those heels…)
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congratulations megan!

stay tuned for more grads every day this week!