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

(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!!)

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:

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!

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!
(clearly, my little diva was just hating this assignment.. ;o)

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.

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.

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!

I love how she’s looking at her toesies (and a little vintage processing)…

another great Kaiya Eve set, and some serious ‘tude (but I was loving it!!)…

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.

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

I have been dying to get these angel wings on a girlie forever!


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!

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.

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! =)

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. =)

we did some more in our open-sided “baby barn” with some sweet sidelighting. i love their body language in these.

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!

we also grabbed some more of these for mom & dad.. =) love, love love her freckles.

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!

she may know how to pose, but she’s really just made of sweetness. evidence:

would you look at those baby blues? be still my heart.

thank you girls for such a fun afternoon!

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:

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

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!

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. =)

i even got every mother’s dream snapshot (major cheese and all):

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

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

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?!

she also brought another gorgeous dress which we put to good use in the field…

then the fun stuff! i don’t think i could bend like this - amazing =)

and the last few on the pink chair we fought the fading light for, but i’m glad we did…

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! =)

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:

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!

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

(i just loved those heels…)

congratulations megan!

stay tuned for more grads every day this week!