Category Archives: Client FYIs

One of my most popular product offerings are collages. They can be ordered as large or extra large prints or canvases, and they offer an amazing option for clients who are looking to include several images from the shoot within a single wall display without investing in separate wall pieces. When I style photo shoots, I choose colors and setups so they are complementary throughout the entire session so they can subsequently be combined within a single collage or a wall arrangement. They are beautiful and would look great in any part of your home!

Here is an example of a collage for a newborn baby girl from Falls Church, Northern Virginia, who I photographed last May (yes, yes, I am behind on blogging, I know!).  Every client gets to see a few sample arrangements including newborn setups and family shots in their proof gallery.

falls church newborn photographer_01And here is a mockup of what it would look like on a wall (cool, huh?):

newborn baby collage falls church photographer

If you like my work and want a photo session for your newborn baby, please contact me at chasingmoments@gmail.com  or call me at 202-251-6368 to schedule your session! I have years of experience photographing newborns and babies and I guarantee you’ll love the photos! For more examples of my work, please see newborn galleries on my website: http://www.chasingmoments.com

Ready for my big news?

This has been a couple of months in the making and I’ve been dreaming it up for quite some time. Over the last year, I felt like my photography work has outgrown the current home photo studio arrangement and I am in need of a bigger, permanent, professional studio space! Today everything finally came together!

This morning I signed a lease for a space to open my own professional photography studio in McLean VA. It will be located in the heart of McLean, in McLean Professional Park, and will offer full studio services for pregnancy, newborn, baby, children and family photos. It is conveniently located for all my Northern Virginia clients within and outside of the Beltway, in a beautiful professional community that caters to small businesses like mine. Besides the photography studio space, the suite offers full amenities, including a kitchen, a bathroom (with a shower), and free wifi.

I am soooo excited! I’ll be moving in next week and will be ready to welcome my first clients in early February!!!

A couple of weekends ago I welcomed a newborn baby boy C. and his mom J. at my studio.  Baby C. turned two weeks old on the day of the session – a perfect age for a newborn session! J. and I picked a couple of simple and classic setups as well as a couple of creative ideas to shoot. J also wanted to do a couple of mommy-and-me portraits as well.

I have so many favorites from this session! C. was really great posing on his tummy and the setups we chose look really great both in color and in black and white! Hope J. likes the images, I know I do!

First off, some of my favorite newborn and mommy portraits in black and white:

newborn baby in mothers hands

black and white image mother

sleeping pose newborn baby black and white portrait

 

A “Studio” versus an “At Home” Newborn Session: Things to Consider

A small digression.

When clients ask me about scheduling a “studio” versus an “at home” newborn session, here are the factors I suggest to consider: if you are looking for a photo session mostly focusing on portraits of the baby and if you like using props and staged setups, then studio is a good choice for the session. My home studio is set up for newborn sessions to assure the easiest and the most seamless transitions between different props and backgrounds. If you are looking for a more balanced photo session including both newborn portraits and family shots (parents, mommy-and-baby, daddy-and-baby, sibling shots) then I recommend an “at home session” where there is more opportunity for both posed and photojournalistic/candid portraiture. If siblings and grandparents are involved I usually highly recommend an “at home” session.

Here are a couple of examples of setups that are available in the studio and that may be a bit more challenging to recreate “at home”. Also, I couldn’t decide if I liked the black and white or the color versions better… so I am posting both! First example is a “sports” theme – J. is a runner and she was looking to incorporate elements of running into the session. I am so happy with what we came up with (notice the beautiful floor drop that imitates pavement!) :

newborn asleep with a sports props setup, running shoes, water bottle, wrist watch

newborn baby asleep in basket, running shoes, water bottle, wrist watch - sports theme set up

And I am totally in love with this “swing” shot – it looks so peaceful and wonderful and organic! I also really like how the black and white and the color versions have very different feels to them.

newborn baby asleep on a wood swing

And some of my favorites in color:

mother and newborn baby

mother and sleeping newborn portrait

asleep pose, newborn baby in a basket on a white textured blanket

asleep pose, newborn baby in a basket on a white textured blanket

Thanks for looking through this post to the end! I know it is important for potential newborn clients to get a peek into photographer’s recent work and into the type of shots they may get from a photo session. If you like what you saw, please check out the newborn slideshows on my main photography page, and drop me a line – I’ll work with you to create the images you want!

Spring is in the air! Northern Virginia is boasting a beautiful mid-70s degree weather almost every day now and many of you are starting to think about booking your outdoor natural light spring photo session to get some kids or family pictures with some of those pretty flowers or cherry trees you see blooming around. Well, you’d better hurry! NOW is the time to contact your family photographer. Some of the best professional outdoor photographers book their sessions at least 2-3 weeks in advance, so their schedules fill very fast. During high season, top outdoor photographers book 4-5 weeks in advance.

Spring happens to be the popular “high season” due to its vibrant spring blossoms and beautiful temperatures and most outdoor sessions “with flowers” happen between mid-March to early-mid May. If you work with an established photographer, it is likely that her schedule for spring is already filled until mid- to late April!!!! Most cherry blossoms will be gone by then (the Cherry Blossoms around the tidal basin in Washington DC are scheduled to have peak bloom next weekend, two weeks ahead of regular yearly peak time!), and many of the spring flowers will be gone as well.

Child with beautiful spring flowers natural light outdoor photographer

While the Tidal Basin seems to be an obvious choice for a family photo session to capture beautiful cherry trees in bloom, I generally recommend scheduling your outdoor session elsewhere (avoiding all the crowds who gather for the Cherry Blossoms , especially with kids, can be a tremendous challenge if you are looking for some peaceful relaxed spring time images). Northern Virginia has a couple of wonderful gardens with blooming Cherry Blossom trees and colorful flowers (Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria), Maryland, MD, residents have the option of going to the beautiful Brookside Gardens. Or, your neighborhood may have some beautiful blooms as well – I am sure your photographer will be happy to come out there for a photo session!

If you do not have a go-to photographer for all your family pictures, feel free to contact me with any questions! I am currently booking sessions for mid-April, but I have some availability for early April as well. I also do “mini-sessions”, so please inquire for details and pricing!

Enjoy the awesome weather, Northern Virginia!

One thing I always tell my clients is that some cropping may occur when they print from digital files. Unless the original digital image is cropped by your photographer or by you to fit a specific print size, digital files are not be formatted to “fit” any standard print size. Here is why:

One of the properties of a digital image is its dimension in pixels – length and width. My camera is an 18-megapixel camera and records digital files that are 5184 pixels long and 3456 pixels wide. Its ratio of length to width is 3:2, which means that digital files can make 3 by 2; 6 by 4; 12 by 8, 24 by 16 prints without cropping (in other words, there is no cropping as long as the original ratio is preserved). Every camera is different in regards to the length-width ratio of the images it records, there is no set standard.

The image below is straight out of camera without any cropping, it has a 3:2 length to width ratio.

Now, let’s see what happens if we use this digital file to make a 5 by 7 print. The shaded area below represents the part of the original image will be cropped out. The “long” side of the resulting print will be slightly cropped. The composition of the final print will not be as pleasing as the original because the child’s sweater is too close to the print border, but no important part of the image will be lost due to cropping.

Cropping will be even more substantial if we choose to make an 8*10 (or a 16*20) print. Unfortunately, this kind of cropping is unacceptable as a significant part of the main subject in the photograph is going to be lost due to cropping.

how an original image will be cropped for an 8x10 print

I usually recommend that if my clients receive digital files from me, they should check how their images will be cropped before printing. Most online and in-store printers give “previews” of how a printed image will look and have tools that allow customers to recompose their images for printing.

As a photographer, I usually compose my shots with a little extra “space” on all sides so that no important part of the image is lost later due to cropping for print.