22 Mar

Sweet Sianna | Baby’s First Year Portraits

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family, Maternity, Newborn / March 22, 2017 / 0 Comments

All these little babies!!! I am loving all the newborn session I’ve been photographing lately. Little boys, girls, twins… bring me ALL THE BABIES! I have a great program called my “Baby’s First Year Plan” and I love when my clients book them so I can watch them grow during that amazing first year of growth!

Meet the beautiful Sianna. Her mommy bought my “Bump to Baby” plan so I got to photographed her both in the belly and in person at just a week old. What a great shoot. Mommy wanted it to be just for little Sianna, as daddy was working, and she was a perfect little model. Enjoy some of the highlights from both the maternity and newborn sessions!

31 Dec

A Year in Review | Hampton Roads Photographer

admin / Baby's First Year, Business, Children, Christmas, Engagement, Family, Maternity, Model for a Day, Newborn, Personal, Professional Portraits, Renew, Senior / December 31, 2016 / 0 Comments

Another amazing year has passed. Last year at this exact time, I was just so thankful 2015 was almost OVER. It was a year filled with so much sadness and loss. I prayed for 2016 to be a BORING year at least! I just wanted to get past all the pain of 2015. God answers prayers and more. Like he states “There is a time and a season for everything.” The BORING year I was praying for didn’t happen, instead He gave me so much more.

Personal highlights of 2016… I started the year off on a cruise with my family. The first cruise we have done together and it was a beautiful welcome to the new year! In the spring, I visited NYC with my son and godson and got to see my childhood crush, Will Smith (aaaaahhhhhhh) film the movie Collateral Beauty. (Seriously, I was like a giddy child- and the coolest thing was it was an unexpected surprise to see him on set!! Thanks to an amazing friend who set it up!) In the summer, I visited Ethiopia again, with Habesha Momma, and got to start the process of opening a home for homeless and trafficked children. I also FINALLY got to take my husband to NYC. I love NYC and Brett has said for years “NEVER” when I ask if he’d like to go with me. However, he finally agreed and we had a fabulous time together enjoying the big city!

One of the biggest personal and business highlights was I moved my business out of my house and into a true commercial space!! It was a HUGE leap of faith but I am so very thankful I took the risk. I LOVE having my own space. I’ve been a successful photographer for years BUT having my own name on the outside of a building makes me feel “I’ve made it!” It has been an amazing whirlwind of a year! I had a phenomenal Open House in my new space and felt so much love poured out. I have been blessed by the opportunity to photograph so many amazing people, families and projects. I truly love my job and don’t take for granted the fact that I am given the gift of creating moments in time for each of you.

This blog every year is one of my hardest… to go through the year and pick my favorite images to share. Each one of you are so special to me, all of our shoots hold special moments and laughs. In every single session- I am creating memories that I pray will be cherished for generations to come. Narrowing that down to 15-20 images to show my year in review… it is SO HARD! But here are some of the highlights I was able to narrow it down too… and once again thank you. Thank you for trusting me, thank you for supporting me, thank you for allowing me into your family.

I pray blessings, love and lots of laughter in 2017!

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04 Nov

An Answer to Prayer: Welcome 3D | Virginia Beach Newborn Photograher

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family, Newborn, Photographers / November 4, 2016 / 0 Comments

Watching families grow is simply one of the best parts of my job. I can remember years ago photographing the David family while they were praying for another child, and getting to see where they are now is such a honor.

Welcome Little Moses the third!! This little guy is such an answer to prayer for the David family. God’s timing is always perfect and while “not yet” was hard to hear for so many years, we are so very thankful for His perfect timing!

We welcomed Moses (aka 3D as he is Moses David the THIRD) in July and he was such a star during his session. He cooed and smiled and slept like a champ! Already a superstar like his Daddy.

Big sister Amani is in love with him too, I love seeing older siblings love on their baby siblings and I can already tellt hat Amani will be like a second momma to little 3D!

Enjoy the David family and some of their favorite portraits from their session. <3 <3 photography_002

15 Sep

Lifestyle Maternity | Baby’s First Year Photographer

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family, Newborn / September 15, 2016 / 0 Comments

Baby number two is on the way for Raf and Claire!! They are longtime clients that I am OVER THE MOON excited for as they welcome a new sibling for little Jack! Claire called me and asked for a family session that would include a few maternity portraits, but WOULDN’T focus on the “belly” the whole time. She is such an adorable and beautiful pregnant mommy… but just didn’t want a ton of pictures withe focus being on her belly!

Since it was SUPER HOT and had been raining for days, we decided the best bet was a lifestyle session at home. We are all so glad we did as the pictures turned out amazing . As there will likely be a household move in the future, these portraits will be some amazing treasures showing the love in the home where both their children were born and spent their first years.

Of course, as I LOVE maternity portrait showcasing the bump- I did convince Claire to do a FEW in a maternity gown that focused on how beautiful she is with that beautiful baby bump! Enjoy and say a pray for Claire and Raf… they are officially past the due date and ready to welcome their newest little one!

UPDATE: I wrote this blog and guess who arrived the very next day? The beautiful Katherine… a perfect little girl to add to this amazing family!!! Great job Claire, I am finishing up her newborn portraits now and she is so adorable with her chunky little legs! I can’t wait to share with you!

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22 Aug

Jaita Turns Two

admin / Baby's First Year, Children / August 22, 2016 / 0 Comments

Turning two is a pretty big accomplishment and grandma (GiGi) wanted to celebrate with a photoshoot! Little Jaita totally rocked her two year old session. (Of course, like any two year old, she wasn’t completely cooperative and attentive the entire time… but with a little patience and bribery we made it work.)

We included her momma’s favorite team, the Cowboys, much to dad’s surprise (not HIS favorite team) Elmo and her favorite baby doll. Jaita is such a beautiful little lady and I love seeing her sassy little smile every time I get to photograph her!

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05 Aug

Welcome Mr. Gabriel | Newborn Portrait Photographer

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family, Newborn / August 5, 2016 / 0 Comments

Mr Gabriel was ready to come into this world… so ready he came the very day we had scheduled his mommy for her maternity portraits!!! So sadly, we don’t have maternity portraits for mommy and daddy, but we do have some amazing newborn portraits! He was such a little star during our session. He slept and cooed and was such a joy to photograph. Mom and dad did pretty amazing too! I can’t wait to watch him grow and I look forward to our next session!

Check out Mr. Gabriel in all his adorableness!

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21 Jun

Whitfield | Family Photographer Hampton Roads

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family / June 21, 2016 / 0 Comments

Can this family GET any cuter?!?! I had so much photographing CJ’s first birthday portraits as well as their family portraits. They haven’t done family portraits yet AND mom and dad hadn’t done any portraits together ever, so this was an extra special shoot for them. And when I say they ROCKED this session, I meant it! Denise and Christopher are a stunning couple and made my job so easy! The light was perfect and CJ was such a little model and his adorable smile melted my heart! I would have shot for another hour if it hadn’t gotten dark and chilly.

The images that resulted from this shoot are STUNNING! Denise cried when she saw them and honestly, that is one of the favorite parts of my job. I know it sounds terrible, “I like making my clients cry” but when they are crying tears of joy because they have never had such beautiful images of themselves… well, I might have shed a tear or two myself!

Denise and Christopher, thank you so much for allowing me to capture your family. It truly was an honor and I can’t wait for our next session!

20 Jun

Welcome Emmanuel | Newborn Photographer Virginia Beach

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family, Newborn / June 20, 2016 / 0 Comments

What can be better than three amazing boys? FOUR amazing boys! Welcome baby Emmanuel to the beautiful Lopez family. I was so very excited to photograph this adorable, chubby little guy! He was such a trooper during our session and was a great little model! His big brothers can’t wait for him to grow up a little more… I see lots of backyard wrestling matches and football games in their future! Thank you Orlyn and and Alejandro for allowing me to spend time with your little guy and photograph your family. It is such an honor too capture these moments and I hope we lots of years of family portraits in our future!

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26 Apr

Four Sessions in ONE! | Family Portrait Photographer Virginia Beach

admin / Baby's First Year, Children, Family, Maternity / April 26, 2016 / 0 Comments

When your anniversary coincides with your baby’s first birthday, you are pregnant and needing maternity portraits, and it’s been awhile since you did family portraits, do you need to book multiple sessions? Not with me you don’t. We can do them all at one and kill four birds with one stone!

When Cheyla called inquiring about anniversary/maternity portraits and little Rico needed his first year portraits, I said “Why not do them at the same time? And heck, if the family can come, we’ll do some family portraits too!”

We had such a blast and Cheyla is a ROCK STAR as it was COLD out! Spring kept coming and then leaving… 70 degrees one day and then 45 the next. We had already rescheduled once for wind and rain, and we didn’t want to do it again. So Cheyla braved the cold again! (Her last maternity portraits were in the SNOW!)

We had a great time in the park capturing the family portraits ( we missed big brother Angel but were happy to have Cheyla’s brother Chris there!) Prince Rico had a blast at the park celebrating turning one and was such a ham for the camera. We finished at the park with some romantic maternity portraits; I love capturing Cheyla and Eddie- their love is so genuine and beautiful!

W left the park to capture a few more portraits in the studio and to photograph his cake smash! He loved the portraits but wasn’t too happy about the cake! He had a few bites and then just wanted to be done and kept getting mad at us for smearing icing in on him. I cannot wait to photograph his baby sister when she arrives!

10 Apr

Announcing Baby Mack! | Baby’s First Year Photographer Hampton Roads

admin / Baby's First Year, Maternity / April 10, 2016 / 0 Comments

Nigel and Tia are expecting!!!! I photographed Nigel and Tia’s engagement and am so very excited to be continuing our relationship as we head into photographing the Baby’s First Year!

I was SO excited to get the call from Tia telling me the news…. they are expecting a HONEYMOON baby! YAY!!!

I LOVE that I was one of the first to know as they wanted me to photograph the announcement. Nigel is deployed so we wanted to do a shoot that incorporated him across all the miles, you’ll see him in the phone pointing at a picture of the ultrasound! I love how the images turned out and am so excited to do a maternity session in six months or so. Tia is already glowing and I can’t wait to see how she transforms into the amazing mom God has called her to be.

Congrats Nigel and Tia! So very excited for you and can’t wit to meet your little blessing.