June Photo Favorites | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

Have I mentioned how summer is my favorite? I try hard to reserve all my weather-related complaints for the winter months and bite my tongue in the summer whenever I start to voice my annoyance at the humidity or mosquitoes (I often fail because they are no joke here in Northern Virginia).

There's no shortage of things to do when the weather is warm. Even the rain isn't so bad when you can jump in puddles and play in the mud.  We spend a lot of time adventuring in our backyard, digging for creatures and jumping on the trampoline. I really love how the kids bring about experiences that I would never had had otherwise (hello, giant grub!).  This Eastern box turtle showed up in our garage one day and we kept her for a few days, learning all about turtle habits and habitats, before setting her free again.

It's fun to imagine what childhood characteristics these guys might carry with them into the rest of their lives.  Like my eldest's love for nature and my youngest's propensity to do everything sooner than his brother did.

I'm also so excited to practice some underwater photography this summer.  These were so fun to take at our local Fairfax County RECenter pool.

Nicole Sanchez Photography works with busy parents in Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland to create stress-free photo sessions that take all the loving, fun, and chaotic moments of family life to make beautiful photos and films that families will love looking at year after year. Contact me today to start planning a custom photography experience that's perfect for your family.

Documenting Change - In-home Newborn Session | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

Those first days and weeks at home with a new baby are especially sweet. They may also be a blur due to lack of sleep, so documenting them can be helpful in that regard. ;-)  A new baby is a big change for parents, even if they've done it before. For older siblings it can be the most momentous change they've experienced in their whole life.  This little guy had been home about two weeks when I visited his family in Northern Virginia. 

Though every family is different, there are some fairly common experiences that come with parenthood and childhood.  One of them is the transition from three to four.  

When I was pregnant with my younger son, even though my older son was very affectionate with my belly and interested in the baby that was growing inside, I still worried that bringing a new baby into our family might traumatize him somehow.  It probably did on some level, but he seems okay anyway. ;-)

Children's responses to a new family member vary, but they are amazing at adjusting to change and it's amazing to watch them interact with their new sibling. The bond siblings share is different than their bond with parents and it's one, as parents, we hope will be forged in childhood and last a lifetime.

During a newborn session it might seem that the primary focus would always be on the baby, but I try to feature each family member and capture a glimpse of their role in the new family dynamic. Older children are learning to navigate life with a little less input from parents, new babies are simply adjusting to life outside the womb, and parents are on a moving spectrum of totally rocking it and just holding on for dear life. :-) 

It's a mix of lots of love and a bit of chaos.  And documenting those early interactions and moments of adjustment make looking back on this time a little easier and that much sweeter.  

Want to learn how to document your own family's day-to-day?  Check out 4 Steps to Stop Time and Savor the Moment with Your Family.  It's a simple and fun guide to documenting your family's life with beautiful photographs.

Storytellers' Circle September | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

One of my favorite things about documentary family photography is the challenge of telling a story through pictures.  Ideally, the viewer should be able to look at the picture and understand what is taking place and be moved to some emotion.  I love cute pictures of my kids (just check out my Instagram feed!), but my favorite images, and I feel my best images, are the ones I have to work hard for.  A great picture is the result of multiple decisions made by the photographer about how to best show the scene they see and tell the story in a way that emotionally connects with the viewer.  This challenge is what keeps me pulling out my camera on an almost daily basis.

This post is part of the Storytellers blog circle, a group of documentary family photographers from all over the world, who come together monthly to post one image and explain the choices they made that take it from a simple snapshot to more profound storytelling. Continue the circle by checking out Jen Lucas's September image.

I'm sharing one of my favorite recent images today. I love it for several reasons. I'm in it, for one. When one parent is the primary family photographer, they are usually the one least seen in photos. My husband will takes over the camera whenever I ask him, and I do occasionally, but I also love the challenge of a self-portrait with my kids. This one is all the more dear because it shows something about each of their personalities. My oldest's unbounded energy and enthusiasm and my youngest's quiet curiosity.

When I'm considering making an image, I have three key elements in mind: light, composition, and moment.

Composition - In this case, composition was my first consideration. I wanted a wide shot that showed as much of the room as possible. After setting up my tripod, I used the windows and the walls to create a frame for the action.

Moment - My youngest son and I were relatively stationary. I have several sweet shots of the two of us reading and playing on the mattress. But this one is my favorite because of the element of interruption from my eldest. He's mid-stride, both feet suspended in the air and my younger son and I are both turned to watch him, smiling.

Light - While the light is important here, it is a typical light for me. I can rely on the afternoon light coming through these windows and shoot here often for that reason. I love how it catches my son's body and brings my eye to the action first before other elements in the scene.

What would make this image more successful? Part of improving the skill of making storytelling images is noticing what could be better and factoring that into future situations. Here, while I chose a narrow aperture to account for our movement within the frame, we're still not quite in focus. Focus for self-portraits can be a bit hit-or-miss, so choosing a narrow aperture, when possible, helps make missed focus less obvious.

I look forward to sharing more of my process behind making storytelling images next month!

Want to learn how to document your own family's day-to-day?  Check out 4 Steps to Stop Time and Savor the Moment with Your Family.  It's a simple and fun guide to documenting your family's life with beautiful photographs.

Playing with light | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

There are a variety of triggers that give me the urge to pick up my camera when I'm with my family. Most often, it's a combination of inspiring light and some activity. For daily shooting, my favorite times to shoot are when the boys are snuggling or reading in bed with my husband.  This usually coincides with the pretty morning light that comes through our bedroom windows. Often that's the only time of day when there's not too much other things going on for me to grab the camera for at least a few shots.

Now that longer days are here, I've been reminded how much I also love shooting the afternoon light that comes through the windows at the front of our house.  It's mostly where our dog sleeps and the couch is covered in her hair, so we don't use it as often as we used to before we gave up trying to keep her off the couch.  But my son doesn't mind the dog hair and enjoys practicing his "tricks" jumping between the couch and the ottoman.

On this day, it was a perfect marriage of pretty light and a fun, quintessentially childhood, activity. I spent a happy half hour watching my son jump around. Shooting into the light can be difficult to expose for, so taking time to adjust your settings until you get the look you're going for is key. It's easy to lose your subject and other details in the bright light, but it's fun to play around with different exposures for a mix of haze, sun flare, and dramatic rim light. I shot around 80 images and got 8-9 good images where my son is in focus, the composition is favorable, and the light adds to the story.  Here are my favorites.

Want to learn how to document your own family's day-to-day?  Check out 4 Steps to Stop Time and Savor the Moment with Your Family.  It's a simple and fun plan for documenting your family's life with beautiful photographs.

Around Our Clocks: 10am | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

Cold weather is not my favorite, even though it's relatively mild in Northern Virginia compared to many places. But one benefit of winter and being indoors is ample snuggle time. After Christmas, we took advantage of a week at home with both boys to spend lots of time in our pjs. There was tv, but also some crafts (if you count handing a 3-year-old scissors and glitter glue :-) ), fun times with new Legos, and lots of reading from our new Shel Silverstein books. I was a bit wary of Shel SIlverstein for a 3-year-old at first, but he really loves these poems.  They provoke a lot of questions and introduce unfamiliar concepts.  Plus, there so much silliness, and what kid doesn't love that? :-)

These pictures are typical of 10am around our house in the winter. Pajamas and a Daddy-son-cuddle pile on the couch while watching a show.  School and work have returned, but I have lots of pictures to remind me how awesome down time can be. 

2017 is under way and I'm so excited for what this year will bring. We have plans to spend time away with family this year and I can't wait for everyone to meet our youngest son. I have also lots of plans for my business. One that I'm most excited about is incorporating video into my family sessions.  Video adds an element to photography that I didn't even know was missing. Seeing the motion and hearing the sounds, especially of little ones who change so quickly, is wonderfully captured with video and I can't wait to offer that to my clients!

Wishing you the best in the New Year! This post is a continuing post of our monthly Around Our Clocks documentary blog circle. Follow the circle to see what 10am looked like for Meghan Nesom.

Photographing Holiday Traditions | Northern Virginia Family Photographer

I have a confession to make.  My oldest son is three and I have been woefully lazy about holiday celebrations in our house.  Until this year, we've visited family at Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I had an excuse for not creating holiday traditions, because we were always traveling. 

But this year, that came to an end.  We're home for Christmas.  And it only hit me about two weeks ago that I haven't done much to celebrate what a magical time this can be for children. Enter mom guilt galore.  I have fond memories of all the decorations that my mom used to put up in our house and how we'd display on the mantle all the holiday cards we received from friends and family. Decorating the tree was a great trip down memory lane, because we'd use glass ornaments from my mom's childhood mixed in with ones my sister and I created every year at school. 

To be fair, we always have a tree (which I happily decorate with my son) and a few decorations around the house.  And thankfully, my husband loves Christmas lights, so he and my son had fun putting them up this year.  So I haven't had to start from scratch. But when it comes to other traditions - things I want my sons to to look back on fondly and consider hallmarks of the holidays - I have some work to do.  So this weekend, we'll be missing family, but I'm looking forward to celebrating with great neighbors and starting a new tradition of baking and decorating cookies with my son.  

For now, here are a few holiday images from our family so far.

I'd love to hear what your family's holiday traditions are.  What do you remember enjoying from childhood?  What fun things do you do with your kids?  If you need inspiration for documenting your family's holiday celebrations, check out these 25 ideas for Christmas pictures and this hands-free way to document Christmas morning and get yourself in the photos as well.

With any luck, I'll be back next year with some fancy traditions to share.  In the meantime, sign up for my email list below to receive tips for documenting your family.