Like most of the east coast this year, Virginia Beach was unseasonably warm this Christmas. But if that means that I can make portraits deep in to the winter, I’m totally okay with that! I could not wait to shoot these family photos and get my lens on her outrageous blue eyes–just like her mama. This dollbaby just turned one in November and is a woman who knows what she wants. She was bright and inquisitive the whole time we were together, interested in exploring, insisting on walking by herself, and of course getting her hands on everything she could.
I love that when I talked about this shoot with Laurin she wanted to avoid the “typical Virginia Beach family photos.” To me, that means we stay off the actual beach as much as possible–which is a nice change of pace for the area. It also means we basically run around and keep Charlee entertained and smiling rather than focusing on posing, which creates the natural, candid portraits that I prefer and is much easier with a one year old for sure.
So instead of hitting the beaches, we met at First Landing, which has plenty of beautiful natural areas to use as a backdrop. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t super cooperative, so we only had about 30 minutes to shoot, but we made it work and sweet Charlee was a super star. See for yourself!
