Leah O'Connell PhotographyCharlottesville, VA
Page 5 of 5
There is something magical about a fifth birthday party… Sparkles, jump houses, laughter, dress up, dancing, PASTA – the list goes on. I am positive that this birthday girl felt the most special as her family celebrated her on this day. After jumping in the bounce house til the sun went down, the family headed inside to video chat extended family, adding to the love.
As we discussed what it looked like to start safely photographing families again, we realized that it was absolutely possible to serve our community and continue our mission to inspire gratitude and express love for people by capturing personality-driven photos in a stress-free experience. As we follow our COVID-19 safety guidelines we can assure you that as we take necessary precautions during your session, your family will still be able to interact and share special moments just as you would have before this season.
As families grow together and your once toddlers are now looking like young men and women, scheduling a photoshoot can seem like a large task. Between practices, school, work, college applications, who has the time?! When you search “family photoshoots” on Pinterest the majority of the photos are with kids under the age of ten. When seeing this you may think – Are family photoshoots just cuter when kids are still young? Maybe it’s just too hard to get our family together in the teenage stage of life? Will they want to participate? Is it worth it?
families, Featured sessions, newborns
This family has been with me since I first got to Charlottesville and they were expecting their first baby. A lot has changed since then, including my photography style and a second baby! When we met for their first journey plan, they were in transition while they built their dream home. Now that they’re in it, we kept this maternity session cozy by celebrating a simple weekend morning of breakfast and backyard time, playing and reading books together. At this point, the nursery was still relatively empty, so we wrapped up by taking a moment in there to embrace the season of waiting and life before 3 became 4 (+ dog 🙂 ).
Between these three family units, the patriarchs + two daughters and their families, each one has moved into a different home or state in the past year. Both sisters had babies within a few weeks of each other, they lost a family dog, both husbands started new jobs, grandparents entered retirement, and the oldest grandchild is hitting toddler life full steam ahead. So Christmas looked really different this year than it did last year.
They bought a house when they were newly married, excited for the opportunity it held and the family that would fill it. 5 kids later, they were ready for an upgrade, but the house wouldn’t sell. For 2 years. Finally, the right person and the right timing fell into place and they sold their first home – but were still searching for their forever.
My job is to capture the sparkle of life, the love between a family, the personality bursting from child’s mischievous grin. You don’t achieve those moments through direction like “sit here,” “say cheese,” or “don’t move.” I want my images for you to be natural, yet flattering– not staged and awkward. Not to mention, wouldn’t you rather reflect upon those interactions, those carefree and laughable moments? And when we look at advertisements, are we not drawn more to images that say something about the type of person wearing those clothes or using that product than a flat image of the product itself? When you look back on your images from a session with me, I want them to say something to you about who you were in that season of life.