I had a blast at International Dance in Alexandria, VA recently! I got to photograph dancers of all ages in a studio session! Talk about a photographer's dream... you barely have to direct the posing.  Thanks to their teachers the dancer's have grace and an innate ability to pose!  
This is just one of the beautiful costumes this dancer got to wear in their Spring Performance!
They told me that anyone interested can come by and try out any dance class for FREE! Not only do they teach classical ballet but also tap, lyrical, folk, character, Broadway, and African Dance.

A professional headshot is worth it!  Contact me when you ready for a new image!

A gorgeous subject in a beautiful setting! It really is cool when your clients live in a lake community!

It's probably pretty easy to see who is running this photo session from the first photo here.  Little "A" just turned ONE! A photo session was planned to commemorate! Just look at the determination in her cute little face!  She is a girl on the move!  So I, as well her family realized that we were going to be working around this special time in her life!  That is how it goes sometimes and you can't fight it, you are compelled to go with it, have fun and capture the family exactly as they are right this minute! (Her big sister was a very patient and delightful helper!)

I received a Third Place award at the Northern Virginia Photographic Society Monthly Competition for this shot by the Jefferson Memorial!  I had a lot of fun that day hanging with my daughter and our friends!  Photographers love and need to flex their creative muscles every once in a while! (This photo is a great example of depth of field. Note how the perfectly sculpted marble column is in focus but the rest of the photo "drops off" meaning loses focus. When you look you can still see people on the stairs and know they are enjoying themselves.)  FYI: I  have a lot of cool portrait ideas and locales for sessions on the National Mall.  Contact me to book a session!  

"Building Blocks"
First Place Win at NVPS Geometry themed competition, December 18, 2018!
​I have to thank our Virginia Ice Theatre team for taking us to the 2018 Theatre on Ice Nationals Competition in Geneva, IL this year.  That trip gave me the opportunity to tour Chicago with great friends and to get this shot!  

Wait, that's not the title of the song I'm thinking of... well no matter!  Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph the N family and they have 10 & 13 year old boys!  Even though it was cold, they were great sports while we got some great images for them! Coat off and coats on! (These are not all of the images from the session but some of my favs!)  If it is cold out I try to keep my clients on the move in between shots to help keep them a bit warmer.  In the end, it's clear the boys just wanted to have fun!  :-)

What a great model M. has been for 4 years now!  She is really growing up! These images are of her smiling. On this last photo session her mom informed her that not every image has to look like a serious album cover!  (That comment made me laugh and think of my own same aged daughter who has adopted the serious look too!) If you check out my other posts or look around my website you'll see lots of great not smiling photos of M!  I love a serious photo actually and usually end posting them! For more information on the history of smiling in photos here is a short video "Ask Smithsonian: Why Don’t People Smile in Old Photographs?"  Here is the Link: (copy/paste)
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/ask-smithsonian/ask-smithsonian-why-dont-people-smile-in-o/
Smiling or not...  I'm already looking forward to next year! ~ Julie

I had great time at the Lake Barcroft session with teen K!  She was a great sport giving us some action shots as well as great timeless portraits!  Beautiful young lady!