{Lets Go Fly a Kite} | Virginia Beach Family Photographer

Today we flew a kite, chased crabs, explored the sand holes looking for that mysterious lobster and played fetch with the two rambunctious labs that were just itching to dunk their heads in the breaking waves. We stayed, soaking up the warm evening sun, until the last of the surfers had called it a night. I feel so at home with this family. As we headed back to the cars, I overheard them discussing dinner plans which happened to include ice cream on the drive home as an appetizer. What a perfect treat and treasure that made a wonderful afternoon that much more memorable for their little boy.



A special thanks to the P family for inviting me out today! If you would like more information on booking a family session with me, please visit my website at www.csphotopro.com or email me at christene@csphotopro.com

{Pier Side} | Virginia Beach Family Photographer

I always look forward to fall sessions at the beach. There is something magical about the light, like the sun is trying squeeze the last bit of summer rays in before the darkness falls on the afternoon commute. I adore shooting families and I've had the honor of shooting this one a few times now.



To schedule your family session, visit my website for more information or email me at christene@csphotopro.com

A Father's Day Portrait Party | Virginia Beach Family Photographer

So, I've been hiding these pictures since about April or May. I did a very special portrait party for the deployed daddy's for Father's Day. Here are just a couple from our 2-day, 9 family mini sessions! And to all the deployed daddy's out there, wishing you all a wonderful Father's Day! And to my hubby who is probably the only one out on the ship reading this blog, I'm trusting that you aren't sharing this link in case they haven't seen their pictures yet ;) Love ya babe!

She's ONE! | Virginia Beach Children's Photographer

This little spit fire was on her own program today and it was quite the challenge keeping up with her with my big ol' pregnant belly in the way :) She is also my last shoot until this baby decides to make his/her entrance. So, here's a quick sneak peak for Jenn and Nate. I hope you guys didn't get too wet during the freak downpour today!

D Family: Sneak Peek | Virginia Beach Family Photographer

I know how patiently this family has been waiting to see their group shots so I thought I'd throw in another sneak peek for them! This is from our double take with the D family!



Here's a mini sneak peak from our beach shoot with the D Family! This precious little girl is surrounded by some pretty fun cousins who always manage to keep me entertained!

M Family Teaser

What a great time I had with the M Family down at the Oceanfront! They are such a gorgeous family with a couple of awesome kids too. Thanks for the fun tonight! I only wish the sun had tried to peak through!

A fav...

This is becoming one of my favorites from my shoot with the K family. I got the crazy photographer look when I told them I was shooting below the waist, but I love the way it turned out!

K Family Teaser

I had a blast with the K family today! I love the beach at Fort Story, and was thrilled when they picked this beach for their family shoot! Fort Story has it all...dunes, beach, rocks, lighthouse, stairs... and they definitely didn't disappoint with their creativity and fun. Here are just a few teasers for you! The boys really loosened up towards the end and gave me an all out cat walk photo session that had me in stitches laughing. So much fun! Thanks for the laughs guys!



(This one makes me crack up! They really do love each other!)

Blog Assigment #2...Reflections

This past weeks blog assignment was working with reflections. I thought I would really struggle with this assignment because this past week has probably been one of the busiest for me with family in town and military commitments. Finding the time to schedule myself in was definitely at a premium, but what I am finding with these assignments and enjoying more than anything else is that I look at my little world with a new set of goggles on every week. As long as I have my camera with me, I always have the chance to stumble upon something that fits the theme of the week and I have become more aware of what I find interesting around me and how I can present it in a photographic form that you might not have seen before. So here are a few from this past week.

This first one hubby graciously let me use him as my model. He is looking out at our son Logan and I love that you can see and feel the happiness and pride that he feels seeing our son teeter towards him on the sand. ISO was 100, aperture was f/3.2 and shutter speed was 1/500 sec.



Yes, another ferris wheel picture!! But we were showing my in-laws the active oceanfront that Virginia Beach has to offer and these puddles in the parking lot showed off a beautiful reflection of the ferris wheel.



This last one I thought I'd throw in here so I can give you a little photoshop tip! Have you ever taken a picture that should have a gorgeous reflection in the water but the water just seems kind of blah? Usually there is just enough wind to mess your perfect reflection picture up. This was a sunset over the pond by our house and the original picture actually had a very pretty reflection in it already, but I thought it would be a good one to practice this on. I used the rectangle marquee tool (which by the way I'm using CS3 for my edits) and I selected the upper half of the photo from the water line and copied and pasted it so I'd have a double layer (You can also make a new layer of it by clicking Ctrl-J, but I wanted to be able to delete a good portion of it to show the brush in the foreground). Then either right click or hit Ctrl-T for free transform, then right click again and click on Flip Vertical. You can change the opacity to see enough of the layer underneath to place it in the right position then I just started deleting around the edges to bring back some of the foreground. If you had constraints in the picture that you wanted to only bring out the reflection on (like a defined shoreline) you could use the one of the lasso tools to define that constraint (hide the reflected layer first) and then use those constraints to "paint" back in the reflection so it keeps the neat shoreline. I didn't have those constraints in this picture because I was right on the water's edge taking the picture so you can't see where the water meets land in the foreground.

D Family Teaser

I had a blast with the "D" Family yesterday! I would love to see what a typical dinner looks like when this gang gets together. This family has so much sincerity and love for each other I can only imagine the rowdiness from the bigger boys, the squealing from the grandkids, and the laughter and memories that they make together... pure chaos mixed with pure joy and life. Thank you D Family for the fun time at the beach yesterday and giving me a sneak peak into such a wonderful family! I hope you enjoy your teaser pics!







This last one was on our way back. This little girl clung to her Grandpa and I couldn't resist those big brown eyes claiming him as hers.

Family Fun

Here's some more captures of my time with the S Family! They have mastered the art of having fun as a family!