Whew! My mini-season was FAST and furious!! Over the course of two weekends (plus two rescheduled dates for weather), I met with 25 families and spent 12.5 hours taking pictures for them! I culled through thousands of images to find the best for each family and spent roughly 50+ hours editing! All in all, I delivered 2,424 images (which is a little deceptive because it includes the black and white duplicates). Whew!
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It’s happening!! They are here!! The most wonderful time of the year!! It’s MINI SEASON!
I know I say this every year but I just LOVE mini-season!! I love love love that 90% of mini sessions are returning families and I get to see these kiddos grow up and get bigger and bigger each year! These sessions are SO fun and we’ll do just about anything to get the smiles! I LOVE all the bootie shaking, fart joke giggles, and silliness that happens during minis. I LOVE how excited the kids get to see me – almost as excited as I am to see them! I love catching up with families that have become friends and hearing about the new things that have happened in their lives. And I love being able to serve these friends with beautiful images of their families that they can keep and cherish.
All minis are 30-minute sessions at one location. You are guaranteed at least 15 images – the perfect way to snag a holiday card image and update your family albums. 🙂 Keep scrolling to see how to snag your spot for Richmond Minis 2021!
Minis will be hosted on three separate days this year and at varying locations to add some versatility. All three dates also have rain dates mapped out and both weekends must be available in order to book in case of rain. Spots are more limited this year than in years past so don’t hesitate to grab yours!
To reserve your spot, email me at Alex@alexandra-michelle.com for full details. For details on how we will stay safe amongst the pandemic scroll to the bottom for COVID Precautions.
In order to keep your family and my family safe, we’ll have to be extra cautious because of COVID 19. Please see the guidelines below that we’ll follow to make sure we are all safe. These are subject to change depending on the case numbers in Virginia.
I am so sad I won’t be able to make it up to Maryland this year for minis. I want you to have the best portrait experience and so I’m sending you an email with a list of other photographers in the area that I think would do an amazing job!
As I wrap up another amazing fall season with over 30 families served I have made a goal for myself to actually blog and share the images from this season! You see, every year I get so wrapped up in the hustle of the fall season and holiday minis that I always lapse on sharing the images! The Perez family is a perfect example! The images from their second milestone session last year were some of my favorites of the season but I never got to share them! So this year I cheated a bit and combined the images from their second milestone session from 2019 and this years fall session ☺️. You can check out their first milestone session here.
Julia and Chris are friends of ours from college and we have many a late night shenanigan story shared with them. What’s fun about our sessions is that we have recently tried to schedule them so that Sterling can come at the end and we can at least spend time together. This year with COVID we haven’t gotten to see them so it was especially exciting to get to take their pictures and meet up at a park to socially distance spend time together. Finley was only 2 months old so we planned for Sterling and Finley to drive with me and hang out at the park while I took these images. It worked out great because they got to meet Finley in a socially distanced way.
What’s crazy to see in this joint post is how much of a difference a year makes! Jackson looks SO much older in the 2020 images than from the year before! He’s notably taller but has lost some of his baby face too. Each boy is so uniquely different and great in their own way. Jackson is outgoing, adventurous and a strong leader. Ryan is observant, loving, sweet and independent. I had a blast walking through Black Hill Park near Gaithersburg Maryland for our session this year and downtown Frederick last year with this sweet family. We played games, used our imagination and laughed a lot!
Enjoy this joint blog post of our sweet friends and their precious family!
My dear friend and Alpha Phi sister from JMU welcomed her second son into her family this past month and her family of four is precious. You may remember their family session from last spring which had beautiful bright pink colors from those spring blooms. Looking back at just a year ago it’s crazy to see how much their first son Lincoln has changed! He was so much smaller. Now he’s grown into such a sweet big brother to baby Theo. While I can’t speak from experience, I would imagine that many parents bringing home a second baby worry about how the first baby will feel and react. Christina and Erik are over the moon to see how caring and helpful Lincoln is as a big brother! You should have seen how sweetly excited he got when it was his turn to hold his baby brother. He was perfectly calm and stepped up to the responsibility like a champ! Read More »
Carryn Turns 13!
HOLY shizzz this session was amazing! I got in the car with Brandy and as we pulled out of the driveway she hollered over to Chris her husband about loading up the horses cause we were going to Renee’s. The name sounded familiar but it wasn’t until we started approaching the location that I realized where we were going.
At first I thought Renee’s was a place where Carryn rides, but it wasn’t, it was a gorgeous piece of property of a nearby neighbor, Renee. As we pulled up I realized where we were going, this was the infamous farm. The farm that used to belong to Sterling’s grandmother, where his mother and aunts had lived when they were younger, where Sterling had grown up exploring nature. It’s probably one of his most cherished places and I was seeing it for the very first time.
We pulled up to the property and started looking around. I felt kind of weird actually being there without him, as if I was imposing on his memories and special place. Those feelings quickly faded when we came up a familiar site. A large red barn was right in front of me, beautifully perched up on a hill, the same site that we have framed in our house.
It was neat getting to spend time in a place that is such a huge part of Sterling’s life but that paired with getting to spend time with the Mullins and take these images, made for a perfect night. The Mullins are my kind of people. The first time we took pictures together I needed to get to a higher ground and so climbed up on the shoulders of Chris who didn’t skip a beat. Brandy is a country girl who will do anything for her kids and she has amazing taste. We’d make one hell of a styled shoot duo if I was in the Charlottesville area. For this session, we brought over a trailer with not one but two horses and the whole family joined in to help. At one point I was standing on top of Taylor’s (Carryn’s sister) boyfriend’s car. These people are all in and I LOVE it!
The best part of the whole session was the last few moments in the field with Carryn’s horses. The light got softer, the horses came out and Carryn blossomed. This is her happy place. She is 100% herself when she’s with her horses. She’s confident, carefree, beautiful, soft and strong all at the same time. She SHINES in these images in the field and they are some of my favorites ever.
This horse is BEAUTIFUL! They got him from Chincoteauge!
My first real memory of Leslie was initiation night my first year at camp, circa 2000. She was a JC (Junior Counselor) and this year’s JC group decided to dress up as crazed electricians. Or something to this affect. You see, at camp every summer we initiate our first year campers will a scary (and often times silly) story, a walk around camp and a fun introduction to the rest of camp. Leslie’s group being the “crazed” electricians were dressed up in jeans, plaid, hats and drawn on fake beards (if memory serves me right). I was 12 as a first year camper and she was 16 and we had no idea we’d be such good friends.
Fast forward 5 years and Leslie is my first co-counselor at camp. I felt pretty lucky actually because Leslie was the “Mother of the Row” and I was less nervous knowing I’d have help from a pro! We lived in Pony Express with about 12 nine to ten year olds and boy was it a crazy summer. Note-ably of course, was the 2 week long guessing game of “who is wetting the bed?”. Which ended with a surprise twist and cabin sweeps for three cabins. Truly a memorable summer! In our time as co-counselors together she taught me how to sweep away homesickness, laugh through the weird moments and of course get 12 crazy nine year olds to bed, which is not always an easy task. She was a role model that I always looked up to.
Leslie quickly became a very close friend of mine and a person who I can always call on for help. She is fiercely loyal, a great listener and silly. Greg is the calm in any storm, easy going and a perfect match for Leslie. Seeing them become parents has been a real honor. It is already evident that Greg and Leslie are great parents, they are grounded in love for each other and their new baby. This family of five (let’s not forget the two pups) is simply lovely! Congratulations Leslie and Greg! I’m so happy for you guys!
Meet my new nephew!! That’s right this little cutie is my sister in law’s son and so obviously I’m biased in thinking he’s precious! He is officially a month old now and doing very well! His sister Cora has adapted so well and is really sweet with him. She is gentle and kind and even calms him down by saying “It’s okay little buddy, it’s okay.” ::swoon:: Sam meanwhile is an observer, calm and quietly takes it all in. He has big blue eyes that watch you intently. It’s going to be great watching these two grow up! Read More »