Charlotte NC Family Photography Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Charlotte Family Photographer

03 Oct

The Carolinas Family Photographer | Christmas & Holiday Cards and Your Clothing Selections

The Carolinas Family Photographer | Christmas & Holiday Cards and Your Clothing Selections

Yes, the Christmas music is already playing in my car. About two weeks ago, as we drove home from a doctor visit, my 4 year old little man wasn’t feeling well, and I needed to cheer him up. So I asked Siri to play “The Chipmunks”. Now every morning on the way to school, I get to listen to The Chipmunks versions of “O Christmas Tree”, “All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” and “Jingle Bell Rock” along with a few other classics sung by the high-pitched little animals.

But Christmas and the holiday season have been on my mind for many months already. As a portrait photographer, one of my favorite products to deliver to my clients is beautiful Christmas and Holiday cards. I’ll start designing card ideas for clients in April and May, because the photographs from their portrait session can always make a beautiful card to share with their friends and families.

Recently, a client was curious about her outfit selection, and wondered if their holiday outfits would work nicely with the Fall Foliage in the parks during this time of year. So, I thought it would be a great idea to share a few examples of holiday card designs from previous sessions as inspiration for future portrait session clients.

While some clients specifically choose to dress in holiday outfits for their portraits, I have found that almost any selection of coordinated outfits will pair nicely with the variety of Christmas and Holiday Card templates I have acquired over the years. My clients have even used images from their Spring and Summer portrait sessions for their cards, and most of the colors in my templates can be adjusted to match the color palette of my clients’ outfits. And honestly, I personally love traditional holiday outfits photographed outdoors with the beautiful Fall Foliage. The colors work well together and complement each other nicely, especially when you included the beautiful, golden Fall sunshine.

After completing one session last year, one of my clients clapped her hands with excitement and said, “Yay! I can’t wait to have my very own Carolyn Ann Ryan Photography Christmas cards this year!” It seriously makes me smile every time I think about that moment and realized my cards were “a thing”.

The Carolinas Family Photographer shares samples of Holiday Card Designs

The Carolinas Family Photographer, Carolyn Ann Ryan, shares samples of Holiday Card Designs for clients

And I just love cards that include images on the front cover, inside and even the back of the card. While I will include my logo on the back of all of my cards, I still love including a sweet and storytelling image on the back of my clients’ cards (and my own too). Sometimes, the back of the card is my favorite. Here are a few of my favorite Back Covers from last year’s holiday cards.

The Carolinas Family Photographer shares samples of the backs of Holiday Card Designs for clients

Hope these cards help to inspire your next portrait session and I continue to look forward to creating more cards for my incredible clients!!!

Vendors: Christmas and Holiday Card Templates from Design Aglow

07 Aug

Marvin, NC Summer Family Portraits | Everybody

I just love Summer Family Portrait sessions. We photographed this adorable family locally right in a local park and had a great afternoon with the kids exploring the area. At this time of the Summer, there were still a few cicadas around, and the two littlest ones had no fear and loved looking at them and even picking them up to get a closer look. They tried to give me a few to bring home as presents, but I explained that the cicadas would be happiest at the park. 🙂

Check out these images of a sweet local family.

Marvin, NC Summer Family Portraits by Carolyn Ann Ryan
Summer Portraits in Marvin, NC with North Carolina Family and Child Photographer Carolyn Ann Ryan.

North Carolina Child and Family Photographer photographs a Summer portrait session in Marvin, NC

03 Feb

Charlotte, North Carolina Family Photographer | Favorite Fridays – Displaying Photographs in Your Home

Today’s Favorite Friday blog share is about one of my favorite things to do – helping my clients decide how to display their new family photographs in their home. While I love photographing families and capturing wonderful moments and memories for my clients, I also absolutely love when my clients choose to display the images from those sessions in their home.

Did you know that displaying family photographs in your home can help improve a child’s self-confidence by giving them a sense of belonging? Being a mother, that is almost reason enough for me. But I also believe that adding family photographs to your walls adds a natural warmth to your home, and also just makes you smile more from glancing at the sweetness of the moments we captured that day. Who couldn’t use a few extra smiles each day?

But I often find that my clients are not sure how to display these images in their home, and have difficulty deciding what to order on their own. That is why I meet with all of my clients just a few weeks after their session for an ordering consultation, and I bring customized ideas for the best ways to display the images from their sessions on their walls.

Here are just a few examples of the beautiful gallery-wrapped canvas cluster ideas I have prepared for my clients. There are many more options and layouts, and I would love a chance to work with your family to add happiness and warmth to your walls and home.

26 Jan

Charlotte, NC Photographer | You Can’t Win, If You Don’t Try

Last year, while I was attending WPPI in Las Vegas, Animoto was sponsoring the “Animoto Pro Success Story Contest”. All you had to do was swing by the booth and answer a few questions on video about how you use and why you love Animoto, and one person would be chosen to be featured in an Animoto ad. I had been using Animoto to create slideshows for my clients for about one year, and they always did such an outstanding job helping to convey the emotions and story behind every session. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon for a Mom to tell me that it brought her to tears (or her parents, her husband, her neighbors, or her friends).

The contest itself sounded very cool, and although I figured a bunch of awesome and amazing photographers would be lining up for this opportunity, I decided to take a chance. Who knows, right? You definitely can’t win if you don’t at least try, and the opportunity sounded so exciting.

A few months later, I received a phone call from Animoto that I had been chosen to be featured in an ad that would run in Rangefinder and Professional Photograph magazines! Are you kidding me? Their ads so far have featured Kevin Kubota, Vicki Taufer, Scott Bourne, Jeff & Allison Rodgers and so many other wonderful people in the photography industry. And now I could count myself among them? Really?

It took time for me to believe it was really true. We spent some time discussing the plan for the shoot and Animoto’s own Justin Camerer (photographer & software developer) agreed to do the session right in Animoto’s offices. The tech geek in me (that spent 11 years doing software design) was really excited to visit Animoto’s offices and get to know their amazing team. In all honesty, if I still worked in Technology, I would want to work with these guys.

One of the things I love about Animoto isn’t just their awesome slideshows, but I love working with vendors that support photographers and provide education for our industry. And everyone I’ve met from Animoto has been incredible. Their slideshows have amazed my clients, and I still get so excited each time I click the button to produce a new slideshow.

I’m so excited to share a few images from the photo shoot and announce that the ad was published in Rangefinder and Professional Photographer magazine this January. I’m so grateful to Animoto for this opportunity and can’t believe my name is listed in the drop-down on their site along with a ton of top photographers that I admire. Thank you!

Special thanks to Justin Camerer for the portraits and Lindsey Jones for hair/make-up. I loved working with both of you!

25 Oct

Professional Matthews NC Child Photographer | Tiny Dancer

Starting this week, I’m introducing two weekly blog posts. Every Tuesday will be Tiny Tuesday where I post favorite images from sessions over the last few years and talk about why I love the photograph. Later this week, I’m going to start Favorite Fridays where I will share a favorite toy, children’s store, educational item or service related to children. I do expect that many of these will be local to my area and my clients, but some may be national or online items.

I do hope you enjoy these posts and I welcome feedback and comments.

This week’s Tiny Tuesday share is an adorable little girl caught spinning in the grass. As we started our session last Summer, she was a little shy and I needed to get her to warm up to the camera. I noticed her dress was perfect for spinning, so I backed up to give her some space and also a feeling that I wasn’t right on top of her and asked her to just twirl. What little girl doesn’t love to twirl and watch her own dress spin in the breeze? The result was this adorable image, and the remainder of the session was just wonderful. I love the timeless feel of this image. For me, it captures an innocence and sweetness that is a part of being a little girl – just a moment lost in their own world spinning in their dress.

27 Sep

Waxhaw, NC Child Portraits | All Smiles

Have you ever seen a photo of your children that you just kept going back to look at it over and over because you loved it so much? A photo that just makes you smile really big everytime you see it? You know, the photo that makes you stop and say to yourself – “Wow, these guys are mine and I love them so much! They may drive me nuts sometimes, but just look at them, they are awesome.”

Sometimes, all it takes is just one image to give you that feeling, and I was so happy to capture that one image for myself this weekend.

These guys love to run. They squeal and giggle as they are running, and I think this image just shows my munchkin and pumpkin at their best – happy together.

This is why I do what I do. Because, sometimes, you get a picture that will just make you smile everytime you see it. I love when it happens for me, but I also really do love when it happens for my clients, too. There will be more to share from this session, but for now, here was favorite.

21 Sep

Lovable Marvin, NC Family Photography | Nieces

I am blessed to have four beautiful, little nieces living not too far away. They are my daughter’s best friends, and we just love spending time with them.

I think my sister loves having a photographer in the family, but I don’t mind. It is a pleasure to spend a few hours with these girls and capture their beautiful smiles and watch them grow.
This year, some of my favorites are of my youngest niece, because she made me work for some of those smiles as you can see below, but capturing all of her personality (including the “fake” pouts) was just so much fun. Sometimes, those are the images that make me giggle most when I’m post-processing the session on my computer.

Here are some highlights from our End of Summer session last week. {Thanks girls for being so wonderful and fun!}

26 Jul

Joyous Charlotte NC Family Portraits | One Reason I Love My Job

Last week, I had the opportunity to hang a family portrait on the wall of someone very special to me. As you might expect, I’ve photographed my older sister’s family almost as much as my own. She has four beautiful daughters that are full of spirit and energy. And while I have many beautiful images of them, this one has become one of my all-time favorite photographs. They are a family that is always on the go, and always having fun together, and this image just captures who they are as a family.

Joyous Charlotte NC Family Portraits by photographer Carolyn Ann Ryan

05 Jul

Precious Marvin, NC Child and Family Photographs | Enjoying Childhood

What could be better than spending a morning with a happy family? For me, the only thing better is sending that same family beautiful images of our time together that they will cherish for years to come. Childhood is filled with so many sweet moments, and it was a pleasure to capture those moments with these adorable little girls.

Even now as I post these images, I just want to go outside, find a little dandelion and make a whole bunch of wishes and remember the fun of being a little girl.Enjoy!