Northern Virginia Family Photographer - Chilly

This past Saturday I met with this beautiful family downtown at a new location. I love finding new places to hold my sessions that not many people know about or dare to go. I, as usual, had great expectations but Mother Nature decided to cut them short by turning down the heat. These kids were troopers and it didn't seem to bother them that it was barely over 40 degrees outside. Even though it was very chilly, we got the job done and by looking at the pictures I don't think anyone will be able to tell that we all were freezing our tails off.

Thanks for coming out and enduring the cold with me "H" family. Your children are absolutely beautiful!

How cute are these twins? I could have just played with them all day!

And their adorable big brother, right before he showed me all his great sports moves.

Northern Virginia Child Photographer -- Talent

Every person has a talent. Something that they excel at. I have many talented friends but today let me tell you about my good friend Christi. Christi and I are friends through the wonderful invention of the internet. She lives in Oklahoma and I am in Virginia. We "chat" almost daily through Facebook and if we lived closer to each other we would probably get in trouble for shopping too much, laughing too loud and would love every single minute of it. Christi is talented. She makes these AMAZING handmade children's clothes and quilts. Christi suggested to me a few months ago that in exchange for a camera lens that I had, she would make me a 1st year quilt. Leave it to a mom to be creative in getting what she wants. :) Well long story short, the UPS man dropped of a box this past Friday of the most beautiful quilt I have ever seen. It is covered with clothes that my little one wore during her first year. Included on it is a hair bow, socks, her first Easter outfit, 3 and 6 month picture outfits, her first pair of jeans, my favorite onesies that she wore, all put together in a gorgeous creation. Words cannot express how much I love this quilt. I cried when I opened the box. Only a true friend could create something like this that will be treasured for a lifetime and only take a simple camera lens in exchange for it.

If you would like to see about getting one of these for your little one, look Christi up at www.thesassyruffle.com. You will not be disappointed.

{Northern Virginia Photographer} Oasis

Today my little one and I joined my Mother in Law for an outing that I wasn't expecting. We went to a small, very out of the way park in the District. It was nice to have my camera out for the pure enjoyment of taking a picture or two. You see, as I wrote in a previous post, I have a new camera. My new camera and I are still dating and things are going very well. But, we haven't quite hit that old couple groove yet. You know what I mean? I still fumble with the controls a little bit, lose track of where my fingers are and what button does what. I feel confident that my clients will like what they see but it will take a few more weeks I think before Mr. New Camera and I hit our groove together.

So today was a treat to have someone with me who could watch the wee one and I could concentrate on what I love to do, take pictures. The flowers were lovely and so different than what I find in my normal locations. You will be able to see that many of them were HUGE, even taller than I am in some instances. Even the lily pads were huge. A fun morning in a great location that was different than your normal walk in the park, and I loved it!

I would love to know how some photographers UV filter ended up out in the middle of this pond on one of the giant lily pads.

Facebook {Northern Virginia Photographer}

Do you Facebook? Well, I do and spend entirely WAY too much time there! It is like crack and habit that sucks you in and before you even know it, you are hooked. I love it because it gives me a way to connect with my friends and family near and far in one easy location. My parents are in California, my sister in London and friends are scattered all over the place. I love being able to connect with them through the miracle that is the internet. So if you want to find me you can either click here for my fan page (psst - if you become a fan you might win a session or a great discount) or click below for my personal page. I hope to see you there!

Dorie Hamilton Howell | Create Your Badge

San Juan Island {Northern Virginia Child Photographer}

One of the things we did while in Seattle was take the day and travel up to San Juan Island. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. While on the ferry my husband picked up some of those tourism flyers that tell you what is on the island and where you can spend all your money. I, being the non-spontaneous one of the group, told him that we didn't need them. We had our agenda and we would stick to it. Well, he insisted we keep them and look at them and I am glad he did.

One of the flyers was for a Lavender farm on the island. I knew the the lavender was in bloom at home so I made a phone call to their store and asked if we could visit the farm. Well, not only could we visit the store, we could go to the farm which just happened to be in full bloom AND was having it's annual lavender festival. I was so excited. You see what my husband didn't know is that I had packed a dress for our little girl to wear just in case a great photo-op came up. And this was a GREAT photo-op!!! So our trusty GPS took us to Palindaba Lavender Farm. I could have stayed there all afternoon but the ferry beckoned us back, but not before I took almost a full memory card of pictures.

This little lake was across the road from the Farm. They were having children's sailing lessons while we were there.

The Eyes have it {Dorie Howell Babes}

I had a wonderful morning today hanging out with my good friend Miss C. I have taken her pictures three times already. The first time was for her moms maternity session. The second time was in the hospital when she was just a day old and then we did her newborn session two weeks later. She is just so sweet. I love to see my clients grow and she has certainly done that over the past three months. Thanks for spending the morning with me today. I am looking forward to seeing all the new things you are going to be able to do in three more months.