Washington DC and Virginia Child Photography - Child Portrait Photographer Ruth David

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Hela Spa Minisessions June 1st! | Virginia Child and Baby Photographer

I am so excited to announce that in summer of 2009, I will begin partnering with Hela Spa  for mini-session events at their beautiful Chevy Chase location. In addition to being the premier medical spa in the DC area, Hela offers a fabulous Baby Spa menu including Baby Massage classes at both their Georgetown and Chevy Chase locations.
The first mini-session date will take place on June 1st. Call or email me to reserve your spot: rdavid@rdavidphotography.com or 703-722-1268. Special pricing and packages will be offered. Book soon, space is limited. Watch this space for a feature on Hela Spa in the next day or two!
For more information, check out the Hela newsletter by clicking here: Hela Promotions

Spring Baby

This is a referral from a great friend and client - so I was excited to see her... and what a beauty! She was such a great sleeper, too - the session was a breeze.
Enjoy the little preview, and the gallery will be finished soon!
 

It's Good to Be Back

Oh, it feels good to be back - both back from my knee surgery and back to warm weather and sunset sessions. This session was an instant fave.
Easiest family to work with - and check out Great Grandma's chair! (Have I mentioned I love it when clients bring special "props" along for our outdoor sessions?)
Here is a quick preview - so many more to get proofed from this great session. Thanks, guys!

Friends...

Just one shot from last week that I promised to share. Maddie visiting with her old friend, Sinatra. Think they  missed each other?

The New Blog Header

So you all may have noticed the new blog header. It's very special to me. It's my kids and their best neighborhood buddies. These are the kids that they spend their time with and go on beach vacations with. I thought it would be neat to do a concept shot including all of them - but wasn't sure how successful we might be with so many 10-and-unders. Well, I am in love with the results. It may be "new creation" love or it may stand the test of time as an all-time favorite (and I suspect the latter). It was certainly helpful that we sketched it out in advance with stick figures (the extent of my sketching talent) and that I had 4 adults there to help corral and control the kiddos. Anyway - the new top banner  is the result, and there are a few others that were winners that I wanted to share here. And attention clients... I LOVE shooting around an artistic concept, so if you have a creative idea for a large art piece, let's talk about fleshing it out!!

A Special Day

On Saturday, I had the extreme pleasure of spending part of the day with a beautiful bride who just also happens to have been my oldest child's 2nd grade teacher. I photographed her bridal party preparations at her mother's house, and it was a lovely day. Thanks for having me over! Here are a few images from the festivities:

Spring Break

One day this week, while the kids were on spring break, my two youngest and I went on a drive. I was actually looking for this old farm where I shot a client session last year. We didn't find it. Two hours in the car, circling the general area, and it was a bust. However, we did find this cool old crumbling stone building (and I could never find it again, if I had to!) We also missed the storm clouds, which is what I wanted to photograph - but oh well. We got a few cute ones. 

The Eyes Have It

This little guy had some of the biggest, most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. Add to that the fact that he was happy throughout the session, and the weather was as perfect as it could possibly be, and you have a great hour spent outdoors with some great images to show for it! Enjoy the preview, mom and dad - gallery is coming soon!

Cherry Blossom Season

On one of the first spring-like Sunday evenings of this year, I met up with a family who wanted to capture the famous DC cherry blossoms as part of their baby's first portrait session. Since Dad was off for a deployment in a few days, we met a bit earlier in the week than previously planned, and decided on the Capitol as a backdrop, hoping to avoid some of the traffic around the Tidal Basin. Even though it was getting a bit chilly, we definitely captured the blossoms as well as some of the beautiful scenery. I wanted to get this up on here asap so that Mom and Dad can view them together before Dad flies out later in the week.

And one I shot from my car window while sitting at a light on the way out of the city:

Back to Work

So - my first day (or rather evening) back to work was this week. And when going back to work after knee surgery, why not just jump right back in and hit the ground running?

For my re-emergence into the work force, I had the honor of photographing an event with the President and several special guests. Here are a few of the photos from a beautiful evening:

During Downtime...

I am stuck on the couch, recovering from knee surgery, and getting really really REALLY bored. I am really looking forward to getting back to work. Earlier this week, we had a beautiful day, so we opened a window, and my daughter was standing in front of it, enjoying the breeze. The light at that time of day in that exact spot was so amazing, I sat up and took notice. It perked me up enough to yell, "Someone please get me a camera!" 

Thankfully, with a little wheeling and dealing, she agreed to get back in place, and I got a few images that I just love. Overall, I love dramatic lighting the best. Learning to create this type of lighting on demand with studio lights is a goal for this year. Here is my favorite:

From Point A to Point B

I thought this was the cutest idea...

Mom asked me to post these here for her doctor

Such a creative way to illustrate how they got from point A to point B!

Fabulous Session. Period.

I had been looking forward to this session since the first time we discussed booking it - for one thing, I had been in the home and knew the light was fabulous. For another thing, mom is a joy to work with. For yet another thing, the kids are an age I just love working with.
And the session did not disappoint. Beautiful light, beautiful kids, beautiful mom, and even two doggies who cooperated like champs.
Here is a sneak peek, with gallery to come soon. Enjoy!

 


  And I got ahead of myself and just couldn't resist trying an antique treatment on this one -
Color:
B/W:

Little Boys...

Great session today - my second-to-last before a small detour for knee surgery next week. The "big boy" in this series was one of my babies that was featured in the Big Book of Babies, so it was extra fun to come back and see how he has grown. It's amazing how time flies. Now he is a big brother, and we tried to get a nice combo of the "new" baby, big brother, and mom/dad/grandparents.
All-in-all, a really great session that should be a lot of fun to proof. Here is the sneak preview:

Little Brother:

Big Brother:

With Grandma (definitely one of my favorite shots of the day!):

Little bro again:

And I couldn't resist one of him with a photo from his baby session:

 

Thanks for a fun morning, more to come soon!

I See You in Every Drop of Rain

Sometime last year I became fixated on macro photographs that showed reflections of flowers in the dewdrops. They were so impressive. Impressive enough that I spent hours experimenting with flowers and tape, trying to get the reflections just right. At some point it occurred to me that if you could reflect a flower, you could also reflect other things, including images, if you went about it the right way. After much experimentation, I came up with a process that gave me these images:

For some reason, I never continued down this line of experimentation, but I am thinking I may start back on it this week. It's sort of been calling me lately...

Simply Precious

There's not much more to say. This was the most adorable baby boy, and he just smiled all over himself. I loved this session and couldn't wait to grab a few and proof a preview!


 

Something New - Skywatch Friday

Since I do so many silhouettes, I am trying something new, for fun: Skywatch Friday! First post - a favorite silhouette sunset image:

Check out more skywatch images at: The Skywatch Blog

First Newborn of the New Year

This little guy has to be one of the most mellow newborns I have ever seen. He was awake most of our session, but was so content and calm and relaxed throughout. It's always special to do a newborn when you shot the Mommy's maternity session, as I did with this one - and I couldn't help but sneak in a few of big sister alone, she's SUCH a beauty. Enjoy the preview, gallery is coming soon.

 

 

First Session of '09!

Well, after a great holiday break, it's time to get back to work. The first session of 2009 was an engagement session. What a great way to start off the New Year! The word TROOPERS does not even sum up this couple - it was absolutely freezing out, and they were fantastic.
Thanks for a fun start to '09 - here is a preview of the session. Gallery to follow soon!