It was a chilly day in Old Town Alexandria when I met up with Zaneta, Nick, and their two daughters for their second family portrait session. We got lucky finding parking right there on Lee Street, which is a rarity in the downtown shopping district. Our location for the shoot was Old Town Alexandria right in the middle of the 2022 Christmas season, and it was perfect – Christmas lights were everywhere, and the town square had a gigantic Christmas tree with hundreds of thousands of little yellow lights.
We started our shoot at an antique-looking cobblestone alleyway that is popular with photographers because of its unique historic look and effortless lighting. Photographers love effortless lighting. Despite the cold weather, Zaneta and Nick’s oldest daughter was a trooper and looked adorable all bundled up. The new baby wasn’t quite ready to play along with a portrait session yet, but she refrained from protesting, so we’re calling that a win, and we managed to get some cute photos of her anyway.
We spent a lot of time with the whole family, and took as many photos as we could with their eldest daughter while she was still in a good mood — the cold weather meant there was a deadline on how much traipsing around for pictures she was going to tolerate. She hung in there the whole time though! About halfway through the session, Nick put on a Santa hat, which added exactly the flare we needed to our photos.
After finishing up in the alleyway, we headed over to the Town Square on King Street and took some photos with the Christmas tree in the background. As the sun began to set, we finished up our session with a moody photo of the whole family in a crosswalk with the King Street Christmas decorations in the background.
