It was during their in-person family photography consultation that the Swyndles introduced me to historic Waters House, practically in our own backyard in Germantown, Maryland! It’s a place they enjoy going to for walks with the girls, with its forested background and various red barn structures.

This was not to be the Swyndle’s first professional family photography session. They had done several with “big box” portrait studio locations, and the girls had been photographed for school pictures, but their professional photographer experiences were mixed, they said. There had only been one photographer with whom the girls had a good dynamic and looked comfortable or cheerful, and they would have preferred more choice in the variety of backgrounds; this time they wanted to go with a more natural environment. They had also found that there wasn’t much time flexibility with the big box portrait studios – they’d have to come during an inconvenient time, and then would end up having to sit and wait for their portrait session to start. “We’re ready to move up with our family pictures,” they told me.

I asked them to choose three words to describe the feelings they envisioned their family pictures portraying, and these are the words they chose: personality-filled, artistic, beautiful. And that’s why they had come to me, they said. They’d found my photography portfolio, and my photography “captured kids as who and how they are, in the moment, very real and natural, and also very beautiful from an artistic perspective.” And in the end, we simply went out and had fun, with the girls – romping about, running up and downhill, jumping on mom and dad, and piling leaves on each other. I love the colorful clothing they chose – bright and cheerful, just like the photographs. At their “photo reveal,” the family chose their favorite family portrait for me to print on metal at a 20×30″ size. Absolutely gorgeous!!! And many thanks for this amazing 5-star Germantown photographer review on Yahoo!