It is almost 2018! Are you excited for the New Year? I love goals and resolutions so this is always a favorite time of the year for me. I don’t always accomplish my goals but I sure love making them! Imagining all the ways I will improve myself in the coming year is a fun process for me. If one of your resolutions for the coming year is to get family portraits done NOW is the time to book. I will be rolling out new prices with the new year. However, you can book your family portrait session for ANY time in 2018 right now and lock in the 2017 pricing. You need a scheduled date and a $50 deposit to book. Do not delay! Contact me today! Visit my About page to see 2017 pricing!

Family portrait photographer in Topsail Beach, North Carolina

[tg_small_content class=””]Anna Rasmussen is a featured and award-winning family portrait photographer in Topsail Beach, NC. She loves documentary-style family photography and beautiful lifestyle portraits. Her two favorite things to photograph are travel logs and birth stories in the hospital, but she also loves everything family – from capturing the joy of expectant parents in maternity photography, the first days of a baby’s life in Newborn Fresh 48 Sessions, the beauty of everyday chaos in Family Day-in-the-Life Sessions, and on-location family portrait sessions. Anna is an on-location photographer, serving areas of coastal North Carolina, including Wilmington, Hampstead, Topsail Beach and Surf City. Book a session here with Anna today! Thank you so much for stopping by!

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I bought a fun old soviet camera at an antique market in Moscow. It is a rangefinder and it took me a roll or two to get the focus figured out. But I loved running some rolls of Ektar through it and even though some of these shots are missing focus I love the feeling of them! Ektar film is quickly becoming my favorite film to shoot. As I focus on my style and “who I am as a photographer” I am quickly realizing that I am colorful. And I dont want whimpy white washed colors. If it is in color I want the real thing. These fall colors remind me of one of my favorite times of year.

Our little aquarium here in North Carolina is not the best one in the world by any means. But it is big enough to keep girly happy and there is a fun playground attached and thats all the boys need. Ha! It was a fun outing.

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We enjoyed a fun road trip complete with Harry Potter on audio book to Nashville over Thanksgiving. I love road trips! Most of all I love seeing things, light, nature, cities. It really doesn’t matter what. I love new places and new adventures. I think driving is such a fun way to see the world, to see changes in the landscape. We drove over the smokey mountains and they were actually very smokey because of forest fires.

This was our second time in Nashville, but we had fun exploring some new places. I love street photography and capturing my children exploring a new city. Documenting my children’s exploration is my favorite use of my time.

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Friday’s are my favorite day. After my workout, I go to bible study with my lovely friends. Then I got my hair done! (always a good day, and there were a couple friends hanging out). I had a portrait session this afternoon. Tonight I was driving to pick up another kid from another activity. I still had about three more kid activities to go, but at that moment I was alone in my car (never happens). As I watched the sun set, I just had this huge swell in my heart of love for this place. I shouldn’t be surprised, I have lived here about a year and a half, that is usually when I realize how much I love the place where I am living. Somehow I think there must be a cap though on places I can love, but it keeps happening over and over again. We move and it is hard, and I try to figure out what I want. For my kids, for my business, for myself. At some point the tendrils of the place reach up and start grabbing my heart. When I reach this point I know just how painful it is going to be to leave. Do I lock up my heart or do I just keep falling in love with each place I move to?

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My favorite thing about St. Petersburg quite obviously was the leaves. I have missed the fall since moving to the South and seeing it in Russia was amazing. Also I loved the food in St. Petersburg, some of the tastyiest Stroganoff ever.

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Moscow completely surprised me. It was such a clean and safe feeling city. It was huge and modern. Maybe I sound naive saying these things but as I tell most of my friends about my trip, it seems that I am not alone in my presumptions about what Moscow would be like. I loved it there.

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I figured out this was my fifth time in Paris. Makes me feel like a spoiled person! I feel so lucky to have seen as much of the world as I have. Traveling really fills a part of my soul. I loved this time to Paris. I had seen the sights and was able to just relax and photograph what I saw. Street photography is always my favorite thing to do in Paris. I first got into photography looking at a Eugene Atget book in high school. He was a pioneer documentary photographer in Paris in the 1900s. When I walk around Paris, I still feel his influence and a desire to capture life on the streets of Paris.

If you would like to order one of these prints for your home. You can do so here!

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Have you ever heard of the Bumblebee Towers? Me either. A military friend of mine was moving out of North Carolina and wanted something to remember the area by. She wondered if I had ever photographed the beach with one of these towers in it. I had never even noticed them. They were built during WWII and used for military testing along the beaches of North Carolina. Some of them have been converted into beach houses, some have fallen down and others like this one, are just still standing there. The thing with military life is everywhere you live takes a piece of your heart. It is kind of like having multiple children. You think how will I ever love this place, home, friends, situation as much as the last? Then it comes time for new orders and you want to live forever in the place you are now. I never expected to feel “at home” at so many different places spread all over the country. But I do. So I totally understood when my friend came and requested I photograph this tower and spot of beach that has been a special spot for her and her family. I loved doing it. The first series of images were taken early in the morning after a Saturday run. I really just wanted to scope out the area and access to the tower, but I ended up loving these images. The moodiness of them and the fog coming off the ocean are my favorite elements. At some point this particular tower has a pier attached to it, hence the few sticks out in the water. I came back a couple weeks later and spend a beautiful sunset with this stretch of beach. I figure when someone commissions you to take a landscape photograph they are looking for a stunning sky and it did not disappoint this day. I loved every moment of this project!

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Fifteen years ago I was blessed to go on a study abroad in college. From that experience stemmed friendships that will last forever. Life has held joys, triumphs, disappointments and struggles for all of us, and I know there will be more of all of those to come. I am grateful to know that in addition to my wonderful family I will always have the unconditional love and strength of these three amazing, ordinary, fabulous women to back me up. I was not born into a family with any sisters but I feel I have been compensated over and over again by the inspiring women I do have in my life. Every couple of years the four of us get together for a “coma” as we call it, no kids, husbands, bills or real life. We laughed, cried, exercised, ate and explored. In our normal lives we are spread across the country and we don’t talk everyday or every week or every month even. But when we came back together it was if no time had passed, and yes I know that sounds cheesy! My favorite moments by far were spent kayaking out on the Puget Sound. We sat out there for hours, just talking, sunbathing and enjoying the peaceful lull of the water. The weather for our weekend could not have been more perfect and just added to the serene and therapeutic time. I have never seen Mt. Rainer so much. Time away from my everyday life and spent in the company of those who know me so well and love me anyway was THE best possible way to start of my summer. It rejuvenated my creativity, soul and body, as always, love you ladies and thank you for the wonderful time! Also did I mention we look totally hip and not nerdy at all on our Segways? You know you are jealous. 😉

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