Beach photography Archives | Anna Rasmussen Photographs

beach lifestyle fall family portraits {north topsail island, north carolina}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 13:34:01 +0000

As a family portrait photographer, I feel lucky to have the opportunity to get to know and document my wonderful clients. Every time a new family comes in front of my lens I find beauty, love and something uniquely them. I was blessed this fall to capture many different families. Today I am so excited to share this one with you.

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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lifestyle family portraits {playing at the park in surf city, north carolina}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 17:33:32 +0000

One thing I love about being a family portrait photographer is return clients. I love photographing the same family over and over again. It is such a benefit to get to know them and be able to see them grow and change. Here is another awesome lifestyle family portrait session of a completely different variety! This family wanted to capture some park memories so we headed off and just played. I have photographed this wonderful family many times and it is always fun to see the boys having a blast. They are so fun! I hope you enjoy a peek into this family and all the fun they have together. Scroll down for some random mom thoughts that are bumping around in my head and need an outlet.

Lifestyle Family Portrait Photographer

Its a Monday, which for me means laundry day and a day where I usually stay home. I feel mentally exhausted today and I am really not sure why. It was a stressful day of church yesterday, with lots of responsibilities and I was teaching. I still don’t feel completely recovered from a long trip back west to see my family and am feeling out of sorts as my oldest son stayed with said family to attend scout camp with his cousins. I also have been listening to an audio book about communication “How to talk to that kids will listen and listen so kids will talk.” It is good. But it also honestly leaves me feeling inadequate.

As with all things I am sure the principles they are teaching just take practice. Me practicing how to respond and my kids getting used to my new responses and learning to communicate with me. I tried it today with Evan, my boy of a million feelings and it didn’t go well. Which of course made me just want to throw up my hands even more in frustration. But I can see the truth in the book. Perhaps I will report back here on my blog if things get better.

Something I am learning as I parent these older children is that at some point I have to give myself some grace. Not every meal is going to be pure health. The house wont always stay clean. We cant always be on fun and educational activities. I wont have the perfect answer to every problem and question and that is all okay. Its all okay. If we love each other and continue to do our best the rest will work itself out. Good reminder for me today!

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love for camping, my favorite place to be {outdoors in north carolina}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 00:34:27 +0000

The great outdoors! How I love thee! These Topsail Beach lifestyle portraits from a recent camping trip make me so happy. I hope I can instill in my children the good and health that can come into your soul from spending time in nature. If I am trying pretty hard it will probably happen right?

What do you do to instill your beliefs, morals and passions in your children? Is there a right way? I would love to hear your thoughts. I focus on trying to create happy and positive memories associated with that thing. Inevitably there are bothers in any situation. When this happens I try to brush it aside and not get angry. If it is stressful or a lot of hard work (as camping with small children can be!), I step back, adjust my attitude and strive not to let that be a negative thing.

The blessing of hard work is something I learned from my parents that I want to pass on to each of my children. So it is not that I hide the hard work, but I make it fun, bonding and something we all do together. Something that brings you rewards, not just monetary rewards, but rewards of feelings of accomplishment and confidence. Whew! Thats a lot of depth from some fun pictures with headlamps!

The headlamps were my other favorite part of this camping trip. My kids got so involved in this project! They kept coming back to check every image on the back of the camera, and then making a new plan as to what they would do for the next shot. I often hear photographers talk about putting down the camera to be present. For me sometimes the camera helps me be part of my children’s world in a new way that wouldn’t be possible without it. This night was one of those times. I need to go camping again!

Topsail Beach lifestyle portraits

[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. However 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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golden light, family pet and a graduate {sneads ferry, north carolina}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 16:15:32 +0000

When it comes to Topsail Beach Senior Portraits, I do not photograph as many as I used to, so I jumped at the opportunity to photograph a friends son as he prepares to go to college. I work so much with young children sometimes it is hard to make that transition to a teenager. Jamison was so easy going though and willing to work with all my artistic visions. He had such a wonderful connection with their family pet, so we took some special shots just with her. I love capturing a child leaving home with some of the things they will miss most. His hometown of Sneads Ferry was the perfect location. Sneads Ferry is a fishing village and his grandparents have property right on the water. I loved using this old fishing pier as a backdrop!

Topsail Beach Senior Portraits

[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 and senior 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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Family fun adventure for all ages {outerbanks, north carolina}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 17:07:30 +0000

When I travel with my family I go back and forth from wanting to take zero pictures or wanting to be a documentary travel photographer. On this trip I did the second and love the images I got telling the full story of our entire trip. It would be such a dream for me to be able to travel along with clients and do this for them. You would have lifestyle storytelling images with both parents in all of them. No one stuck behind the camera. You would be free to really embrace the new discovery and situations with your children. All while I captured those moments for your memories and prints on your walls. Imagine gorgeous sunsets photographs documenting amazing places and you are in the image. Art worthy prints that include you to decorate your home with. These images from our trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina are just that for me.

My favorite thing about the Outer Banks was the sky and the dunes. I just loved the negative space in this first place we explored. The wind is legit up there and flying a kite just has such childhood nostalgia. One of those timeless childhood activities that will never go out of style.

Lighthouse exploration was another fun adventure. Unfortunately our spring break fell a week before the lighthouses open for climbing to the top. We were sad to miss that experience, but these beautiful structures provided a picturesque place to run our legs out and have some fun. My favorite part of traveling with my children is how they force me to slow down and spend some time playing at each location. It is a much needed break!

Outer Banks Family Adventures

The Wright brothers museum and grounds was another amazing place to just play. Their life size replica plane turned jungle gym occupied the kiddos for a couple hours. Fields of wildflowers and a huge hill up to the memorial made for a very memorable afternoon. My girly girl LOVES all the flowers, but my favorite part about her picking them is she is always convinced they will grow more once we get them home and put them in water. No matter how much I tell her, “once you pick them they are dead” she just doesn’t believe it.

Other fun things we did out on the Islands was some classic putt putt, ghost crab hunting, swinging, and dance parties on the beach. This was such a fun trip. Late nights with friends playing games, lip sync battles and yummy food topped it all off. Are you going on any adventures soon? Want a photographer to document it all for you? Contact to me today!

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My Life in Living Color {documentary family portraits}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Sat, 03 Jun 2017 18:14:03 +0000

If you have been following me for any amount of time you know that although I occasionally post a black and white photo most of what I love is brought to you in living color. Bright, saturated, middle of the day color. This project to post a rainbow on instagram definitely turned into one of my favorite projects ever. Here is a recap of the images I created for the ultra fun and colorful month!

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A princess and her boys {topsail beach family portraits}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Sat, 20 May 2017 04:15:49 +0000

Let me tell you the wind can rip up the island like no body’s business and on this evening it was doing exactly that. This family is not only laid back, fun and ready to try anything, but the mom’s specific vision was her hair and flowey dress rippling in the wind. It turned out to be such a fun and gorgeous session. The boys got wet and played in the water, the parents snuggled on the beach and the sunset came out in style. I am so grateful for my amazing clients! I cant wait for my next portrait session with this family!

Film or digital for family portrait sessions

I photograph hybrid for my beach family portrait sessions on Topsail Island. Digital is great for the ability to shoot endless amounts of candid images of your family playing and loving one another. Kids get distracted easily at the beach, so my fast focusing lenses and digital cards are a must have.

I also always shoot about 2 rolls of medium format film through my Contax 645. These are going to be the posed shots, where the family is all standing or sitting together. Film on the beach handles the contrast so much better than digital. My new favorite film to shoot on these sessions is Ektar 100 pushed one stop. It makes the ocean and sky the most stunning colors. My other favorite thing about film is I send it to the lab and spend almost no time on my computer for those images. Which frees me up to meet you at the beach for a shoot!

This month I am participating in another blog circle. I love connecting with these fellow photographers from around the country. Click the link and you will visit Michele Quatrain a North Oaks, Minnesota Photographer. Follow her link to the next blog and so forth and you will eventually get back to me. Hope you enjoy!

[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. If you would like to book a session please contact Anna today. Thank you for visiting!

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Too many images for one blog post. Sorry not sorry. {topsail beach family portraits}

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Thu, 16 Feb 2017 14:38:04 +0000

One of my favorite things about our constantly moving lifestyle is the chance to live by different family and friends. During our time in Maryland, I loved living just 20 minutes from one of my best friends from college and two hours from a high school bestie. Here is North Carolina I get to live two hours from another best friend roommate from college! It is so fun. I love spending time with these friends and getting to rekindle our friendships, but also having the opportunity to get to know them on a different level : seeing them older, wiser and in their day to day element with their children.

Photographing them is the triple bonus. Meet my darling college roommate, her awesome husband and sweet kids. We got married around the same time (and I actually photographed her wedding a lifetime ago!) Our kids are similar ages and I just love hanging out with them whenever we get the chance. They came down to my beach for a session and it was the perfect evening. The weather and light was ideal, but it was also November so the beach was empty. I just loved every moment of this perfect beach family portrait session, hence the overshare of images. Enjoy!

If you are looking for some beautiful spring or summer beach family portraits on Topsail Beach, contact me today! Spots are already filling up!

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Beach Family Portraits : Topsail Island

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 20:39:48 +0000

I have been having lots of thoughts today about my style. I feel like I don’t have a set style, instead I am following the path of my life and documenting what I think is beautiful. Or interesting. The connections between people that make me feel something. I have friends who have told me I have a distinct style, but when I look at my collective gallery I have a hard time seeing it. Perhaps I am just too close? Anyway, just random thoughts from today.

This family was delightful. Sweet boys and lots of fun times playing on the beach. I really just love the relaxed feeling of beach sessions. You can see them all at my online proofing site.

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Photographing a photographer

Anna Rasmussen Photographs — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 18:24:56 +0000

There is no greater honor then having another photographer ask you to photograph her family! Meet Wynona! It was so much fun to take her beach bum family down to the ocean and let them loose. I loved the laid back style of their clothing and attitudes. The girls ended up wet and sandy but I wouldn’t expect anything else from young kids on the beach. I love when parents let their kids go and enjoy themselves, that is actually my favorite thing to photograph. Children playing.

A little bit about my photographic journey. Wynona also shoots film so she asked me to shoot this session completely on film. This session was my first exclusively film family portrait shoot in about twelve years. I learned photography on film and used to photographs families and weddings only on film. But about twelve years ago I got my first digital camera and I love it as well. So now I use both in almost every instance. I love the quickness of digital and I like the wide range of situations it allows me to photograph in. But film will always be my first love. In beautiful light (like this!) it works so perfectly. It allows me to slow down and really focus on what I am capturing, and I just love the skin tones. They can’t be beat. I am so grateful that Wynona asked me to photograph her session this way because it was just stunning!

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