I am excited to share this weeks loop on my blog today. First is my images that I shared with this post and keep scrolling to see the thankful images from my talented photographer friends!

Below find images by my lovely and talented lifestyle photographer friends.

Mindy Tingson is grateful for being a mother.

Brandi Markham is grateful for her oldest child.

Fran Jorgensen is grateful to live by her sister and have cousins for her kids.

Holly Nicole Photography is thankful for her daughter’s love of baking and that her girls have each other.

August and Iris Photography is grateful to live in Boston, with all its seasons!

Emily Hamson is grateful for trials that help her grow.

[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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Let’s start off with Newt Scamander. Jake looks just like the Eddie Redmayne right?? We purposefully did not cut his hair in the months leading up to these Halloween Lifestyle Portraits so that it would be perfect. I did quite a bit of freelensing with all the kids images and I think it really adds to the dreamy quality. Freelensing makes it feel make believe. Jake was so into this character and has watch “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” several times. He has studied how Newt walks and talks, how he doesn’t really make eye contact, and he used all of this throughout our shoot. Actually all these images are undirected! After the fact I got the idea to Photoshop in some of the fantastic beasts and I have to say it was so awesome. I love the way it turned out! Also in case you didn’t know this about me and my family we are huge on all things fantasy : Harry Potter, Star Wars, Percy Jackson…sign us up for all of it.

Did I leave a major fantasy trilogy off that list? Obviously! Lord of the Rings! Next up was Gandalf and oh how I love this old soul finally dressed up to his age. Okay, maybe he isn’t that much of an old soul. Evan was also totally in character. All my children have beautiful eyes, but Evan’s are the deepest color I think. He had a great idea to add Gollum into one of his images and I was happy to oblige.

Kate was darling Belle, Beauty and the Beast the live people version came out this year. She insisted that she carry this book as the only way to complete her costume. Because “Belle loves to read and is super smart.” It was kinda my favorite thing she ever came up with. She refused to twirl! What can I say except this girl has her own mind for sure. Probably all that reading she likes to do…

Adam has decided he is too old to dress up for Halloween. But we had a completely separate day in the week before Halloween where I painted the kids faces. I have never taken the time to really do that before and it was SO much fun! Adam also got completely into character with the face paint. He is in drama club here and I think really enjoys acting. It should be fun to see where it takes him!

We lit a fire that night and played with smoke and flames and all sorts of creepy light.  This created build up to the actual event. Don’t you feel the build up is the best part anyway? I am so grateful I took the time this year to have such a fun Halloween extravaganza, and most of all am so grateful for these four muses I call kids.

Halloween 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, 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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This home had a simple but stunning design. Do you want an in home session? Having a home this gorgeous and white is not required! But I certainly wouldn’t complain if this was how every home I went into looked! I love how the children provided the pop of color and excitement in each image.

You might think these two beautiful children are twins! They are actually two years apart in age. The boy is older, but he was born early and has always been tiny. I love these children and this family but I hope that you all can feel the love between them more than anything else.

Lifestyle Family Portrait Photographer

[tg_small_content class=””]Anna Rasmussen is a featured and award-winning lifestyle 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 am a crier and always have been. I have cried watching college football commercials! When I used to photograph weddings I would always cry during the daddy daughter dance. Good thing I can hide my eyes behind the camera and use autofocus because tears are running down my face. During this birth story it was the same way. There was so much emotion in that room. I hope as you as you view these photographs you will feel what I did that day. Most of all I hope I captured for this mother her beauty and strength and as always the love which so obviously exists within her family.

birth story photographs

[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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Recently (time is a relative thing right?) my husband and I were able to travel to New Orleans for a conference for his job. The kids got to have a lot of special time with Grandma (“Mom she spoiled us SO much!”) and we were able to have some adult time. During the day my husband was mostly in continuing education classes and I savored the time on my own. Dating back to my study abroad days I have just loved walking around a city and photographing it.

Just like a person, each city and place has its own distinct characteristics and traits. As a documentary photographer I am striving to uncover and highlight those. Also like a person it is impossible to get to know a place in a day or two. It does take time, and when I go on these little trips I certainly don’t claim to now be an expert. But I love to try! I love to try and find and see what the locals do.

I took a lot of pictures in New Orleans and I really love so many of them. As usual when I go on a trip expect an overshare here! My first stop on my first day was the famed World War II National Museum. Having lived in DC, I am hard to impress when it comes to museums, but this one was so superb. I also cant remember the last time I was in a museum alone, so that probably helped the experience. Sometimes I cant believe just how much of an introvert I am. I will probably say this over and over, but I just loved being alone!

There is a chance that Japan will be our next move and viewing the displays on Japan and the atomic bomb sites was very moving for me. The destruction and power that we as humans are capable of hurt my mind. Just a few steps aways from this museum stood the Robert E Lee Memorial. It was scheduled to be taken down just a few weeks after we were there. I found the juxtaposition of these two places in such close proximity to be interesting. It made me think that every human has a back story, a reason for why they are what they are. Can we judge that? History especially is viewed through such technicolor glasses, how can we say who those people were who made those decisions and did the things they did?

I spent a good amount of time in the Garden district and loved seeing the big beautiful homes. But what fascinated me most was the plants. I come from a desert where nothing grows but cactus and living and visiting in the South has been a new experience! The plants take over everything! I loved documenting them growing out of walls, destroying side walks, and peeking out of graves. Our impression on the earth as humans feels small when I see that. I feel like if we all died tomorrow, the earth, this great living thing that we are stewards of, would erase our history so quickly.

I met some frustrated tourists on the street cars in New Orleans, it seems that the slow pace of life there was not going to get them to their dinner reservation on time. I took it as another personality trait of this multifaceted city. They are southern. They have time to get where they need to be.

I always focus in on one aspect of a city and in New Orleans it was the bikes. Chained up everywhere and decorated to the T, they were such a fun and vibrant part of the city. This bikes series may be one of my favorite street photography transportation series to date!

As with all trips I missed my children a ton and was so ready for them and all their shenanigans by the time I got home. I sometimes suffer mom guilt from wanting to get away. I know how fast their childhoods are passing me by, but I also love these moments of self discovery and documentation. I am grateful for the opportunity to experience both. As with all things in life it seems balance is what is called for. I am striving to enjoy now, whether I am with my kids or not, enjoy the time I have. That is all that is granted to each of us. 

Another favorite stop for me was the sculpture garden outside the local art museum. The trees were all covered with Spanish moss which gave the sculptures an erie feeling that I thought was pretty cool!

I won’t lie to you all, although I ate some of the tastiest food ever and had a grand time walking this city. It isn’t one I would put high on my list to visit a second time. For me it was quite dirty and well, I dont drink, so Bourbon street was a bit of a waste! Ha! I did love the Jazz clubs over on Frenchman though. Like anyone, when the music is live and good, I have a hard time keeping my feet still. We also stumbled upon a live concert in the square one night. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get some humanity into my pictures. I just love being a fly on the wall in this type of place!

Street travel photography in New Orleans

Here are just a few (haha) more images just from my street wandering in NOLA. I felt so much colorful vibrancy from this city and am so grateful I was able to check it out. I hope you enjoy these images!

[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 street photography 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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One time it snowed in North Carolina. For like a hour, and it stuck about 10 minutes away from our house. So we drove there, and I took enough pictures to pretend like we had a whole winter of snow. It was a perfect moment.

[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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Fun weather makes for fun portraits and there is not much better in my opinion than fog. It is so mysterious and cool! I hope you enjoy these documentary family portrait images of my kids playing in the North Carolina fog.

[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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We had the fun fabulous blessing to spend a week in Orlando at the beginning of this year and it really was the perfect trip. In some way we chose the perfect moment to go. Our family was just the right ages for everything to be magical, fun and almost easy. We had only been to Disney World once before and it had been so crowded I vowed never again. But this time we chose the perfect season as well, we walked on rides, had a wonderful balance of big kid and little kid rides, and just had a blast. This trip is also one of the few times traveling with all my children where I really felt like I was able to capture the story of our trip in photographs. In the past I was always too tired, sore, etc to carry the camera in addition to whatever else was needed to survive an amusement park. My children are at that golden age where there is still magic in Disney for them, but they do not need to be carried or have constant snacks. This opened my arms for my cameras.

I felt like we really soaked up each moment of our time and looking back at these images just brings the entire week back to life for me. My oldest had to go on a few more kiddie rides then he would have preferred and my youngest was slightly scarred while falling down the big drop on Splash Mountain. In order to capture and really enhance the magic of Disney I took a lot of double exposures on this trip. I love their whimsical and amusement park feel.

These double exposures were shot on my Lomo LCA+ camera. I honestly hadn’t used it in years before I went on this trip, and it was the best camera. I loved how small it was and the images that I got from it are by far my favorites of the trip! Love my little girls profile here, floating high above the castle.

Harry Potter World was just as magical for my big boys as Disney. Especially my biggest boy pictured below. There is nothing like seeing things that you have only imagined in your brain come to life. Also the rides there in Universal were super exciting and fun!

I always feel a bit like I should not love Disney because it is such a commercialized place. Perhaps I am just a brain washed American, but I adore it. I will always relish in the magic of it. This trip in particular was one of those perfect moments spent with these five beautiful people, my family.

My photographer friend Emily Hamson went to Disneyland around the same time. We decided to connect our blogs so people could check out both experiences from two different perspectives. Emily is a talented Utah Nature Photographer and mother of four; click on over and see how they do Disney on the west coast!

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This Christmas I really got into bokeh and multiple exposures. It was such fun to really capture the magic of Christmas lights. I loved getting my kids with all the different kinds of lights and recording our Christmas traditions. Our gingerbread cookie recipe has been passed down for many generations and is always a favorite moment. We went caroling for our first time this year. The kids ran from house to house faster then they did on Halloween! We hit a lot of dark houses but also had some great receptions. I hope it will become a yearly tradition.

This last image I captured because of that handprint. I had cleaned the entire house top to bottom that day. I put the kids to bed and walked downstairs for one of my favorite Christmas things, sitting on the couch and enjoying the lights in the dark and quiet. I saw this handprint on the mirror on the stairs and I just had to photograph it. All I can think of is the poem about how fingerprints will fade away. As much as I love a clean home, I already know an empty clean one is going to be a very hard adjustment for me and it will be here before I know it. I hope beautiful photographs like the ones I created over Christmas will give me solace at those quiet times!

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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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