Honestly sister was a little tired of me after about one minute! But with some suckers and ring around the rosy she cheered up and I was able to get some darling smiles from her. I love to capture parents and children just being cozy and enjoying one another. This session was the ideal time for that. Actually an upset child is a wonderful way to get images of the most important thing a parent can give their child : LOVE.

I always encourage you to take some time to play during your family portrait session. These will be the images you treasure for a lifetime. Everyone looking at the camera is important as well, but having the family interacting…the best. I think most people do not equate fun with family portraits. I try to change this mindset. Family portraits can be a time of fun and bonding and happy memories! I promise!

Okinawa Fall Family Portrait

Do you want to see more delicious golden light? Go check out this family portrait session at Cape Zanpa!

Thank you so much for visiting the blog! If you want a family portrait session contact me today! I would love to get you scheduled to capture your family as they are right now. I am so grateful for the ability to be inspired by and connected to photographers from around the world. Today I am participating in another blog circle. Follow it around and see beautiful photography from other amazing artists. Next up is Stacey Adams, she is an Albuquerque newborn photographer and is talking today about how to prepare for your newborn baby.

Anna Rasmussen is a featured and award-winning family portrait photographer in Okinawa, Japan. She loves documentary-style family vacation 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 the entire island of Okinawa and ready to travel to many major cities in the Asian area. Book a session here with Anna today! Thank you so much for stopping by!

The post giggles, snuggles and golden light | okinawa, japan appeared first on Anna Rasmussen Photographs.

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. A scheduled date and a $50 deposit is required 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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This family’s life was in complete upheaval as they welcomed this sweet little guy into the world. They moved out of their house 3 days before he arrived and were living in a rented condo when he was born. He was 5 days old when they left North Carolina and moved in with their parents for a short time before a cross country to Arizona. We ended up having to take these lifestyle portraits in my house because they didn’t have a house!

This beautiful family was a pleasure to work with as always and I hope you enjoy these images of this new little guy!

Lifestyle Newborn Portraits

I am so grateful we took the time to capture these special photographs of these sisters welcoming baby boy. Moments such as these are so important! No matter how crazy life can get it is always worthwhile to make the time to record it. Life is such a big beautiful mess. I heard this quote recently and it really resonated with me. “Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.” – Ansel Adams

My photography tends to be documentary in style, and Ansel Adams was certainly one of my first photographic loves. Real life is hard, but full of so much good. I love that my art form captures that reality and enhances it. Finding a balance between what is really there and what I want to portray is something I am constantly working on in my photography. I am so grateful to have an outlet that allows me to grow and stretch myself.  There are days where for me that stretching and growth can be painful. But after a day or a week of pain, I feel the growth which inspires me to keep going. Congratulations again to this simply gorgeous family!

[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. She also loves everything family – from capturing the joy of expectant parents in maternity photography, the first days of a baby’s life in lifestyle newborn 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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Watching both my mother in law and my own mother with my children was an experience that I cant really describe with words. Obviously I have seen both of them with my children many times over the years. This trip having both of them back to back, my mothers recent return from a mission for our church and the proximity to Mother’s Day just made this visit extra special. 

Photographing them with my children was the greatest blessing. As I look back on these images, the emotions that are captured are the most precious. I know these images will be ones my children and I will cherish in the years to come. First up is my mother in law, she spent her time here playing with my daughter in her room constantly. Reading to all the kids and laughing at the boys antics. She baked cookies and spoiled us all with delicious treats and food!

With my mom we had a really fun adventure to Shackleford Banks. She has always loved horses! Taking her to fulfill her dream of seeing the wild horses of the Outer Banks was so fun. My daughter had some fear of cactuses in her feet. I am grateful for my moms example of persevering in the face of fear and pain. She never gives up! She also is such a great example of adventure and going for your dreams.

Family lifestyle portrait photographer

Both my mother and my mother in law are such great examples of love. I don’t feel like I am the best mother in the world, but I am trying my best and giving motherhood my all. I have been taught this by the example of these two great women. As parents, is there any great legacy we can leave than that of love? I hope that we can pass on this tradition of love of family! I am grateful that my parents and my husbands parents have given us this.

Thank you to my husband for these wonderful pictures of me with my children!

[tg_small_content class=””]Anna Rasmussen is a featured and award-winning family lifestyle 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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 Sometimes the light and the moment just add up perfectly and this was one of those sessions. This was one of the best fall family portrait sessions this year. I loved the easy going manner of mom and dad, just enjoying their children and willing to work with whatever ideas I had. The children were sweet and obedient, but also ready to have some fun. It was actually a little bit chilly this evening but you would never know with that warm glowing golden light. What a beautiful family! I love them. I make an effort to get to know all the families I photograph. I find when we are friends the images just naturally turn out more naturally beautiful. Luckily these guys were friends first and then clients. We met them up in Maryland and then due to military orders have the awesome privilege of living around the corner from them here in North Carolina. We watch each others kids, double date, do game nights and GNOs together. Friends like them are what make the social side of military life fun! I am so grateful for their friendship and for this opportunity to capture their family!

The post Intracoastal waterway beauty {golden family portraits north carolina} appeared first on Anna Rasmussen Photographs.

The golden hour for these family portraits was show stopping. Add in these simply gorgeous people and I am looking at images I will always love! I did my fall mini-sessions on this family’s beautiful property and in exchange took some portraits of them. I feel pretty lucky to have models as friends!

See all these golden light family portraits in Hampstead, North Carolina.

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The parents left their home nation for the opportunity to have more children. These three beautiful boys are so loved and what a delight it was to capture that. In this country we have problems, but this here is the American dream. They are living in this country, growing the family they want and have found a new religion here that brings them joy. I know people say we need to focus on the negative to fix problems, that we can’t just ignore what is bad, or there will never be change for better. But I just cannot agree. Focusing on what is good, beautiful and wonderful is the way to make positive change. Let’s celebrate that and make more of it.

Sunset Family Portraits Durham North Carolina

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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!

The post Too many images for one blog post. Sorry not sorry. {topsail beach family portraits} appeared first on Anna Rasmussen Photographs.

I had a wonderful bible study last week with my friends. One question that stuck out to me from the book we are reading was this : “How would you ever learn unconditional love if you were married to someone who met all the conditions?” Being married and being a mother does not mean that everyone in this family is perfect. Or perfectly suited in personality to me. The older my kids get the more I realize this. My Father in Heaven has sent all these spirits to me and my husband. They have a myriad of different personality quirks and traits. I loved each of them from the moment they were placed in my arms, but as they grow up and we butt heads, I have to learn to re-love them.

Unconditional love actually sounds like an attainable goal when you talk about about your own family members. But what about the billions of other humans that populate this world? What about those who disagree with us on matters of faith, politics and morals? Can we learn to love them unconditionally? I wonder if it is possible for me. I love to read. I recently read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It is fiction, but fiction based on a real place and real situation. A situation that before reading the book I would have said influenced my life greatly. My viewpoint changed reading the book, I saw from the side of others, people who were raised in a completely different world than me. Perhaps that is the best kind of unconditional love I can have. To listen to another’s viewpoint, seek to understand it and respect them.

As always I am SO grateful for the artistic journey of my life and the opportunity to capture my love and the beauty of the world around me, in my own home and in the places I travel to. I am loving getting to know so many other photographers throughout the world and am excited to be participating in a blog circle with some of my photographer friends.  We’re linking to each other’s posts, so you can check out what they’re up to. This month, I’m linking to a fabulous photographer who lives in my favorite place : England! She is sharing a beautiful family portrait session this month. Click here to check her out : Newborn and Family Photography in Reading, Berkshire

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I love my job! I love photographing families and capturing them in all their different stages of life. I have to say there is something nice about a family like this one. It is like a breath of fresh air after chasing a two year old around! I love both aspects, but a nice polite teenage boy who will smile at you and hug his mom? Golden. Here is hoping my boys turn out as well mannered as these three. It is a delight to photograph their awesome family. You can see all the images at the previous link.

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