for REAL PEOPLE

portrait + Wedding photography

I'm Valerie. I'm an East-Coast based photographer who digs real moments.
I don't think professional has to mean stuffy or traditional. I believe in doing things your own way, being yourself and having some fun along the way. 

Rachel needed a few simple headshots for work and profile photos and good stuff… that were on the “classic traditional side” but maybe a little less stiff… so we took a few. Simple as that. Quick and painless. A thing I really love about being a DC lifestyle headshot photographer is that my clients all […]

Fawnne and Duck were my very first couple who’s wedding was affected by the shutdown. You might remember seeing their faces from their downtown Norfolk engagement session. Originally we were scheduled for March… right at the onset. I think we were only 48 hours away when the stay-at-home order came down… which I know was […]

The pandemic was tricky enough for planning a wedding. Add in military deployments to try and work around and Zach and Tara might win the gold medal for wedding rescheduling. Before their wedding, though, came their Norfolk Freemason District engagement session. We met up in the freemason district, strolled past the battleship Wisconsin (to honor […]

Remember when we could only have 10 people in the same place at the same time? I would like to not remember it, actually… but there are a few shining moments that came out of seeing people pull together to make things happen. Restaurants had to adjust… and we all know the events industry went […]

Covid weddings were… WILD and inspiring and joyful and a sign of the times. The good news: occasionally, when restrictions let up a little… they got to happen and being a modern Richmond documentary wedding photographer came in handy. (Yeah, I’m a little behind on blogging.) I got to practice that whole let things happen, […]

I see your engagement sessions and raise you a Norfolk Neon District portrait session for your anniversary. Misty and Chris are two of my favorite people (a bunch of you might recognize Misty from second shooting your wedding or all of the photos I take of her for Misty Saves the Day sometimes). If there […]

The pandemic was tough. Weddings during the pandemic were WILD… people definitely pivoted and made things happen as best they could. Annie and Neil had planned a big shindig at the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond and swapped to a smaller classic Virginia wedding almost a year later at Annie’s parents’ home where I […]

True Statement: I love a building and a wall and a mural maybe more than anything. I will take all of the photos in park and on the beach and anywhere great… but give me a grungy wall and a shady alley and I am in my photo happy place. Erica and Alex wanted photos […]