Most know the saying "you get what you pay for"; well with Ellie it couldn't be more true! I've…read morebeen cruising the internet for months (yes, months) now trying to find a place my fiancé and I can get photos taken. First I purchased a Groupon, then quickly returned it after reading the reviews ($19 but the reviews were horrifying!)... Then, since it's the holidays, JC Penny has a sale right now so I was going to do that, then when I spoke with them on the phone it sounded more like a drive-through photo session (you get 10 minutes and if you're late AT ALL you lose your spot), so I said -- naah... Anyway, you get where I'm going with this - I couldn't find anything "good" until I searched Google and Ellie's name appeared. I read the reviews, went on her website and saw the prices. At first I wasn't sure I wanted to spend that kind of money but hey - it's an hour long shoot, the reviews are amazing and it's something special for my fiancé and me so what the heck right?! :) YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! She is so sweet, poses you in many different positions, and even gives you the option to do your own thing/poses if you want. Well worth the money I promise! And if you won't take my word for it read the other reviews! :) She's a gem! I had no idea what to expect, but something about her just makes you feel at ease and able to have a nice session whether it's a boudoir, family photos, or just nice pics like what my fiancé & I wanted. Thank you Ellie! KR

I recently had a engagement photo shoot with Ellie Photo! Sooooooo great :) that I am considering…read morethem for my wedding!!!!

ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING PHOTOGRAPHY and such a wonderful and caring person to be around your…read morenewborn. I wanted to memorialize the sweetness of my newborn so I looked into infant photography and randomly came across Courtney's website and I'm so glad it did! She had already planned a family trip but generously squeezed me in the morning of her travel. Unbelievably considerate for someone I've never met. The morning of our shoot, she came prepared with all the props we could ever need to make my little baby as cute as possible! Courtney was prompt, patient and soooo professional! She was so gentle wit my baby and knew tricks to keep her calm that I didn't know. She promised to have a certain number of shots and stayed over her time until she kept her promise. I truly appreciate her dedication. Any other photographer would have said that they time is up and that that had to leave. I recommend Courtney 1000 times over! She will take the most amazing and memorable pics of your little ones!

Courtney did an amazing job photographing my newborn! As a frazzled mom of a newborn, I hadn't put…read moretoo much thought into the photoshoot. Luckily, Courtney arrived with all of the props and suggestions of how to pose. She set everything up in my home and made the process really simple. She's a pro working with newborns and was able to quickly sooth my son if he started to fuss during the photoshoot. The results were some beautiful images of my little one. She even managed to get some photos of all of my bigger kids smiling and looking at the camera. That's no small achievement! I would absolutely recommend Courtney for your next family or newborn photo session.

Carly was our wedding photographer and we are so thankful we chose her. After multiple reschedules…read moredue to Covid, Carly still managed to accommodate our engagement photos and wedding photos. She worked with us to craft a custom photo package that fit our needs and budget. My partner is shy in front of the camera, but Carly made us both feel at ease. She provides just the right amount of direction while making the poses feel natural. We appreciated the excitement and good energy she brought on both the engagement shoot and wedding day. One of the reasons Carly's work stood out to me in the first place was how the colors in her photos were vibrant and true to life. We were extremely happy with how the photos turned out. As a perfectionist that has worked with dozens of photographers in various jobs (music events, real estate and modeling), I know how rare it is to find such consistency. After the wedding we received a digital album and she had a convenient system for us to order high-quality prints. Carly is a talented photographer with an obvious passion for her work - we highly recommend that you get on her schedule!

Carly was absolutely amazing and the photos turned out stunning. She was really able to make me…read morelaugh and capture the moment and light in just the right way. I look forward to working with her again in the future.

Julie and her team are fabulous. I highly recommend her as a wedding photographer. After my first…read morephone consultation with Julie, I trusted that we were in good hands! She was helpful with advising me about creating a reasonable and efficient timeline for our wedding day. She arrived early to our wedding and was extremely organized, efficient, and just lovely to work with! My husband and I are both photo shy, but we had a great time being photographed by Julie. She is creative and clearly knows exactly what she is doing. We continue to get a ton of compliments on how beautiful our photos turned out!

We called Julie to do the basic black drape senior photo for our daughter. She was so easy to work…read morewith and so nice. We did the photos on a Sunday and by Monday had the proofs. Her work is fantastic!!!! I can only imagine how wonderful her wedding photos and family photos are!!! I will be using her again!!!!

We worked with Genevieve for our wedding and engagement photos and she was fantastic! She was…read morereally able to put us as ease as two people who usually hate pictures. We loved the event photos she got as well. Highly recommend!

Genevieve is an amazing photographer to work with! My husband and I used her for our wedding in…read more2017 and loved her so much that when we welcomed our first child we asked her to do our family pictures this year. She is creative, she is professional, she is hilarious, she is quick, and above all her work speaks for itself. I cannot say enough good things about Genevieve Leiper and can assure you that you will not regret having her capture your most special moments.

Rebecca is an amazing photographer. She has done baby photos of both of my children and we always…read moreget comments on them when people see the photos in the house. Our personal favorite is the froggy pose which she was able to accomplish with both of our children. We looked at many newborn photographers prior to selecting her and chose Rebecca because the quality of her photos far surpassed others in the area. There was no question for us when we got pregnant with number 2 that we would have her do our photos. Only word of caution is she books up months in advance so be sure to book early!

Becky is amazing. We first used her for our second son's newborn photos at the suggestion of our…read moremore candid-style photographer (who didn't do newborn portraits). We adored Becky's work, and wanted someone to help us style our images instead of the more 'follow us and take candids' style. The purely candid style stressed us out because we were always trying to look good! Becky--on the other hand--does candid style photos, but she offers suggestions. So she catches all the fun stuff that is happening between family members, but she also styles *gorgeous* family portraits. We have been *very* happy with our annual family portraits with her. The way she uses natural light is amazing. I love the feel of all her images. She has caught some amazing family moments between portraits and her portraits always seem to capture the essence of personalities. Couldn't recommend her highly enough!

From the stunning photos to the wonderful photographers, we are so happy that we chose Claudia…read moreDalton Photography for our wedding! Wedding planning is stressful enough, but finding a reasonably priced photographer with a nice portfolio proved to be a challenge. As with many things with our wedding, everything just fell into place. After seeing Claudia's photos of a mutual friend, I reviewed her blog and reached out to her with a few questions. A couple weeks later, Claudia and her husband Peter met with me and my fiance' to discuss our vision for engagement and wedding photos. They were very supportive of our ideas. Besides incorporating what we wanted, they went above and beyond to ensure that we had great pictures. Prior to our engagement session, I shared pictures of locations in Old Town Alexandria and talked with Claudia a few times by phone and email. They even recommended some places. The photos came out great, and we loved so many of the shots. A couple weeks before the wedding, Claudia and Peter were nice enough to meet with us to find good shooting locations in our venue and in the nearby area. The shots from the wedding were incredible! We get tons of compliments on our photos, and we often hear that Claudia has such a great eye! Plus, the presentation of our photos in their custom packaging was very beautiful. I highly recommend Claudia Dalton Photography! Claudia and Peter are just wonderful people. They truly captured all the love and joy during this special time in our lives. Thank you for everything!

Our family had a very negative experience with Claudia Dalton Photography (CDP), so I am using this…read moreforum as a means of expressing my feelings on the matter to share my feedback with other folks looking to acquire professional photography services. This is not meant to be a personal diatribe against Claudia as I feel that she really is a nice person, however this is the only means that we I have to voice our displeasure and share information that may aid another person or couple. We contracted CDP to provide two photography sessions, one for a pregnancy shoot, and another for after the baby was born. It seemed to be explained to me that we were receiving a bundled discount for services, and from my perspective, that other perks such as a hair dresser / makeup artist were included as part of the deal. Our family has hired photographers in the past, and the typical arrangement is that we pay the agreed upon fee for the photographer's time and a quantity of included digital picture files and / or prints. CDP does not operate in this fashion however as all of the digital files or prints resulting from your photo shoot are purchased separately on a strictly ala carte basis. The long story short of it is that we signed a contract with CDP for $300.00 for our two photo shoots, and then realized after the fact that we could not afford the ala carte pricing for any of their products. This was extremely distressing to us as we are a young family, and a luxury item such as this is something that we have to carefully budget and plan for. To invest $300.00 and come away with no real product is very upsetting. We expressed our concern to CDP, saying that we could not afford their products, and asked for half of our money back (we had just completed the first photography session and would not be seeking to schedule the second). CDP refused to meet us half way however, the tact taken from their party was more of a, "Well that's too bad, I am sorry that this didn't work out better for you." That response added insult to injury. From our perspective, CDP failed in the following respects: 1.       Clear Communication: CDP did not send their company policies, business practices, pricing list, etc. in one clear concise email. Some of these details (such as a pricing list) are not made available for reference on their website or are even in their contract. If I piece together the 5 or so emails that we exchanged with CDP, I can understand more fully how her business works... however the reality is that life (and my life) has many demands on it and if something isn't spelled out clearly and succinctly, I may interpret it or fail to comprehend it clearly. I should have looked into that string of emails that we exchanged more closely, and in retrospect asked more questions... but I also feel that CDP can do a better job of explaining their business practices to folks who have no familiarity with them.   2.       Value: CDP's prices are much higher than ANY other photographer that I have ever worked with. For example, the cheapest print offered was $75.00 and 20 digital files ... were $2,100.00. That is almost as much as I spent for the entirety of our wedding pictures. If CDP were a celebrity photographer, or had the portfolio to command such a high fee, I suppose that would be one thing, however there is nothing about CDP's work to suggest that her fee should be head and shoulders higher than other photographers in the area.   3.       Customer Service: As a client, I will own my share of the guilt in our negative experience, that I failed to properly understand CDP's business practices and prices before signing our contract. I should have read more carefully through our correspondence and asked more questions. However, when our family voiced our concerns, that we could not afford her work, and that we had backed ourselves into an unfortunate corner, we were met with absolutely no empathy. CDP was polite but refused to do anything for us that might improve our otherwise unfortunate position. The reality is if CDP had even tried to work with us a little... perhaps refund part of our $150? Offer some untouched digitals? A Print? Something? Had their response been anything other than "Well that's too bad", we could have walked away from this transaction feeling somewhat whole. Instead, we feel like we spent $300.00 and received next to nothing to show for it. Claudia is not a bad person, if anything, she is inexperienced with the business aspect of her part time photography venture. Maybe she'll take some of the lessons learned from our encounter and use them to better her practice. Either way, our family will not be using her services in the future and cannot recommend them to anyone else.

Chelsea is wonderfully talented and a joy to work with. She is able to help even the most camera…read moreshy people feel comfortable. She was able to capture genuine smiles from my boyfriend who NEVER smiles in photos! She plays with light in unique and creative ways and always finds the most flattering angles. She is hands down, the best photographer I have ever worked with.

Chelsea is a magician. Plain and simple! Everything in my session seemed to go wrong with the kids…read more(blowouts, both kids upset, etc.) but she still managed to get incredible photos in between all the chaos that I will cherish for years to come. You won't regret hiring her! Worth.every.penny.