On the Road: Maymont, Part 2 {Central Virginia Photographer}
Throughout the 100-acre Maymont Park is a wildlife sanctuary. This was part of what I was most interested in seeing!! We didn’t go see the children’s farm (we live in the country with all sorts of livestock around us…we passed on it.
So, what did we see?
This pretty black bear had just gone for a swim and you can see the pollen from the pond making a ring on his black fur!
Did you know eagles blink? They have an inner eyelid that they can blink but that they can still see through as they hunt for prey and predators! Check the next three shots!
Red-tailed hawk
Red-shouldered hawk
Cooper’s hawk
Great Horned Owl
Barred Owl (both of these had injuries to their eyes)
What a sweetie fox! It must have been near feeding time. He kept carrying this leaf and pacing.
We also saw some less-than-wild wildlife, like this skink (not sure of the type) we saw on the bridge
and … this groundhog
Maymont Park is free to explore! I highly recommend it for kids of all ages!
On the Road: Maymont, Part 1 {Central Virginia Photographer}
I have wanted to visit Maymont in Richmond since I first heard about it 2 years ago from a friend. I love to visit these historic homes–obviously–but this is an especially neat place as it’s free (donations are welcome, of course) and in pristine condition. Plus on the 100 acres is a wildlife sanctuary! So, the kids, my mom and I packed up for what turned out to be the hottest day of Spring Break for this adventure!
We were not permitted to photograph inside this beautiful guilded-age home (and I didn’t learn that until I had fired a few shots in the basement. Oops!
This is a fun doorway that leads to under the porch where many types of things were stored.
The home and its furnishing are just as the Dooleys left them when they died in the 1920s. It was donated to the City of Richmond with the express purpose of being a museum. That’s beautiful!
Yep! I even made my mom poke her head through there for a fun photo!
The transom windows in each room on the main floor have a different stained glass design. Wow.
The kids have been warned–this is the type of building I want to be laid to rest in.
After our house tour!
Throughout the area are these little pavilions. The kids wound up waiting for us in them because they can just move so much faster than us old ladies 
On the Road: Roanoke, Part 2 {Central Virginia Photographer}
One thing I love about old buildings is seeing the painted signs on them from days gone by. Imaging what it might have been like before the neon signs of today.
Not all the signs were on the buildings, however. There were some mosaics throughout, especially around the “City Market” where there are several cafeterias and restaurants (and where we enjoyed some wonderful sub sandwiches).
The railroad is what made Roanoke–a town formally called Big Lick, Virginia, and I didn’t know that! Before the railroad it was fields. I find that so hard to imagine now, but what was created is certainly beautiful!
This is Fire Station #1. According to the government site it was built in 1906 and stopped running calls in 2007–though it still offers tours. It is a historic landmark. I just fell in love with those doors!
I wasn’t expecting to find these sculptured columns in the park-like setting when we turned the corner. They represent Roanoke’s Sister Cities. The Sister Cities are:
Wonju, Korea
Saint-Lo, France
Ksumu Kenya
Lijiang, China
Pskov, Russia
Florianopolis, Brazil
Opole, Poland
Hotel Roanoke from this side of the train tracks
On the Road: Roanoke, Part 1 {Central Virginia Photographer}
I have visited Roanoke several times. I think it’s a beautiful city. There are beautiful historical buildings and the mountains, of course! Hubby & I spent a weekend in April at a wedding in one of the most beautiful churches I’ve ever been in: St. Andrew’s Catholic Church. I remember the first time I saw it when I was in college. I thought it looked like a castle, but the guy I was dating wasn’t catholic so we didn’t get to go in to it. That changed when hubby and I were invited to the wedding!
We stayed at Hotel Roanoke. As a former Hokie I have a special love for this building as it was officially reopened again while I was at school. It’s a beautiful grand dame!
You can see the Mill Mountain Star (80 feet tall) that is lighted at night. I have never really understood that, but it’s still pretty neat.
Check out the post later this week for more photos of the beautiful buildings in Downtown Roanoke.
King Family Vineyard Wedding {Charlottesville, Va., Wedding Photography}
I do believe in fate. As fate should have it I came across an ad seeking a second shooter for an April wedding just a week and a half out. I answered the ad and was rewarded with the chance to photograph with Hilary Mercer, a Tacoma, Wash., awesome photographer! I’ve check out a lot of her work and I’d have to say some of my favorites are the homecoming and pre-deployment photo sessions. Hilary has the unique position of having a spouse in the military–and I think you can see it come out in those photographs.
I had never been to King Family Vineyards in Crozet before Brie & Edwin’s wonderful day. The weather was fabulous, and the mountain views are unparalleled. It was just beautiful. Thank you Hilary for giving me the opportunity to shoot with you and thank you Brie & Edwin for sharing your beautiful day with me.
On the Road: Spring Break Visit to Berryville {Central Virginia Photographer}
So a visit to Berryville led us to this … a time capsule for Clarke County! This area of Virginia is really well-known for apples, hence the apple above the cement marker. My son decided it’d be fun to argue whether this is an apple or not, he swears it’s a pumpkin. Why there would be a pumpkin on top of this cement marker–and RED–I don’t really know.
Beautiful Clarke County historic courthouse
Grace Episcopal Church in Berryville. According to its website this building was built in 1857. There were beautiful headstones in the cemetery and a neat hitching post where Robert E. Lee’s horse Trigger was tethered on June 21, 1863, while he worshipped at this church.
On the Road: Barboursville Ruins {Barboursville, Va. Photographer}
Even before we moved to Central Virginia I was in love with Thomas Jefferson. I think his mind it terribly sexy (yes, I know I’m a nerd). So, what’s my point? Monticello, his home in Charlottesville, is less than 30 minutes away. But that isn’t the only nearby home that Thomas Jefferson designed. While Barboursville hasn’t been a home since Christmas Day 1884, the ruins of the structure still stand. Over spring break I took the kids and my mother there. I think it’s incredibly beautiful and would love to do a photo shoot there sometime (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).
Barboursville was designed by Thomas Jefferson and built in 1814 for Gov. James Barbour. It was destroyed by fire on Christmas Day, 1884. That doesn’t stop me from imagining it. Full disclosure I do imagine it similarly to Monticello, but I doubt it was terribly far off.
There is a chain fence around the structure to keep people out of it. I don’t blame them for that. The land is now Barboursville Vineyard–which crafts two of my favorite of Virginia’s wines.
On The Backroads of Madison: Criglersville {Madison, Va. Photographer}
Thanks to a friend from Twitter (nudge, nudge Diana) I learned there are eagles nearby. So for two days–one Saturday afternoon and one early, early Sunday morning–I tried to locate them. While I didn’t find them, I did get a tour of a beautiful area called Criglersville in Madison County.
This beautiful little area on the Old Blue Ridge Turnpike is traversed by The Robinson River. It is also an incredibly busy rural road with Syria and a wildlife refuge nearby.
What I found just fascinating were the several suspension bridges that cross over the river. There are houses on the other side–people live on the other side of the river and likely use tractors and other all-terrain vehicles–but there are also bridges for pedestrians.
If I were a cat, I’m sure I’d be dead by now because of course I’m going to cross this bridge to see what’s on the other side–it’s just who I am! Turns out that when you cross this bridge is shakes unbelievably–no matter how slowly you try to walk. Unfortunately, ever since last year’s episode with vertigo I was a mess for the rest of the afternoon. I wouldn’t trade my experience there, though. It was terribly beautiful!
Oh! I never saw the eagles but I will not let that deter me. It’s only 15 minutes up the road from me so you can bet I’ll take a trip up there again! I did, however, see an osprey. It was beautiful! It was very overcast that Sunday morning and without much light I had to use a very high ISO for the photo, and the noise is just too high for those. But I tried!
I did, however, get a wonderful look at a male Wood Duck. These are quite skittish and I had never seen one this close before!
Fingers crossed I will see those eagles yet!! If I do, you can be sure that I will post them on here!
Spring Break Hike {Charlottesville, Va. Photographer}
I took a week off work the week before Easter, my mom came up from Florida and the kids stayed with me as part of my guaranteed two-weeks-a-year vacation time. We decided this year it’d be just a “staycation” so no bigger vacation later this year. That’s fine! Virginia is full of things to do, plus my daughter had an away soccer game at another school more than 2 hours away and this guaranteed I got a chance to see that match
With all the fun photos of Ivy Creek this winter my mom asked us to take her on a hike there while she was here for Spring Break. It was one of the first things we did that week. We chose a few paths I had never been on–and once it was all said and done it was a more than 4.5 mile walk. Wow. We were NOT expecting that.
At first we really saw no wildlife and then we were graced with two separate deer sightings for a total of 6! Two of them didn’t even run away! We didn’t try to go toward them or anything but they really didn’t seem to mind us photographing them!
Wish we’d seen more birds and other critters but we did later in the week when we went to Maymont. Post to come!
Mommy & Me Mini Session {Ruckersville, VA Family Photography}
Our children grow up so fast! Take time out TODAY to be photographed with your child!
Start a new tradition: mother/child portraits each year for Mother’s Day! Include Grandma, too! Photos are the gift that keep on giving … for generations to come! You can gift them to yourself, plan to gift them to a grandmother for Mother’s Day or include Grandma in the mini session, too! Get out from behind the camera and let me capture you with your little ones during the Mommy & Me mini sessions on April 21-22–photos will be back in time for Mother’s Day–at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Earlysville (large park with lots of areas to capture photos)!
Included in the $100 session fee is the 30-minute session with at least 10 unique poses, one free 5X7 of your choosing and an online gallery to order additional prints–think gifts for Grandparents’ Day in September!
Book NOW!! (434) 985-8004
Fathers: fear not–I have gift vouchers you can buy as a Mother’s Day gift for the special discounted price that can be used any time in the next 6 months!
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