Angela’s Family Portraits at Little Island Park in Sandbridge

Angela’s Family Portraits at Little Island Park in Sandbridge

An Extended Family Session at the Beach

Angela’s Little Island Park family portraits brought several generations of her family together for an evening in Sandbridge. She was joined by her husband and daughter, Kelsey, along with her parents, sister, extended family, and even the newest little member of the family. We also set aside some time to photograph Kelsey’s senior portraits, too.

Little Island Park is one of my favorite locations for family portraits in Virginia Beach. There’s plenty of room for larger groups, and we can easily move between the dunes, beach, and shoreline. That variety is especially helpful when photographing an extended family because there are usually quite a few combinations to work through.

We photographed the entire family together, but we also broke everyone into smaller groups. That gave each individual family their own portraits while still documenting the rare occasion when everyone was together in one place.

A Family with Plenty to Celebrate

There was also more significance behind this particular family session than you would know just by looking through the photographs.

Angela recently completed treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, or AML. Her treatment included a stem cell transplant, and her daughter Kelsey turned out to be a match. The transplant was successful, Angela has completed her treatments, and she is now continuing her recovery.

So while we approached this like any other relaxed family portrait session, there was certainly plenty for this family to celebrate.

I especially enjoyed having three generations together for the session. In addition to portraits of Angela with her immediate family, we were able to photograph grandparents, siblings, cousins, couples, and the younger kids. Those different combinations help tell a much more complete story than one large group photograph alone.

Family Portraits at Little Island Park

Sandbridge works particularly well for extended-family sessions because the scenery is beautiful without being complicated. The beach provides a clean background, while the dunes add some variety before we head closer to the water.

Most importantly, there’s room for everyone.

Angela’s Little Island Park family portraits gave us the opportunity to document her family at a particularly meaningful point in their lives. After everything they have been through together, I’m glad we could spend some time simply taking photographs of everyone together on the beach.