Ashley Rescott Photography

Christa | Jacksonville NC Boudoir Photography

Boudoir is a favorite session of mine. There’s something amazing about letting go and getting photos taken en dishabille that is so freeing and empowering. Christa and I wanted to make a point. Boudoir doesn’t have to be anything. You can wear lingerie or you can wear TMNT socks and a tank top. You can even be fully covered up! You can be YOU!

One of the extra entry options for a recent giveaway was to tell me what made you feel sexy. A lot of people replied saying wearing something comfy, in his t shirts, etc! It doesn’t have to be all about those corsets & thigh highs, it can be a bra & sweatpants.

Christa may look familiar if you’ve followed my page for a while, or picked up one of my boudoir business cards. Every now and then I get a client like Christa where we just mesh perfectly and end up on the same wavelength when it comes to photos.

Here are some MORE of her photos! If you haven’t checked out her Facebook albums, be sure to click here for her first shoot, and here for more from her latest session.

Hair and make up was provided by the wonderful Jacy Stevens. Check out more of her work here.

Daniel + Krista’s Snow Session | Jacksonville NC Couples Photographer

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I gave away a couple’s session. The giveaway itself was AWESOME for me because I got to learn a lot of interesting things about the people who follow my page.

Krista won the random drawing! Krista and Daniel have been together for three years, but are still newlyweds. She moved all the way from Colorado and the girl has some serious cold tolerance, as evidenced in the photos. They were both up for just about anything, which is always a good thing when it comes to a photo session.

Spring is here! | Fredericksburg, VA Photographer

Ah Spring. The weather is getting warmer, days are getting longer and it’s raining often. Not too long until it’s Summer and so hot I feel like I’ll be turning into a puddle every time I walk outside.

I love spring photo sessions. There’s something almost magical about finally being able to go outside and enjoying the sunshine. It’s freeing to be able to ditch the jackets and just stretch. The flowers will soon be in bloom, the leaves will be growing back and turning trees from brown to green.

There are so many different options for sessions in the spring. I photographed Christa, who wanted to do something fun and unique. She picked up some balloons and we had a great time getting back in touch with our free spiritedness & inner children.

My son, who has a love-hate relationship with my camera, was so excited that it was warm outside, he totally cooperated for photos that involved blowing bubbles and coloring with chalk. While it wasn’t a typical child’s portrait session, it led to some awesome images that sum up a warm spring day around here.

Spring also means adventuring. On Saturday, I went location scouting with a couple of friends. One is another photographer, the other was our model for the day. By the end of the trip we were completely worn out, but it was worth every minute for what we found!

Raining the day of your shoot? That’s cool with me! I have totally planned a shoot specifically for when it was raining before! (Just not when it’s lightning! I may be Ben Franklin’s great great great grand niece or whatever, but I have NO desire to share his experience with lightning). The great thing about rain shoots is that they can be fun for a bit of everyone! My son will be enjoying his brand new rain boots & jacket in the next couple days for a session.

Heather & Adam

Longer days also mean later sessions, bringing week night sessions back into the realm of possibility with working families. The light in the hour leading to sunset is absolutely gorgeous!

What are you waiting for? Head over to the contact page to book your Spring Portrait Session today!

In honor of my birthday, a giveaway!

I LOVE birthdays, especially mine. This year, in honor of my birthday, I’ll be giving away a boudoir session! The prize package includes professional hair & make up, a one hour boudoir session in my Fredericksburg studio and a 8×8 little black book. Sweet deal, huh?

What’s the catch? You gotta sign a model release and let me use the photos for my portfolio & advertisements. That’s it!

What is boudoir? Read all about it, here.

To enter, you need to “like” my boudoir page, like the original post, share it publicly (if I can’t see it, it doesn’t count!) and comment on the original post with your favorite color.

To win, you MUST be at least 18 years old, and have completed all of the steps listed above.

I will also post additional entry options so be sure to follow my page for those to pop up in your newsfeed.

This giveaway is in no way endorsed or affiliated with Facebook.

The winner will be drawn at random on March 15th, 2015 at 9:oo pm. You will have 24 hours to claim your prize or a new winner will be chosen.

Aside

When I’m booking location sessions, you will typically receive two time options: one very early in the morning, the other mid afternoon-evening, depending on the time of the year.

Then there are days I get really excited and I’ll photograph people all day.

How does that work?

I promise it’s not all based on a whim.

The hour immediately following sunrise and immediately preceding sunset have the softest light. This is known as the golden hour. When light is directly overhead, it creates harsh shadows on faces, which is not pleasing, photographically speaking. There are ways to combat it (because I feel that is what you’re doing with midday sun) but it’s much easier to get prettier light during the golden hours. Here are some prime examples of gorgeous golden hour light.

But wait! What about the days I’ll shoot all day?

Those days are always cloudy days. The clouds are amazing and act like a natural soft box to the sun’s harsh light. It’s a very pretty diffused light. This is the same reason that during your session you’ll end up being placed in shade. Shade is our best friend during photo sessions. Just look at these photos I took on an overcast day.

So how do I make this work? Every few months, I look up sunrise and sunset times and write them in my planner and book your sessions based off of that information. However, weather happens. Rain. Snow. Ridiculous cold. Wind. When those sessions get rescheduled, I start looking for mostly cloudy days ahead. I want you to love your pictures, and a huge part of that is having nice, pretty, flattering light.

So when I offer you a 7 am session, it’s not because I’m a bit evil; trust me, I don’t particularly want to get up that early any more than you do! It’s because of the quality of the sunlight and wanting to maximize the quality of your images.

Welcoming them home: a story of military homecomings.

I first started my business in North Carolina, we were stationed at Camp Lejeune. One of the most common requests I received was to capture when deployed Marines and Sailors came home. I love homecomings. It’s a lot of sitting around and waiting for them to arrive. I’d be standing chatting with my client when we’d hear a loud cheer. I’d stand on tiptoe to see the seven tons coming in. I’d turn to her and explain it wasn’t them; it was their gear. It was still a heart fluttering moment to see their stuff for the first time in over seven months. You know they are nearby, probably turning in their rifles and getting ready to come see you! I’ve seen the next part happen a variety of ways. Big, white buses roll up and start unloading Marines and Sailors in front of our eyes. Wives, girlfriends, kids, running up for their hugs. Big buses pull up and they unload them into formation on the other side of the buses. The buses pull away, the Marines are released to reunite with their families. A cheer as we see a formation marching toward us in the distance. Shouts of joy as the Marines sneak into the crowd from behind. Released in platoons that come walking in from the front as itty bitty groups. Once, a minivan pulled up and one Marine came out to hug his very pregnant wife. Yet every homecoming was the same. A long wait filled with anticipation. A family reunited. Hugs. Kisses. Tears of joy. Excitement. Relief. One of the homecomings I photographed was 24 hours to the minute after my own husband had deployed. I still remember the look of shock on Betsy’s face when I told her that. She thought I should be a mess. I get so wrapped up in the joy of homecomings that it makes all the not so pleasant stuff in my own life fade away. At the end of the day, military homecomings will always have a special place in my heart. They are completely unpredictable, always seem to end up happening at the worst possible time for lighting (dead of night or noon), take forever. But the look on his face when he meets his baby for the first time, not recognizing his wife after a huge weight loss, hugging his family for the first time in months, that is what makes it all worth the craziness.

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Macey’s Fundraiser

A good friend of mine lost her niece very unexpectedly. She was only 21 years old. They are asking for some help covering her funeral expenses.

Looking at Macey’s Facebook page, you can see how loved she was, and how full of life.

To honor her, and raise money for her last expenses, I have gotten together with several other businesses in the area.

On Saturday, January 31st, from 11 am to 4 pm, my studio will be open for pictures in exchange for donations. All proceeds will be going directly to Macey’s Go Fund Me

In addition to this, Jewelry in Candles by Tara & Erica, Pure Romance by Erica, Pampered Chef by Tasha, and Paparazzi by Lavanda will be here with products. There are special parties set up that are donating their proceeds to Macey’s family. (Links below) More vendors are donating items for a raffle.

For more information, visit the Facebook event page

To sign up for a time slot, comment below with the one you want. I will mark them as they book up, you will receive a confirmation email with your time slot. This should prevent a large crowd waiting in my studio.

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Parties:
Jewelry in Candles

My Boudoir Experience: A Tale of Two Photographers

My route to professional photography is probably a bit different from most people. I’ve given the light version of this before, but I’m going to bare all this time.

My first boudoir session I booked was for our anniversary. Our son was 8 weeks old at the time, but I really wanted something that would knock my husband’s socks off. I didn’t understand a whole lot about photography then, but I noticed I liked one photographer’s pictures a LOT better. We booked the session and she came to my house. She did my hair and make up; she had gone to school specifically for this.

My shoot was awesome. It was like having a friend with a camera take pictures, but they came out SO much better. She took the time to edit them fully (I think it was about a week because she rushed them). I fell in love. No way I looked that GOOD! I got pictures for my husband {that he still has, 4 years later} AND a huge boost to my self esteem. Talk about a win-win.

Nine months later, another photographer was looking to expand her portfolio, including boudoir. I jumped at the chance. My body was a bit better then it was the first time, and hey, it’s still me, and I kinda rock at posing & expressions so why not? Plus it was right around Father’s Day so, perfect gift, right?

She didn’t provide hair & make up, which left me up to my own. Never a good idea in my case (I’ve now owned my curling iron just about a year). The posing was meh and unflattering. The lighting wasn’t good. The editing left a lot to be desired. I snapped the disc in half. If you don’t believe me, ask my husband.

I didn’t get it. They both had a fancy camera, a light on a stand and some sort of “thing” on it (cut me slack, this was before I went to school for photography lol). They both had me and my lingerie, props, etc. What was the big difference??

Photography is more than a camera. It’s posing, composition, editing. It’s having the eye.

Boudoir photography is a special kind of portrait. It takes a lot of self confidence, or motivation, to get up the courage to take off some or most or even all of your clothes for another person. Make sure that person is going to take you and make you look your best! There’s nothing worse then getting back pictures of yourself and wanting to snap that disc in half. Trust me, I’ve been there.

There are reasons behind what I do. Hair and make up are included in all my pricing because make up for photo shoot is drastically different from “street” make up. Having your hair done by a pro means it looks amazing, even from the back, because you never know what angle I’ll put you in. I include products because you aren’t going to want to print these out at CVS or Walmart (IF they even will!). When you sign a model release for boudoir with me, you still get final approval on images posted online. They don’t even go online until after you have given them to your significant other.

Since then, I’ve done 4 more shoots with the first photographer. Her prices have gone up quite a bit from when she first started out to now. I’m even trying to talk my husband into a trip to Tennessee so I can have more done with her.

At the end of the day, I wasted $70 on pictures that I didn’t want to ever see the light of day. That’s $70 I could’ve put toward another session with Crystal. I wish I had.

Me!

The Sweet & Sassy Boudoir

Valentine’s Day Session Giveaway!

Want to win a free couples session? The giveaway is pretty simple this time around: like my page, the photo, share the photo, then comment on the photo when you’re done. And that’s IT! Just make sure to set the privacy to public when you share so I can verify it (if I can’t see it, it doesn’t count).

This giveaway is in no way endorsed, supported or affiliated with Facebook.

There will be other ways to earn additional entries.

The winner must be 18 years old. Session to be used before 4/1/2015. Redeemable in the greater Fredericksburg, VA and Pasadena, MD areas.

Why Boudoir?

Boudoir photography is classy, sexy photos. The definition can change a little from photographer to photographer, but I’ve found the term “implied nudes” to apply very well. With boudoir photography, nothing is actually showing, it’s all hints of your body. Boudoir is NOT pornography. You can wear as much, or as little, as YOU choose. You can be sassy, you can be shy, you can be sweet, you can be anything! You don’t need a perfect body to do boudoir photography. Why should you have boudoir photos? The best answer I can give is the rush and the boost of self esteem that comes with it. I had a boudoir shoot done myself when my son was 8 weeks old. Thankfully, I choose an amazing photographer who rocked the posing & editing and I still love those pictures. (Here is her website). Since then, I have shot with her four more times, and I’ve loved every set of my pictures. They make an amazing gift. Did you know that the first anniversary gift is traditionally paper? That was the reason I ended up getting my pictures done. Wedding, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, birthday, anniversary, promotion, just because. Do it for yourself! Boudoir packages typically include professional hair and make up (mine do!). It gives you an excuse to go lingerie shopping. You get pampered, you get all glammed up, then you get your pictures taken. It’s FUN! Nervous? Have a boudoir party! Get four friends together, all come to the studio and get pampered, listen to music, enjoy champagne & sparkling juices, have your pictures taken. Talk about a fun girls’ night. I’ve photographed many women over the years. Real women. Moms, wives, even a couple of female Marines. I don’t post pictures online without double approval (a signed model release AND your okay on each photo that gets posted). Why do I do this? Because I was you. I was a bit on the nervous side my first photo shoot; I was eight weeks post partum! The pictures rocked and my self esteem and confidence soared! My husband was ecstatic about the pictures. He still has them, over four years later. When I had my second boudoir shoot, I made the mistake of going with a photographer because she was “cheap”. I got what I paid for…plus a disc snapped in half. If you’re going to have these pictures made, make sure you’re going to love them! Looking for a boudoir photographer? Check out my boudoir Facebook page. Also be sure to check out this blog. I know the name of it seems silly, especially if you’re looking for a boudoir photographer. However, the same rules apply to general portrait photography as well as boudoir.

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