Laurel Anne Photography

05/23/2022

"Night is not something to endure until dawn. It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its' own kingdom; it moves to its' own laws, and many living things dwell within it."
- Patricia A. McKillip

I consider myself so extremely fortunate to have an amazing client who will venture out into dark water during the Blood Moon just to play out a new creative concept with me. The end result makes my creative soul happy, and I had the hardest time narrowing down which images to share. Does this make anyone else want to wade in the Edisto on a hot southern night, or is it just me? 😍

11/03/2021

For my homeschool people, it's time to update those yearly photos! (This is also fair game for non-homeschoolers who missed picture day at school or who just didn't like their school photo this year!)

As a fellow homeschooling mama myself, my schedule is fairly flexible during weekdays to schedule these. If you have a co-op, social group, book club, etc., I can make arrangements to come to you during your meet up times.

I've selected a date for each day of the week to set up at Colonial Dorchester over this month. Message me with your 1st and 2nd choices on dates and we will get everything all set up.

Tuesday, November 9
Wednesday, November 10
Thursday, November 18
Friday, November 19
Monday, November 22

Also, you can bring your own items to place on the desk if you want a more personalized look to your homeschooling style 💕

12/11/2020

I can't believe how big these sweet boys have grown since I first took their photos. Check the last two photos in this series for a super sweet throw back!! 😍

12/04/2020

It's not too late! I still have my holiday mini session deals going for the next two weeks but available spaces are starting to book up!

I've also decided that on the morning of Monday, December 7th and throughout the day on Friday, Dec 11th I will be adding in two homeschool/preschool/cyber school holiday photo dates. Contact me for details!
**Also, If you have a co-op or group fieldtrip scheduled on a weekday between now and December 17th, I am happy to offer group rates.

11/25/2020

Such an absolutely breathtaking location with the sweetest family. I cannot believe how much this sweet girl has grown over the past few years. Her precious smile made my job feel way too easy!

11/20/2020

Gasp! So excited to share some details on the sessions I'll be hosting this holiday season

11/01/2020

Some sneaks from an amazing gallery I'm about to finish up over the next few days

11/01/2020

A "sneak peek" where I just couldn't narrow it down to a few. Such a sweet in-home session the other day with this beautiful family. These are hands-down my favorite types of sessions. I got to run around and play myself, enjoy a family in their most comfortable place, and capture some really beautiful and genuine moments.

Can everyone just start inviting me over to their houses for sessions?

09/27/2020

While we were visiting Pennsylvania this summer I was able to capture these gorgeous images of our cousin's family right in my own grandma's backyard. Living far away from family, I'm so glad I was able to not only snuggle this sweet baby but was also able to document the absolute perfection of an incredible family in the most gorgeously coordinated way. The mood of these was just 🔥👐😍

09/26/2020

I had a really amazing opportunity on Friday morning to help honor some heroes within Dorchester County.

Since the start of COVID-19 in March of this year, Louis Smith and the Community Resource Center volunteers paired up with Sherriff L.C. Knight and the Dorchester County Sherriff's department to put over 60,000 boxes of food into the hands of people within our community. Such an incredible accomplishment to have witnessed and documented.

A humbling event to remind all of us that we can always come together as a community to raise each other up in times of need.

If you'd like to donate or get involved, check out http://www.crcnorthcharleston.com/

09/24/2020

A little sneak peak from a downtown session earlier this week. I am swooning and cannot wait to share more! I've documented this family since back when there was only two of them and a little bump. Now they are a beautiful family of four! Oh, and mom and dad both OWNED that alley 😍

11/09/2019

And oops button click on my part accidentally deleted one of the sneaks! Anyway, it's so dang cute it deserves it's own post!

11/09/2019

Smith Family Preview!

I think my favorite thing about photography is getting to know the little ones and then watching them grow from year to year

11/09/2019

Hey, everyone!!

I know it has been a long time since I've posted here on Facebook but since it is the busiest time of the year for photographers, I figured this would be a better time than any to give everyone an update!

I have still been steadily working with clients and doing events all year; however, my posting on social media has decreased for multiple reasons including my new job teaching 3k this year! My husband has also been dealing with a severe chemical burn injury that has added significant difficulty to our day-to-day lives while he is still having surgeries and recovering. For these reasons, I ask for your patience on message responses and understanding with my scheduling being condensed to try fitting in multiple clients to a day or location. I also send my love and thanks to the current clients who I'm catching up on editing with now that have been so patient while we were in the most complicated parts of my husband's injury! You are all amazing!

02/22/2019

I have watched this little sweetie pie grow from just a tiny bump to such a big boy! I am just so in love with this sweet little face, even when he decided "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!" After some serious cake smashin', he decided to lay on his cake as an act of protest against the photo shoot! A bath in the sink and covering mommy with cake wasn't enough... But snuggles and his self-proclaimed favorite pair of PJs did the job

02/19/2019

Finalizing a gallery this morning to send out to a beautiful family and just had to share a random photo that made me smile 😃 It isn't the star image of the entire session (Little lady's mom, if you're reading this, wait til you see the rest in the gallery coming your way in the next few hours... You're going melt from the cuteness) but it stuck out to me because of the process behind it!

This sweet little mini Rapunzel (honestly, the most GORGEOUS long flowing hair I've ever seen on a little girl in real life) was having a blast during her session trying to hide adorable faces from me. I caught this one during a bout of "peek-a-boo, how fast can your shutter go, Ms. Laurel?" (A lot of the kids play this game whether they know it or not 😉❤️)

The sky was obviously very bright behind her but I exposed the image so that the background retained many of it's original details, while simultaneously creating a very dark (seemingly ruined) image of my subject herself. This. Was. A. Planned. Action. Once upon a time, I'd have ruined a sweet image like this by assuming that I could make *magic* in Photoshop later. One of the main schools of thought in professional photography is to get the image -right- when taking it and not to rely on post-processing. And this is totally true... But another valuable skill that develops over a photographer's career is the ability to visualize a photo's end result and to anticipate what type of editing that will involve so that they set themselves up for success from the moment they snap the image.

I say all of this BECAUSE... When you ask a photographer for the *raw* files, unedited images, to see the back of the camera during a session... You are missing OUT on the final vision and the complete package of skills that YOU deserve in your experience with your photographer. I am so very glad that I've reached a point in my career that I can do this for all of my lovely and incredible clients

01/31/2019

Happy 4th Birthday, Dax! I have loved watching this sweet little man grow up over the past few years that I've been this family's photographer. This year we decided to hang out at their house and play with action figures, read comics, and play outside! We even posed for some fun composite superhero shots!

01/21/2019

One of the biggest motivations behind me bringing my camera everywhere.

01/17/2019

"First we had each other, then we had you. Now we have everything."

I have been so lucky to have captured so many incredible milestones for this beautiful couple. I can't even describe how exciting it was going from their engagement session and even their wedding to THIS. A baby is coming 😍😍😍 I can't wait to see the little sweet face on that baby!

01/16/2019

"You are dearer to me than language has the power of telling." - Frances Burney

I am just melting going through this engagement session. These two are so very obviously in love and had such a fun time together every second of our session - from dancing to music (that they had to play in their heads because - no wifi 🤣), to nugget jokes, and countless smiles and laughter.

Extra perk of the session... It is a small world! I got to reconnect with so many people I haven't seen in a long time. Because this girl grew up in my hometown as well and her family goes WAY back into many places in my life.

Perfect engagement session kick off for 2019 😍

01/15/2019

Had some fun with composites from this in-home session! I always love getting the opportunity to get my creative juices flowing

01/15/2019

Some highlights from two of my last Christmas sessions that were done in December! The mad rush toward the end of the season had me slow on posting here on Facebook, but some of these are just too beautiful not to share with the world 😍

These two families were so sweet and such a great way to end 2018 for me!

01/15/2019

My fantastic clients...

If you are waiting for a sneak peak, your wait will soon be over! I am catching up on everything today and wading through hundreds of absolutely breath-taking images from over the weekend.

I. LOVE. THEM. ALL.
So it has been a long and difficult culling process trying to sort myself down to just under 100 of the very best images to get my butt moving on!

Be ready for them to appear on the page here soon!

01/15/2019

I meant to post these last week but... life! Haha!

A sneak peak for one of the most lovely little families ever. That sweet boy gave me some serious baby fever and that beautiful little lady made my heart just melt with her sense of adventure throughout our session. We waited FOREVER for this location to quit being flooded and muddy so that we could do this session there, and IT PAID OFF. I am just so in love with this session and I cannot wait to share more!

12/13/2018

You wouldn't believe that this super cute little man started out the session giving me a serious case of the wide eyed who-the-heck-do-you-think-you-are face 🤣 Goodness gracious they turned out so cute!! I am always so excited and happy when I get to work with families during their FIRST Christmas all together 😍


Side note/referral: If you're looking into selling or buying your home, this is the guy to contact! We went from feeling clueless, uncomfortable, and uncertain after working with a different realtor to feeling totally informed, comfortable, and confident once we were referred to Adam! He not only sold us our first home this summer on a serious time crunch, but my old landlord also contacted him and had him sell our long-term rental. Umm, it sold SO FAST! Extremely personable, knowledgeable, goes above and beyond to do all the footwork possible, and advocates for you the entire process! Even on his drive to sign the final papers at the lawyer's office!

*Adam Perrella *

12/13/2018

Excited to share some more pictures from this session with our sweet friends! I am just loving the buffalo plaid this year 😍 The little cheeks are so squeezable!!!

12/12/2018

Looks like our lovely little piece of South Carolina got a little baby frosting 😍

12/11/2018

Hey everyone! A little update on where I'm at on editing Saturday's minis at Colonial Dorchester!

Nacy - ✔️
Wathen - ✔️ Gallery uploading, will be finalized shortly
Perella - Currently editing
Ikerd - On deck
Camilla - In the hole

I'm pretty pleased right now because I'm basically turning around a full gallery each day. I am a perfectionist and refuse to sacrifice quality to get these out any faster than that. Remember, I have 3 kiddos who just wanna live their lives, play ABC mouse on my computer, and cry or hurt each other every time I start editing. They have a special set of skills that limits my hours of editing daily 🤣😉❤️

Thank you everyone for being so awesome!

12/11/2018

Is there anyone here who's been thinking of a Christmas lifestyle session? I'm thinking rainy day, hot cocoa, cookies, soft blankets and snuggles. Deeply discounted just because I feel my creative calling pulling on me! ♥️

12/10/2018

At the pace I'm working along here... I'll have another gallery going out today ;)

I'm so glad that I got to work with some of our closest family friends this past weekend

12/10/2018

So so so glad that the weather finally cleared up so I could see this gorgeous family again! This is actually the same place where it all began when they came out for my 2017 Christmas mini sessions. Now I've seen this lady grow from one of my tiniest Christmas clients to one of the cutest little sweethearts I get to work with 😍 Attaching a few throwbacks here too... just for funsies!

12/09/2018

All of yesterday's sessions and reschedules happened, but unfortunately due to the rain and the muddy conditions outside... today's sessions have been rescheduled for next weekend!

Looking ahead, next Saturday is looking like it might be a repeat of this weekend. Anyone scheduled next weekend, please keep an eye on the forecasts with me and get in touch with any flexibility you have that we could set up as a rain date over the next 2 weeks! Sunday looks clear 🤞

I know, it makes me want to cry too 😭🤣😭🤣 But worry not, we will get these sessions done and turned around before Christmas!

12/07/2018

Sooo, this is my baby brother and his beautiful girlfriend 😍 We did these photos during our family trip to pick out a Christmas tree during our visit to Pennsylvania and now I kinda feel like I just want to take photos in Pennsylvania fields every time I visit.

If you're in Pennsylvania and you're reading this thinking "dang, I'd love to get some updated photos"... Set something up with me. Right now 😉 I'll be there for TWO WEEKS between this month and next ;)

12/07/2018

😍😍😍😍😍😍

"I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind."
- Maya Angelou

This mama has THREE of those daring, loving, strong and kind young men!

12/07/2018

I am SO pleased with the way this location turned out - my own backyard ;) There's just something awesome about having access to electricity and Christmas lights this time of year for sessions 😍

The warmth, sweetness, and personality is all there for this session. I can't say it enough how happy it makes me to have clients who are so authentic that my job no longer feels like a job, but a passion. Capturing sweet REAL smiles and snuggles like this... Worth every minute of work for me!

12/07/2018

I love when I get to do sessions with families who not only hear my vision, but LOVE it and get it! It isn't every day that you meet a family during a holiday mini session and come find out that they are huge fans of your personal specialty - documentary and lifestyle photography! I SO hope I get to be a fly on the wall for one of those types of sessions with this fantastic family in the near future.

Look. At. These. Kids. 😍 Makes me want to reach through the screen and pinch their little cheeks ;)

12/03/2018

Ya'll… This past weekend's weather can kick rocks.

I rescheduled a BUNCH of people over this past weekend due to the nonstop rain and mess that was going on. I'm looking ahead on the forecast for this coming weekend and it isn't looking much better. I'm holding out and really hoping that it'll improve over the next few days; however... If your family has ANY ability to reschedule for a week day session this week, please contact me so we can set something up.

I can be extremely flexible with weekday availability; however, Colonial Dorchester closes the gates at 5 creating the only real time barrier. I have done cute sessions in my own backyard with Christmas lights that can go a little later into the evening if that would interest anyone as well.

I'm also looking into potential ideas to help this coming weekend's sessions happen rain or shine, but unfortunately there's no way for me to ask for a manager on mother nature's rude December behavior... Otherwise, I totally would 🤣😉☔️

11/30/2018

I know a lot of moms who really hear me on this one!

🙌

Yup!

11/30/2018

I got to go take photos among the Spanish moss and avenue of oaks today! There were still flowers in full bloom everywhere too 😍 Such a beautiful place to start my weekend sessions!

11/30/2018

I just love seeing clients again when their kiddos have grown even further into their own personalities and attitudes 😍 And I especially love seeing clients again when they bring me new babies to make my heart get all achy and full.