Photographing Mrs. Alexandria...in Alexandria

Saturday, September 5 - Photo session: As part of a personal photography project, I had the pleasure of photographing Mrs. Alexandria 2009/2010, her husband and their dog in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. I appreciate having them come out for this photo session. In our correspondence back and forth, I had a choice between one of two Kimpton Hotels as a location: Hotel Monaco or Lorien Hotel & Spa. I decided upon a somewhat retro look and feel to the photo session, so we went to Hotel Monaco Alexandria. The hotel is diagonally across from Old Town's Market Square, just off King Street, and a few blocks from the Potomac River. The hotel is in a great location. It's also a pet friendly hotel and the decor inside is comfortably regal and rich in color.

We met at the hotel around 5pm and I got to meet Mrs. Alexandria's husband for the first time. The couple looks good together. We surveyed the lobby and considered what the pictures might look like in here. There wasn't as much space as I hoped for in this particular area and the lighting was very low. I brought a couple light stands, umbrellas, and a softbox, but I wanted to see what we could do with the available ambient light. We decided to see what else the hotel had to offer and we finally settled on going to the courtyard. It was a beautiful day anyway and the quality of light was actually good at this location. We took several pictures and decided to go out to the front of the hotel for a few more pictures, and then we ended up in front of the infamous water fountain of Market Square for some heavily sun-kissed pictures. It was a fun time and it's always nice to see couples photographed together, and it's a bonus with a dog in the picture.