aileen reilly photography | 703.599.3046

LIFE.STORIES.GENERATIONS.

Céad Míle Fáilte.

That's Irish for "a hundred thousand welcomes."

I'm so happy to have you here, peeking into what I see. Looking through my lens.

I've been capturing the little moments with my camera for as long as I can remember. I'm the one hovering around the edges, watching and catching the little glances, the slight touch, the sparkling eyes, the hands, the smiles, the laughs. With a click of my shutter, those moments are preserved, remembered years down the road when memory fails or when the little things can no longer be pictured in the mind's eye. My camera is my life (you know, right after my four kids and husband...).

This blog will be for many things. It is another creative outlet for me. I love to write. Writing and photography, for me, are the perfect combination. Here will be my many musings on life, photography, parenting, and more. I will also preview my client shoots here. You will get a taste of what our sessions looked like - the fun we had and the laughs we shared.

So, come in. Take a look through my lens.

A hundred thousand welcomes to you.

Note: The top shot is five generations in our family, ages 9 months to 93 years. Although our great-great grandfather is no longer with us, we have this moment and those memories preserved. A family's hands through time.

Siblings and Cousins | Oakton Family Photographer

01.25.2010 2:02 am

Over the Christmas holiday, I was lucky to spend a morning with four great kids. We went hiking. Through snow, sleet, wind, mud, muck, yuck, the photographer just keeps on trudging….

Two of the kids are local to my area, and the other two girls are cousins, visiting from Atlanta. It was amazing to me how much they were all like one big family, more like brothers and sisters than cousins.

Most of my time was spent chasing after them as they ran on ahead. They kept trying to convince me to follow the trail to the end, though no one seemed all that positive about where it ended. When we got to this, I told them it was a sign.

Time to turn around!

He is the lone boy in the sea of girls. Seems to hold his own though.

His sister. They get along as you would expect brothers and sisters to get along.

And this little girl had a tooth I was just dying to pull out. It was the mom in me.

She and her sister were buds.

But, together, the four of them were like the three musketeers. Or like the four musketeers, if there were such a thing.

Do you like the nails?! They did that in the morning before I arrived. They were completely loving their nails. Well, the girls that is.

Is there a cuter crew? It was so cold that morning, and the kids were having a blast blowing steam. When I asked them to do it on camera, the boy held his composure. The girls were all over it.

Same thing with the funny faces. Every.single.time. I would get three girl funny faces. And one boy smile. So sweet.

And then it was time to go home.

And we ended just like we had started. The kids running ahead, and me walking a bit more carefully behind.

Neither snow, nor wind, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays {this photographer} from the swift completion of {her} job.

hehe.

Can’t wait till next year!

A

Posted in: cousins. families.. family photography.. holiday photography.. oakton photography. portraits.. siblings.

by Aileen

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You can take the girl out of the country….

01.18.2010 10:54 pm

but you can’t take the country out of the girl.

I grew up in the country. And spent most of my time trying to figure out how to get out of the country. I wanted to be anywhere but there in the country.

And now, after spending years living in various cities and suburbs, from one end of the United States to the other, I love heading back to the country. There is something about this scene that brings a peace to my heart. A familiarity. And though this is nowhere near where I grew up, it feels the same. And I find this ~ you can spend most of your life running away only to find when you get far enough away that you actually liked it over there. That it is a part of you that in no way can be denied.

Here. There. Trying to find focus somewhere in between.

xo

A

Posted in: me.. nature photography.. weekends.

by Aileen

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Sisters | Oakton Family Photography

01.17.2010 11:23 pm

Three girls. I have my three (and a boy). Let me tell you, three girls close in age are a handful. You hope that when they got older they are as close emotionally as they are in age! As part of doing a generational photoshoot with grandparents and their children and their grandchildren, I had the opportunity to photograph these three beauties, the grandchildren.

They are all incredibly sweet. The youngest is there in the middle. She is very attached to her mommy, but when she opens up, wow, her personality shines.

Here she is when she heard the door open and knew that her cousin had arrived. She was beside herself with joy and anticipation.

While the younger girls played, I was able to get some shots of the older girls. Here is the middle sister. Like my middle one, she has a lot of energy. I love this shot because she appears so calm and movie-star-like with her sequined dress!

This, to me, shows her personality:

The oldest sister is approaching that age where the girls become more self-conscious in front of the camera. Hopefully she’ll continue to see how beautiful she is.