Val Westover Photography Articles

Articles and photos to inform, inspire, entertain and empower. Portrait photography that Captures true emotion in every stage of your familie’s life. Family portrait, high school senior pictures, wedding photography, corporate headshots and much more. Lifestyle portrait photographers Val & Stephanie Westover serving families and businesses in OC Orange County California and Reno, Nevada since 1994.

The Westover Family Legacy Project

My mother has been asking for years for photos of her entire family. With the recent loss of my father and with an extended family of 50 people scattered throughout the country, this seemed like an impossible task.

During the pandemic, I created a process that now gives me the ability to perform photo sessions virtually for anyone, anywhere. With virtual photography, I realized that I have the tools necessary to help make my mom’s dream come true.

In preparation for my mom’s January 12th birthday, I reached out to my brothers and sisters to see if everyone would be on board to create this special birthday gift. With everyone’s support, I sent out a booking link to each member of my family for everyone’s personalized virtual photo session.

I have been providing virtual photo sessions for business teams, but I have not yet had to deal with a project of this scale. Once family members began to book their personal virtual photo sessions, all of the pieces of our family project started to come together. I was blown away on the show of love and support from everyone. Even though this project was specifically for my mom, I didn’t realize that it would bring us all closer together as a family.

Once all photo sessions were complete, I placed each family together on a background of their choice. Because of lack of space in my mom’s home, wall portraits of each family did not seem logical. Instead, we chose a panoramic album from our Family Legacy product line. As my mom is getting older, this album was the perfect solution. She would be able to have beautiful photos of her entire family in genealogical order. I cannot express enough of how much I love my mom and it was getting to be very exciting that her gift was almost ready.

Once the design was complete and I received approval from all of my brothers and sisters, the album was created and we had it shipped to my mom in Salt Lake City. My niece Sophie took video as my sister Heather sat with our mom to help navigate through the album for the first time. The rest of us were witnessing this special moment via video chat. This was a very emotional and touching moment for us all to see her finally receive her long awaited gift.