melissa pohlmeier

Local Photographer Captures Newborn Moments

By Gretchen R. Crowe
HERALD Staff Writer
(From the Issue of 11/23/06)

A new baby means new life, new innocence, new hope. With the arrival of each bundle of curled fingers, tiny feet and wide eyes comes precious newborn moments that Virginia native Melissa Pohlmeier makes it her job to capture.
Armed with a camera and a self-taught knowledge of photography, stay-at-home mom Pohlmeier, a parishioner at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax, has spent the last year photographing infants in the first few weeks of their lives in order to create lasting memories in the form of birth announcements and collages for the expanding families.
“Those first couple of weeks of a newborn’s life are so harried,” Pohlmeier said, sitting on a couch in her Springfield home with Thomas, 3, on her lap and Rebecca, 4, at her feet. “I know, I’ve been there. I feel like the images I take — especially in black and white — help the parents see (their new baby’s) innocence.”
As a part of her photo shoots, Pohlmeier meets with each family three times: once to take the photos, once to show the proofs and once to deliver the order. The whole process typically takes less than three weeks, and for every family Pohlmeier puts together a leather-bound book of prints and a digital slideshow, which she sets to music.
“I really want it to be a personal experience and different from what you would get in a studio,” she said. “I feel really blessed to be with the families at that time in their lives.”
Pohlmeier’s interest in photography arose from watching the rapid growth of her three children.
“With the birth of each of the kids I got more and more interested in taking pictures because they change so fast,” she said.
It wasn’t until her third child, Andrew, now 1, came along that she started photographing newborns.
“When Andrew was born, I had my first live real model that would sit still,” she said.
Pohlmeier created and sent out birth announcements with close-up black-and-white pictures of his tiny face and feet — and her family and friends took notice.
Her first subjects were newborn twins who had been hospitalized for the first several weeks of their lives. The premature babies were the eighth and ninth children in a Catholic family in Nokesville, Va., southwest of Manassas.
“It was a really fun experience,” she said. “It was kind of ambitious, I think, to take twins on as (my) first client.” But the mother’s reaction — tears of joy at the sight of the announcements that had been created of “her miracle babies” — eased Pohlmeier’s concerns.
“It’s nice to be able to document a milestone for a family and have them say these are going to be their heirlooms,” she said.
Most of Pohlmeier’s business comes through word of mouth; the only advertising she does is through the Tepeyac Family Center in Fairfax. Pohlmeier started going to the center when she was a teenager, and all of her children were born there, where “a different doctor caught each of them,” she said.
In exchange for having a small display at the center’s check-out desk, Pohlmeier gives 10 percent of the money she earns from Tepeyac clients back to the center for its Divine Mercy Care.
“The value that they give all life is important and anything we can do to support that we’ll do,” she said.
Tepeyac patients also receive a special discount on photography sessions and any orders they might place.
Regardless of where she finds her clients — or where they find her — 10 percent of her small business’ earnings go to some type of charity.
Pohlmeier is a product of Northern Virginia: she grew up in Burke, attended Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria and graduated from George Mason University in Fairfax. She spent a year volunteering in New Jersey at a young adult retreat center, where she met her husband, Keith. The couple was married in New Jersey, where Pohlmeier later earned her master’s degree in theology from Seton Hall University. She and Keith soon settled in Northern Virginia — where he now works as an advertising representative at the HERALD — and began their family.
Pohlmeier said the most challenging aspect of being a stay-at-home mom with a small business is balancing her time between caring for her own children and taking photos of others. As a result, she limits her photo shoots to newborns.
Though she only photographs infants, Pohlmeier designs Christmas cards using photos that families send to her. They are fully customizable, and she offers them with a Christian message — “May the peace of Christ be yours this holy season” — that can sometimes be difficult to find through more commercial routes.
She also creates “save the dates” and “name frames” — framed photos spelling out names using letters found mostly in nature, like a “Y” found in the branches of a tree or an “L” in the curve of a park bench. This “very kid friendly” work has already inspired Rebecca to want to follow in her mom’s footsteps when she grows up.
“I’m a stay-at-home mom, so I want to stay at home,” Pohlmeier said. But the photography is “something I enjoy doing, and it’s a nice creative outlet. It’s a gift.”
For more information go to www.melissaclairedesigns.com.

Gretchen R. Crowe can be reached at gcrowe@catholicherald.com.