PARENT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Becky Gardner
Celebrating life through photography
BY LINDSDAY C. VANASDALAN
FAMILY FAVORITES
Family meal: I would say
spaghetti and meatballs. We
love to make lamb meatballs.

Place to photograph your
family: Probably at home. We
just bought a 110-year-old house
out in Purcellville, and there are
always weird outbuildings
and light.

Family photo: We spent some
time living abroad in England.

My boys were a couple of years
younger, and everywhere has
swords and shields. I remember
this photo of Henry and Hollis
doing what we called storming
the castle. Everywhere we went,
my husband would be like “OK,
go storm the castle!”
Story to tell your kids: My
husband used to be in the Army,
and we met in college. He got
orders to move to a different
base, and if we weren’t married,
basically I couldn’t go. We like to
tell them the story of when we
got married on our lunch hour
and both (of us) went back to
work. We didn’t even bring the
camera. 24 Washington FAMILY MAY 2022
why they’re awesome. But then it’s
realizing that 13 years went by super
duper fast.

I went through a time where I actually
had Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I was sick, went
through chemo and lost all my hair. And
I made sure to take pictures of my kids.

We had a lot of funny things to lighten
the mood there. But I think a lot of lev-
ity can be found in photos. Looking back,
you can find that—maybe see something
differently than you did before or you can
always then see. I have a giant wall of pho-
tos and books and books and books of
them to look through.

Your photography is focused
on capturing the authentic
moments that tell a family’s
story. Has your career made
you more driven to document
these moments in your own life?
Yes and no—I would say most
photographers would agree with that.

When I pick up my camera now, I would say
that’s one of the hardest things is it sort of
becomes work, or that I get to be kind of
How do you balance your
too much of a perfectionist, or trying to
day-to-day schedule as a
really treat it as a job rather than letting
photographer with family life?
my family take center stage. A couple of
I feel like that’s something that I still am times a year, I’ll really buckle down and
learning. It’s gotten much better as I have have a couple of long days with my kids
learned to set boundaries, say no to things where I can document them as they are.

and focus on what is going to be best for
not only my clients but for my family. I What’s one thing you hope your
think when you’re first starting out it’s a kids learn from your career?
lot of “hustle, hustle, hustle” and trying to Creativity and creating art, and creating
say yes to everything. There is definitely something for others to appreciate and
room to say no, and that’s sometimes all treasure and that’s meaningful to them.

you can do for your sanity.

I hope that they get letting their brains
wander and play in beautiful light in big
open fields and those kind of things. I
started with a camera and a couple of
classes and then put my mind to figuring
It means so, so much. My daughter just out this was something that I wanted
turned 13, which I feel like, you know, I to do, took the steps and did it the right
spent a lot of time going back through way. You can create something if you put
pictures and I feel like that’s one reason in the work. n
What does creating those
memories mean to you as
parent? PHOTO COURTESY OF BECKY GARDNER
B ecky
Gardner’s photography
journey began with a few
community college classes after her
son Henry was born in 2011. In seeking
something fun and different from her
work in corporate sales and recruiting, she
turned to an old love.

“I’ve always been really interested in
genealogy and local history, and trying to
find out the stories of things and places,”
Gardner says. Now she seeks out stories
through her camera as the owner of Becky A.

Gardner Photography.

A big part of these stories shines
through in clients’ homes, she says, but
Gardner also enjoys finding hidden gems
where she photographs families in Loudon
and Fairfax counties, as well as Arlington
and Washington, D.C.

“Through 11 years—and some of my
families have been with me that long—I
haven’t run out of places,” Gardner says.

Gardner now lives in Purcellville,
Virginia, with her husband, John-Mark,
and her three children, Hollis (6), Henry
(11) and Sage (13).