Family photoshoot of Mother and daughter at Tuckahoe in Richmond

Richmond, Virginia’s expert newborn baby photographer

Also serving Midlothian, Chesterfield, and Henrico families

I specialize in lifestyle and studio newborn, maternity and family photography. As an expert in safely posing and photographing newborn babies, I capture your baby’s first days, as well as their milestones and birthdays (cake smashes included!). I offer natural light photography, on location in and around Richmond, VA, and studio newborn photography in Midlothian, Va.

No stiff, posed shots, but bright, colorful images that are real in their representation of this time in your life. My studio is equipped with with everything needed for a newborn session, from color-coordinated accessories to professional posing aids.

more about me

Selected by Expertise.com as one of Richmond, Virginia’s best newborn photographers. Serving Richmond, Midlothian, Chesterfield, Charlottesville, Mechanicsville, Powhatan, Tuckahoe, Williamsburg, Fredericksburg and Henrico Counties.

Elise Welker is an expert newborn photographer in Richmond and surrounding areas

Rated One of the Top Four
best richmond newborn photographers

newborn photo of baby in midlothian, va studio

Newborns

Lifestyle

Babies

Richmond baby birthday cake smash photo session

Cake Smashes

Child personality portrait in Richmond VA studio

Children

outdoor family photo session in richmond, va suburbs park

Families

Maternity

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The reviews are in…

Elise Welker Photography

5.0

Kristi M.

18:46 09 Dec 25

I’ve been working with Elise for the past five years and through three babies, and I cannot say enough wonderful things about her. She has photographed some of the most important moments of our lives, and every single session has been nothing short of amazing.

Her talent is unmatched - she captures the sweetest details, the softest expressions, and the moments you don’t even realize you’ll want to remember forever. She is patient, gentle, and truly gifted with newborns, and she always makes us feel comfortable and cared for during every session.

The quality of her work is consistently breathtaking, and I am always blown away by the final images. These are photos my family will cherish for a lifetime. If you’re looking for someone who is professional, artistic, and genuinely passionate about what she does, look no further. She is absolutely the best!

Danielle H.

20:26 22 Oct 25

So grateful to have found Elise & have our pictures taken! She captured our family beautifully. Can’t wait to have future family photos taken by her!

Monica K.

19:23 06 Oct 25

Highly recommend Elise for newborn pictures! She had the entire session well planned out to match my style and captured the most beautiful photos of my entire family. The turnaround on the gallery was incredibly fast and I truly appreciated how much thought she put into making sure I was happy with the final result. Will definitely use her again for milestone pictures!

Olivia B.

18:17 10 Sep 25

Elise has always been so fantastic to work with! We have used her for both of my daughters’ newborn and one year year-old portraits! The pictures turned out so beautiful and I will cherish them forever!

Jessica W.

21:12 05 Sep 25

The best! We have been lucky enough to work with Elise for our three kids’ newborn/first year photos, personality portraits, and family pictures. We are blown away every time by the gorgeous images she’s able to capture, even when less-than-cooperative toddlers are thrown into the mix 🙂 Cannot recommend enough!

Leah O.

21:52 29 Jul 25

We booked Elise for a newborn photo session and couldn’t be happier! She was super easy to work with, had a wealth of knowledge along with tips and tricks to make the session go smoothly. The session was great, she helped us with poses that would be flattering and was so patient even when our little one decided to do his own thing. Our photos turned out amazing and we will definitely be booking more sessions with her in the future!!

Chrissie C.

22:27 12 May 25

Elise is fantastic! My little guy was a menace during some of his shoots and you’d never know from the results. We love the photos and highly recommend!!

Kaitlyn P.

00:02 24 Mar 25

Absolutely love getting our babies pictures taken by Elise!! We have now gone to here 3 times, 2 for newborns and one cake smash. It has been such a great experience every time! She knows how to work with babies so well, soothe them, and just handles them with them with such ease. And somehow could talk our toddler boy into getting some pictures taken, who is near impossible to get a good picture of usually! She has such a cozy studio that just makes the whole experience great for us and our kids! She’s just really good at what she does!! As a photographer I’m always recommending her to other clients!! I absolutely love how ours turn out everytime!!

Cristin K.

16:40 07 Mar 23

Elise is absolutely amazing to work with and is so incredibly talented. From booking to styling to help with print and product orders Elise was so helpful and responsive every step of the way. She has a great eye for colors and style and we are absolutely in love with the images she's given us of our little one 🙂

Molly W.

01:07 03 Mar 23

Elise made getting photos of our 4 month old so incredibly easy. She is wonderful around children, and the photos she took are stunning. She also took all the work out of it for us - she was able to provide the studio, outfits and poses. I would highly recommend Elise to any close friends or family.

Ashley Crutcher I.

19:05 29 Nov 22

As photographers ourselves, our newborn photos were super important to us with our firstborn son. Elise went above and beyond all of our expectations and totally blew our minds with these pics! She captured his little personality perfectly, and all of the tiny cute things that we love so much about him. We could tell as soon as we stepped into her studio that she was incredibly talented and is the baby whisperer for sure! There wasn’t one moment where I was worried about my son’s safety, or that the photos wouldn’t be what we expected - we could tell we were going to love every single one before we saw anything at all. She is so skilled at posing, and her style is so genuine and authentic, which is sometimes hard to find with newborn photographers who use elaborate props and sets that don’t capture baby in genuine positions. Her props and set-ups are beautiful and unique, but simple to keep the focus on the baby which is exactly what we wanted. Before the session, I was a little bit worried about our family photos that had me in them since pregnancy was not very kind to me (lol!) but Elise made me look and feel like a model! Every single photo is so perfect and we definitely will be staring at these for quite some time. THANK YOU ELISE!

Bree S.

17:55 26 Sep 22

Elise has been our family photographer for 3 years & we will never go to anyone else ever again. What sets her apart in particular is incredible taste & style. She’s able to visualize a great look & is terrific at helping families put it all together. My toddler is a challenge (to say the least). Somehow, Elise finds a way to capture her spirit. It truly is magic to look thru the gallery when she sends the link. We’ve had 6 sessions over the years. Each a completely unique aesthetic, yet authentic to who we are as a family. She’s always willing to try different things & new locations. She is patient & flexible. We love her so much!!

Joanna F.

00:41 07 Aug 22

Elise did an amazing job capturing our son’s newborn photos. We really enjoyed working with her. Elise provided a timeline and advice on how to get our son to have the best shots which we really appreciated. We loved the images so much that we even upgraded our package afterwards. We sent newborn announcement cards to our friends and family and received so many compliments! We can’t recommend her enough! We plan to go back to her again for future sessions

Lindsey B.

02:26 15 Jan 21

Elise took amazing newborn, family, and 6 month sitter photos for us! She was a true baby whisperer and was also great with my "big" kids. I have so many beautiful pictures to choose from. The whole experience was so enjoyable. I was impressed wither her COVID protocols too. I highly recommend pictures with Elise!! I will be getting many more done with her!

Charles N.

00:18 16 Jul 20

Elise is wonderful. She took newborn photos for our family and we went back for 1 year milestone pictures. She has a special way of working with little ones and is able to capture the best moments! So much skill and creativity go into her photo shoots and it makes the end product amazing. Your expectations will be exceeded if you hire her for your family photos.

Sarah L.

05:38 02 Dec 19

We have done family pictures with Elise for the past several years and I couldn’t recommend her more! Elise was great with the kids, really personalizing her interactions to get the best from them. She was also great with me, providing great advice, plenty of helpful communication and was very detail-oriented, ensuring we were well-prepared for our sessions. And her work? Stunning! I just wish I had found her earlier when my kids were babies!

Cherie S.

03:08 02 Dec 19

Elise has been our family photographer for the last 4 years. We have worked with her for baby first year milestones, portraits, head shots, maternity, and newborn. She takes extra care in finding the perfect location for outdoor shots and her studio is packed with every styling you can imagine for your little ones. Her editing is top notch and your gallery is always on time or sooner. She has amazing vision and talent and is always perfecting her craft. Highly recommend— be sure to book early!

Joanna N.

18:18 13 Aug 19

I highly recommend Elise Welker for family photography! Elise took our daughter's newborn photos and they are absolutely wonderful. She was very responsive and helpful so that we could prepare for, and get the most out of our photo session. It is clear that she has extensive experience with newborns -- it was magic how she was able to work with and pose our daughter (all while being extremely sweet and gentle). All of the photos turned out beautifully and we will cherish them forever. An added perk is that Elise is a photo partner with Minted and it made the process of ordering our birth announcements VERY easy. Thank you, Elise, for a great experience and such special keepsakes!

What Clients are Saying...

“They are absolutely stunning photos! I am in love with them! Thank you so much Elise, I can’t say enough about what wonderful work you do!”

M.G., newborn session

“We just looked through the album and we are absolutely in love with all of these. I had a feeling we would have some great shots since the mood that day was so fun, but your editing made each pic a work of art. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!!”

J.B., family session

“Elise is great to work with. She customized a package that met my various needs (maternity, toddler portrait, and family portrait) and provided lots a great shots/variety that exceeded my goals for the session. I also love the option for mini sessions so I can do more frequent photos for our growing family. We will definitely be using Elise again soon!”

C.S., maternity & family session

“The pictures are BEAUTIFUL!!! So many lovely shots to choose from. Thank you so much for making our first photo session go so smoothly, even with the added challenges from the weather and my tired children.”

A.B., family session

Elise! Oh. My. GOODNESS! These are so amazing thank you so much!! We are blown away.

So thankful we have this moment in time captured for all the years to come. You’re so talented.

Augie and Liz, Newborn Photo Session

“I’m so happy with the precious photos Elise took of my 8 month old son. She captured just the right moments and smiles, and her editing process really transformed the photos into a work of art. She was very responsive and turned around my gallery quickly.”

T.C., little sitter milestone session

“I LOVE these photos. You were exceptional at getting my boys smiling and engaged in the photos. No easy task from two very active boys!”

M.W., family session