Preserving the moments that matter: Capturing Joy Photography
By Lincoln Patience, staff writer
Joy Granados is a Herndon photographer, former social worker and adoptive mother. After 15 years in social work, she turned her love of photographing babies into a photography business that gives her more flexibility to spend time with her family.
She wants to recreate for other families the loving environment she experienced growing up.
“Our living room growing up was wall-to-wall photos,” Granados said. “I didn’t just have my parents telling me they loved me. I saw it.”
Granados became interested in social work while volunteering with a juvenile detention ministry in college, where she encountered children in foster care who had experienced trauma and emotional isolation. Granados spent a decade of her social work career in Fairfax County Public Schools.
“I wanted to be a vessel of love and healing to people.”
She initially planned to return to social work after adopting her son Lucas but needed an income that offered more flexibility.
“I got into photography with Lucas because I wanted those really cute newborn photos.”
When she and her husband sold their townhouse, she used some of the proceeds to buy a camera and take a photography course. As she developed her business, she decided to take a different approach from the quick sessions many photographers offer.
Many photographers offer “mini sessions” that last 10 to 15 minutes. Granados understands the appeal, especially when young children have difficulty sitting still and posing, but the format reminded her of an overly brief social work session.
“It feels like drive-thru photography.”
Instead, she meets with families two or three times, including a visit before the shoot to help children become comfortable with her and to learn what kinds of photographs the family wants. She plays games such as tickle monster and Telephone with the children and occasionally lets them take a turn behind the camera.
After the shoot, families visit her Herndon studio to watch a video montage of the photographs.
“Usually it’s the moment right after you give the prompt that’s the most genuine, and those moments are gold.”
For Granados, the importance of preserving those moments comes from personal experience.
Granados and her husband had spent years trying to have a child. The first service they used was Angel Adoption, an adoption marketing firm that offered a two-year contract to market their family to expectant mothers. Granados said the company advertised a 98% placement rate on its website.
She went through eight failed matches in two years.
In July 2020, Granados became pregnant with her son Mateo, who she lost to trisomy 18, a rare chromosomal abnormality, about a month after he was born. She feared the pain that forming an attachment would bring but knew she needed to attach anyway.
“This is the child I’ve prayed for for decades,” she told a doctor who questioned her decision to continue the pregnancy. Mateo lived for 259 days after doctors first detected his heartbeat. The family continues to celebrate his birthday.
Granados credits Mateo with helping bring Lucas into her life. She said Lucas' birth parents chose her and her husband after hearing Mateo's story. The families were matched in July 2021, and Lucas was placed with them in August.
Lucas' adoption was a domestic infant adoption and is an open adoption, Granados said. Catholic Charities handled the placement, and Lucas was placed with the couple when he was 2 days old. The adoption was finalized when Lucas was about 5 months old.
She remains on good terms with Lucas' birth family, she said. They sometimes travel from Florida to visit Lucas, whose name means “bringer of light.”
“He brought light into a very dark moment of our lives when we didn’t know we would be parents again.”
Granados is offering Reston Letter subscribers free photography sessions to the first 10 who visit her upcoming show. Details are on the subscribers’ insert.
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