About This Site

If the picture doesn’t make the newspaper does it still exist?

Why, yes it does, here at Colonial Beach Free Press dot com. Pictures taken by the local correspondent for the Westmoreland News will be here.

News stories that do not make the weekly paper will be here as well.

Pietras-Smith has been a freelance writer for 18 years working for various sites on every subject from body art and modification to politics. Her main focus currently is covering Colonial Beach, VA for the Westmoreland News.

While writing is her first passion she discovered a talent for photojournalism as part of her work with the Westmoreland News.  Her photography has won two Virginia Press Association awards, one in 2015  for breaking news photography and one in 2018 for personality photography. She was named to the 2017 Virginia School Board Association Media Roll of Honor by the Colonial Beach School Board.

Pietras-Smith is not only a talented writer and photographer but an advocate for disabled journalists. As a disabled woman she works for the rights of all disabled people, but especially journalists, to be allowed to continue their work. Her unique perspective allows her to look at the world, and the news, from a less often heard place.