The Best Time of Year for In-Home Family Photos

If you've been waiting for the trees to turn green or the leaves to change before booking family photos, I have good news: your living room looks pretty much the same in March as it does in October.

In-home sessions are available all year, and some of my favorites have happened during the months when nobody would call the landscape outside particularly photogenic. The best time to book depends more on your family and your house than on the calendar.

Winter: Everyone's already inside

Winter in the Catskills and Hudson Valley can be long. It can also be a really good time to photograph the way your family spends its days. Make pancakes. Read the same book your kid has requested 47 times. Let them show me the elaborate thing they built on the living room floor.

The sun sits lower and the days are shorter, so I usually plan around the rooms that get the best natural light. We might start in the kitchen and move to a bedroom when the light shifts. You don't need to know which windows are “good.” I can figure that out when I arrive.

Spring: A little bit of both

Spring is great if you want some of your regular life inside and a few photos outside without planning a whole location session. We might hang out in your kid's room, then head onto the porch or into the yard if the weather cooperates.

And if it rains? We stay inside. That's the beauty of having a roof over the session.

Summer: Use the mornings

If your house is full of early risers, a summer morning can give us plenty to work with before the day gets hot and everyone starts negotiating snacks. We can photograph breakfast, the getting-dressed chaos, or whatever your family actually likes doing at home. If the yard is part of your everyday life, we can go out there too.

An in-home session also saves you from trying to keep a toddler cheerful until a late summer sunset.

Fall: You don't have to race the foliage

Fall family photo dates in the Catskills go quickly because everybody has their eye on the same few weeks of color. I get it. I love fall outside too. But you don't have to squeeze your family into peak foliage season to have photos that feel like this part of your life.

Maybe fall at your house means muddy boots by the door, kids baking with you, or everyone piling onto the couch after school. Those details will mean more to you than a background of orange trees if they are the things your family actually remembers doing together.

So when should you book?

Think about what is happening at home right now. Is your baby starting to smile at everyone? Has your kid become obsessed with making breakfast? Is there a room where the whole family always ends up? You don't need to wait for a milestone, but those are good signs that you might want photos of this season of life.

I usually recommend a morning for in-home family photos, particularly with younger kids. We'll choose a start time based on their routine and the light in your house. You can send me a few phone photos of the rooms you use most if you'd like help planning.

The best time of year is the one when you're ready to let me in, make yourselves at home, and show me what a normal day with your people looks like.