three generations of family jump from a dock into water at the same time with their hands in the air

Why summer is the best time to take pictures with your family (yes, the professional ones!)

  • a family shares a crab feast, an arial shot of crab shucking and shrimp sharing
  • the chubby hand of a toddler wearing sandles pulls a wildflower amidst grass
  • a little girl wears goggles as she leans on the pool lip, the goggles have eyelashes
  • close up of a dog's face as she is being washed and rinsed with a hose, her eyes are closed
  • a dad grills for the family and smoke plumes from the coals
  • siblings in bright swim shirts eat ice cream in front of an ice cream shop, the dad walks through the frame from the left

If you look at the calendars of most family photographers, you’d think autumn is the best season for taking family photos. Its the last stop on the good weather train before pulling into the winter and holiday card season, at least here in the mid-Atlantic, and fall leaves are beautiful to be sure.

When I review my own family photos, my favorites are taken in summer. Its true that I might be too busy with OPP (other people’s pictures) during the fall to take our own but I think there’s something else. Maybe it will prompt you to choose summer for your documentary family portraits too.

There is something free and light and joyful about summer. Summer is where we break from our regular schedules and conventional operations as a family. We get a little extra time together: a few more hours of daylight, more time outdoors, vacations and opportunities to stay up late. So many of our own childhood memories are tied to summer, giving us lots to share with our kids. Popsicles, fireworks, the smell of ocean air: we still love the things we loved back then.

I’ve been thinking about why delight is such an important thing to experience, capture and share as a family. Delight is a spark we feel inside of us, a giggle we share with God. And to capture it on film (or 0’s and 1’s) is to make a portal we can always plug back into. A portal to, “ahhhhh, now this is living” and “this right here is what’s actually important”. Delight reminds us to live as fully as we can with our kids.

Smiling for a camera is supposed to signify “happy” but happy, as a constant state of being, doesn’t really exist. There are only families who commit to experiencing as many happy moments together as they can amidst the responsibilities of life and the challenges of growing up and raising children.

Happiness is a momentary choice made over and over again.

And delight is when happiness choses us back.

Sometimes I think that our favorite photos happen on vacation simply because vacations give us permission to experience delight. Permission to stop working and sit in a floaty. Permission to explore a new and exciting place, permission to try a new food or to enjoy a favorite (like an ice cream cone with sprinkles). Delight is often associated with our own childhood memories and the memories we want our children to have too.

I truly hope that summer becomes my busiest season. I hope we can lean into delight in more ways, expand our understanding of where to find it and what more it can be.

I want to take family photos as you….

pick strawberries, catch fireflies, run for the ice cream truck, wear water wings, walk through fields of sunflowers, visit a farmers market, grill out, shuck crabs, feel grass with your bare feet, make eyeglasses out of glow sticks, create sidewalk chalk masterpieces, look for rainbows and cloud animals, splash in puddles, hold an heirloom tomato the size of your face, light sparklers, jump in pools…

  • a boy's feet and his book peak out from a hammock hanging over lush ivy
  • the author and her toddler throw breadcrumbs to sea gulls on the beach
  • the back of a boy's head that has been spray painted and styled with colorful bands as he walks through a community pool
  • a shot from the water as a boy jumps off a balcony in his swimsuit to the river below
  • a silhouette of a boy on a dock with his dogs deciding whether or not to jump in the water
  • the crack of a toddler's butt shows through his droopy swimsuit as he is held in his mother's arms

What is your favorite summer delight? What might a family photo session designed around it look like for you?

Yes, I’m going full cheese here but the word “light” is in “delight”, isn’t it??? I really think we’re onto something here. 🧀📸✨

Thinking of booking a summer session? Want to talk through some ideas and get really excited? Click here to take the first step. P.S. – its not at all hard to get kids to smile during summer sessions (grown ups can’t resist either).

a boy runs across sand at a beach with aqua water

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