Reasons to choose an in-home photography session in 2025

Choosing to use your home as your location for a family photography session offers many benefits. Aside from convenience and comfort, it’s unique, full of history and the place your family will create new memories and traditions for years to come. People tend to hesitate when considering their home as a photo session location so let me take a minute to help you feel more confident in choosing your home for your future sessions.

Concern #1: I don’t have a model home

You don’t need to have a home that is decorated like a show home. Honestly, the point of doing your session at home is to have a location that feels welcoming, lived in, and relatable. A place that reflects your family and how your live your life. Each home has it’s own unique quirks and style. This is an important layer to your images. When you look at these pictures it will transport you back to the memories connected to this time in your life. The toys in the family room, the rug that everyone lays on during movie night, the big glass door by the kitchen that stays open in the summer to let in a breeze and allows for bare feet to pass in and out of the house at will. The little bit of mess in your house shows that it’s lived in, it’s loved and that a story is being told everyday within it’s walls. If that mess really bothers you then pile it in a corner or behind a closet door for the short period during your session and let it be. You don’t need your home to look perfect, you just need to let it be a reflection of you.

Concern #2: What are we going to do?

This is where things get fun. Photography sessions at home allow for so much flexibility. Not only can you achieve the more ‘formal” straightforward & traditional images you may want, but you can also achieve some beautiful life-style images. If you have things that you like to do as a family, at home, this is your time to shine. It could be completing a craft, baking cookies together, wrestling around on the floor, playing tag through the halls of the house, blowing bubbles in the backyard or even snuggling and reading a book. These are sessions that can be personalized to your family or you as a couple. It’s a time to engage in the activities that bring you together. These images add such beautiful variety to a gallery wall or an album and are definitely not boring!

Concern #3: My children are older and hate taking pictures

You know what teens hate most? Having to get dressed up, travel somewhere and be asked to stand in awkward groupings while being told to “smile better” over and over again. When you do your photos at home, they get to be in a familiar setting, have the distraction of an activity they enjoy (playing video games with a sibling or parent, playing a musical instrument, throwing a football or kicking. a soccer ball outside) all while getting family photos done. Not only do you get more genuine expressions, you also get to capture them in a window of time doing something that is meaningful to them. These are the images everyone will love to look back on and truly value because they create a tiny time capsule of who they are in that moment in time.

Concern #4: The lighting in my house isn’t great

I bring my lighting to each session. This gives us incredible freedom to have natural looking light even in the darkest rooms. When possible, we can use window light or shoot outside. If there are special areas in the home that are important to incorporate and the lighting is very low, then my lighting will enable us to take images anywhere. As your photographer, I will be sure to have everything needed to make shooting in your home an option. We can find fun angles and ways to capitalize on using spaces that work best to highlight your family.

Additional reasons to consider in-home sessions:

• You can change your wardrobe with ease. If you decide you want a dress and then want to transition to some ‘play clothes’ you have the option to do this easily.

• If toddlers, teens, or even the adults need a break, it’s possible to step away, have a cuddle break, quiet time, etc to rest (and often these break periods create beautiful images as well)

• The family pet can join in whenever they’d like. Pets can be a part of the action without fear they will run off, not cooperate or get distracted by everything around them.

• When the session is over you can just relax because you are already at home.

When you are ready to schedule your family photos (whether they are maternity, newborn or family photos) reach out HERE. You want to document the important parts of your family in a way that is meaningful to you; I’m here to help create that.