Sounds weird, right? An outside in-home session?

I love doing in-home sessions for lots of reasons. Everyone is more comfortable at home, they’re perfect for parents especially those with younger kiddos because snacks and bathrooms and extra clothes are right at your fingertips. We capture your moments and memories in your own space that you already love! All great reasons, but I also love them because we don’t have to stay inside, we can step right out your door and capture your family doing the things you love doing together in your outdoor space too. It’s like a two for one session!

This family’s session is the perfect example of how well this works. We spent a little time inside taking a few portraits of the family in the living room (because I LOVED their wall of family portraits as a backdrop) and the kids in their own rooms because I think all kids need a visual reminder of what their bedroom looked like when they were growing up. They spend a lot of time in there, right? It needs to be remembered.

I told this momma NOT to scrub her house clean. We made a loose plan of things we’d like to capture the family doing together, most of which was outside. Instead of cleaning the whole house, I just had her pick up a bit in the rooms we thought we’d use. I sprung it on her last minute that we’d be in the kids’ rooms, so I just went in and moved a few things, took some portraits, and then we were done in the house and moved outside. Easy peasy!

We photographed at the front of the house first because momma wanted to have a family picture with their home in the background and then worked our way throughout their yard. Since we had already put together a simple plan of family activities they wanted captured, we just played. We didn’t do everything in our initial plan, and that’s okay! We did what felt natural in the moment. Not one boring second!

I really loved this session because it was super laid back but also this is exactly what this family would be doing on a Saturday afternoon. We were able to get more formal type family images (she’s excited to have her holiday card pics already done!), and also real life moments captured in a beautiful way. No one was boring, no one smiled fake smiles at the camera, no one yelled or got mad. We just had fun.

Now that you see what a session at home could look like, let’s come up with a plan and do this for your family too!