A different approach to holiday family photography in Charleston & Folly Beach, South Carolina
A small public service announcement from your local family photographer:
Your holiday card photograph is legally allowed to contain zero Christmas trees.
No wreaths. No fake snow. No holiday backdrop required.
I checked.
Every fall, families begin thinking about holiday cards, and with that often comes the assumption that their family photographs need to look distinctly holiday. But I tend to approach holiday family photography a little differently.
I love a beautiful holiday card. I just don't think the photograph on it needs to have a December expiration date.
Your card can bring all the holiday you want—the greeting, the colors, the design, the sparkle. Your photographs can simply be about your family, beautifully photographed.
Because after the cards have been mailed and the decorations are packed away, I want you to have photographs you'll still want framed in your home in February. And June. And every other month of the year.
Your holiday card is for the season. Your photographs are for every season.
Why Fall Is One of My Favorite Times for Family Photos in Charleston
There is a reason fall is such a beautiful time for family photography in Charleston and on Folly Beach.
By October and November, we're beginning to leave some of the intense summer heat behind, but we still have the soft coastal light and natural beauty that make the Lowcountry such a wonderful backdrop for photographs.
On Folly Beach, that might mean bare feet in the sand, soft skies, sea oats and the colors of the coast. Around Charleston, it might be marsh grasses, beautiful greenery, historic streets or one of the area's many outdoor settings.
I photograph outdoors using natural light, and I especially love sessions around sunrise and sunset, when the light becomes softer and more flattering.
You don't need a holiday set to make a photograph feel special.
Sometimes beautiful light, a beautiful place and the people you love are more than enough.
Booking Holiday Family Photos Early Makes Everything Easier
If you're hoping to use your photographs for holiday cards, October and November are wonderful times to schedule your session.
Photographing your family earlier in the season gives you time to receive your finished gallery, choose your favorite images, design your cards and get everything ordered and addressed before the December scramble begins.
It also gives you more freedom to create a card that actually feels like you.
You can choose a traditional Christmas design, something modern and minimal, a colorful holiday greeting or something completely different. The seasonal elements can live in the card design rather than in the photograph itself.
And once the holidays are over?
The photograph still belongs on your wall.
If Everyone Is Together, Photograph It
The holidays also create something that's becoming increasingly rare for many families:
Everyone is in the same place.
Adult children come home. Grandparents visit. Siblings bring spouses and children. Families who may live in different cities—or different states—suddenly find themselves together for a few days.
That's one of my favorite opportunities for an extended family photography session in Charleston or on Folly Beach.
And an extended-family session isn't simply one big group photograph.
Yes, we'll make that photograph. It's important.
But we'll also break things down.
Grandparents with their grandchildren. Each individual family. Siblings together again. Mom with her babies. Dad with his daughter. The grandparents on their own. Couples who haven't had a photograph together in years.
And somewhere in between all of those combinations, I watch for the things nobody could have planned—the laugh, the look, the little hand reaching for Grandpa, the child who decides she'd much rather be swinging between two people than standing still for my camera.
Those are often the photographs I'm waiting for.
My Heritage Ode portrait experience is designed specifically for larger and multigenerational families, giving us enough time to photograph the entire family as well as the smaller relationships within it.
Because one gathering can hold a lot of different family stories.
Holiday Family Photos on Folly Beach
For families visiting the Charleston area during Thanksgiving or the holidays, a Folly Beach family photography session can also become part of the trip itself.
Instead of creating photographs that could have been taken anywhere, we can use the landscape you're actually experiencing—the ocean, dunes, soft coastal colors and changing light.
That is especially meaningful when Folly Beach is already part of your family's story: a favorite vacation spot, a place you return to year after year, or simply the place everyone happened to gather this time.
Years from now, the setting becomes part of what you remember.
Beautiful Enough for the Card. Timeless Enough for the Wall.
When I photograph families, I'm always thinking beyond the immediate purpose of the session.
Of course, I want to give you the photograph where everyone is together and looking at the camera.
But then I want somebody to forget about me.
I want the children to move. I want Grandpa to make her laugh. I want Dad to scoop someone up. I want the little moments between the planned photographs.
Because somewhere in there, your family starts looking like your family.
That's what I want your photographs to preserve.
So if you're planning your holiday cards this year, don't worry about finding the perfect Christmas backdrop.
Let's find beautiful light instead.
Let's photograph your family somewhere that feels like Charleston. Somewhere that feels like Folly Beach. Somewhere that feels like you.
Then go ahead and put all the snowflakes you want on the card.
Charleston & Folly Beach Family Photography
I'm currently booking outdoor family and extended-family photography sessions in Charleston and on Folly Beach, South Carolina, through the holiday season.
The Ode is my portrait experience for immediate families, while The Heritage Ode is designed for larger and multigenerational families who want time to photograph the full group as well as the relationships within it.
If everyone is going to be together this season, that's reason enough to make the photograph.
Christmas trees entirely optional.
Ready to plan your family photographs?
