10 Great Reasons to Create Your Family Portraits at Home!

Meet Josh and Jordan! And meet their wonderful, super-fun parents Leslie and Mitch too!

In the depths of the COVID summer of 2020, we shot this wonderful family portrait session right in their backyard.

I am an on-location family photographer – meaning I come to you or the places you would like to capture your family memories. I LOVE to meet up with my gorgeous families in wild natural spaces, and I have a few favourites around the City of Toronto, but I also love to shoot family portraits at your home.

There are so many great reasons to shoot family photographs at home. I’ve listed out my top 10 here – please let me know if I’ve missed any good reasons YOU love to have your family portraits done at home!

1. Your home, where you live and breathe, is YOUR space and is representative of YOU. It’s decorated to your style and taste and includes elements that represent the things you or your family love to do. Like your backyard basketball court?

2. Your family portraits are destined to become heirloom wall portraits hanging on the walls of your home – naturally they will ‘match’ the feeling of your home if they are taken at or in your home.

3. Your home is an important part of your life! You might even think of it as another member of the family! Or maybe you’re planning to move and would like to be sure you remember your today-home by seeing it as part of your family story in the pages of your family portrait album.

4. Everyone is comfortable at home. Many families have members (very old or very young, or somewhere in between!) that are just going to be more comfortable at home in a familiar environment. Being comfortable is key to creating natural portraits!

5. It’s private! Sometimes people, especially tweens, teens and young adults, can feel uncomfortable having their photograph taken knowing strangers are looking on. Unless you have a nosy neighbour, there will be no one watching you at home.

6. Fur-babies included! Or feather-babies, scale-babies, etc. A LOT of my families love their pets like they’re another child and understandably want to include them in the session. While SOME dogs will travel well to photo sessions, others won’t, and I’ve NEVER seen a cat, fish, lizard, rabbit, bird or any other pet attend a portrait session out in nature! At home, everyone can be included in at least a few portraits.

7. You have everything at your fingertips! Changes of clothes for either variety in looks or unfortunate spills or stains. Tools to freshen up your look and fix hair and makeup. Snacks and drinks to keep everyone going strong.

8. No need to worry about the weather! If there is a full-on hurricane, or even just a nagging chance of showers, we can just retreat indoors!

9. Your home is YOUR space. It’s predictable, we know what elements are there and not there (eg. We won’t repeat that time I once promised a family a massive oak tree at the park as a backdrop and we showed up to find it had been cut down!), and there will be no passer-by photobombs or crowds of people to avoid in the background.

10. Finally, it’s convenient. No travel time, no loading everyone into and out of the car, no traffic jams, no risking being late. Just dress, style and go!

Now of course, I will present one massive caveat to all of this – you have to love the look and feel of your home. If you’re waiting for a reno, due a redo on interior decorating, or maybe you’re a fan of mess and clutter, then shooting at home might not be a great option.

For the families I photograph, I’m always happy to pop by and take a look at your space as a potential family portrait location. Not only does this let me give an honest opinion on your home’s ‘photographability’ for your dream images, but it lets me recommend the best time of day to shoot based on sunlight, angles and backdrops, as well as become inspired with image ideas ahead of time. It also lets me see the walls in your home that are destined to be home to your wall portraits – always helpful in the creative process.

Ready to create gorgeous family portraits at your Toronto home? Pop on over to Book a Call here.

And hey, check out THIS at-home session on the blog – capturing natural family life on a Saturday morning…

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10 Great Reasons to Create Your Family Portraits at Home!

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