Gloomy Day Midlothian Family Photos

What happens when you wake up to gloomy, rain-threatening skies on the morning of your family photo session? Well, luckily, if you’re doing an at-home photo session, the show goes on without a lot of panic. We don’t have to worry about being rained out, because we’re already planning to be indoors.

Adriaan’s family session had been scheduled for a couple of weeks. While she has flexible hours, her husband needed to arrange his schedule to fit our session, so rescheduling it would have been a pain. But since our session was scheduled to be indoors, I had let her know on the phone that even if the weather was gloomy, we wouldn’t need to worry about the light - I’d bring it!

I double checked my batteries and met her girls on the front sidewalk, where they had been eagerly waiting for me to get out of the car and walk down the driveway. They were exactly as Adriaan had described in her pre-session questionnaire: hilarious and thoughtful; kind and incredibly independent. They welcomed me in like a long-lost friend, and immediately started showing me around.

We chose a couple of morning-facing rooms to start in, and pulled out the colored pencils and paper. Almost immediately, the incredibly independent 3 year old showed off her independence and decided she’d rather build a house, complete with walls, bedroom, and art on the walls. She paused long enough to tell me about her favorite episode of Bluey, which had been turned into a book that she joyfully shared with me.

We migrated from creating art to reading books, and then the thoughtful 7 year old introduced me to their elderly cat, who was basking in the moody window light in her mom’s office. She pulled out a photo book and started showing me her baby pictures, lovingly stroking her friend and telling me all about him.

We played for a few more minutes in the front hallway, putting together a puzzle, and then moved upstairs to one of the girls’ bedrooms, where we played some more. (Notice a theme?)

Some clients fret over what to do during an in-home photo session, thinking that there’s not enough to do, or that whatever they normally do at home isn’t interesting enough for a session. But I’d argue that we don’t have to plan anything out in advance. Adriaan told me in her questionnaire what they normally do in the mornings when they’re at home, and that gave us a framework for what we could do during our session. But I also really just love going with the kiddo flow, and letting them lead us through what they like to do.

Letting the kids lead our activities makes the session extra special, because it’s not forced or unnatural at all, and then you have photos to look back on that show exactly what your kids were into at this phase in their life. With the added bonus of being in those photos with them.

I had such an amazing time with Adriaan and her family, and her review on my Google Business profile really sums up our morning together:

We had such a wonderful experience with Allison! She immediately fit right in with our family and made everyone feel completely at ease. The kids just played and did their thing and she documented it all without making things feel awkward or intrusive. The day was very cloudy and I worried it would make for dark photos but she worked her magic with lights and everything looks beautiful and bright :) We feel so lucky to have some everyday moments with our kiddos transformed into images that we will treasure for a lifetime!

Think your house might be “too _____” for in-home family photos? You’re lying to yourself.