When Should You Schedule Family Photos? A Rochester, MN Timeline for Every Age and Stage
When's the "right" time for family portraits in Rochester, MN? Here's how we time and photograph every stage of your family's story, from the day you bring your newborn home through the years they're grown and gone.
The First Year, We Come to Your House
0-6 Months: The Love on Your Face
Your first session, whether it's a pregnancy portrait or a newborn photography session for a birth announcement, happens at home. Home means we can photograph the nursery you decorated and the heirloom quilt grandma knitted. It also means your baby will be comforted by familiar sights, sounds, and smells. The best part: you will have everything you need at your fingertips, including a changing table, extra outfits for inevitable blowouts, and a quiet room to feed in.
We schedule around your baby's best time of the day because your baby is the star of the photo shoot. This is a new concept for first-time parents. Life used to happen around your exercise, work, and meal schedules. Now it doesn’t. When we ask “What is your baby’s best time of day?” we already know newborn schedules change daily. That’s why we suggest an early morning photo shoot, when everyone is fresh. We also tell parents to plan for breaks. You might expect it to be a quick one-hour session, but it can easily turn into four hours of feeding, soothing, and outfit changes. We expect that, and honestly, we like it. It's time to sit with you and get to know your family.
Newborns don’t naturally smile on their own unless they're passing gas, so the real goal of this session is to capture the way you look at your baby. The love on your face is what you want your child to see when they look back at these photos someday. It tells them they were wanted, celebrated, and cherished.
6–9 Months: Chasing the Smile
By six to nine months, your baby is sitting up, pushing up, and smiling on purpose. We're still photographing at home because we don’t need fancy backgrounds. It’s everything we can do to capture all their new tricks and facial expressions.
9–12 Months: Crawling, Walking, Discovering
Somewhere between nine and twelve months, your baby starts moving with intention: crawling, cruising, maybe taking those first wobbly steps. We stay at or near home again, because that's where the toys live, and toys are the whole point now. We incorporate the wagon, scooter, splash pool, and favorite solid food because that's this stage. The goal here is to capture your baby’s pride and busy-ness of discovery. You become the backdrop: a hand to steady, a leg to pull up on.
The Annual Update and Your Christmas Card
After a baby’s first year, families come back to us annually for a new family portrait session and Christmas card. Before each session, we ask what's changed (new hobbies, obsessions, missing teeth, etc.). Then, we build the photo shoot around it. If your kid has a cast or braces, we photograph it. We're not in the business of documenting a perfect life. We're in the business of documenting your actual life, one chapter at a time.
Most of our Rochester and Southeast Minnesota families schedule their portrait sessions around Fall colors and do so at least 2 months in advance. This is understandable because Fall in Minnesota is breathtakingly gorgeous. Peak Fall color in our area runs late September through mid-October. After that, the weather turns fast. Late October can get surprisingly cold and brutal (we've had snowstorms on Halloween).
If you've already done a Fall session, we suggest mixing in Winter, Spring, and Summer photo shoots too:
Winter = colorful hats and scarves, sledding, snow fights, evergreen trees, ice skating, Happy New Year Cards, Valentine’s Day cards
Spring = wildflowers, cool breezes, Easter dresses, wagons and scooters, sidewalk chalk
Summer = cabins, water, ice cream, fishing, biking, roller skating
Not every session has to be planned around a season, either. We’ve photographed families at the Minnesota State Fair, hometown carnivals and annual reunions. Different seasons, locations, and events make your family story more interesting because, like kaleidoscopes, there is more color and motion.
If you want your photos in time for Christmas cards or gifts, make sure you schedule and complete your photo shoot by mid-October each year. Then, place and pay for your order by mid-November.
Sessions Don't Stop When School Starts
Annual sessions don't end the day your kid walks into kindergarten. They keep going, every year, all through school. Senior year usually becomes two sessions in one visit, a senior shoot and a family shoot. And, even after that, we keep going. Families come back to us as long as their kids keep coming home from college and beyond.
Your kid will still get the obligatory school photo from companies like LifeTouch, and that's fine. There's just a lot less riding on them. You won't worry about the photos turning out. Instead, you'll get excited to see how bad they are (awkward smile, weird background, bad haircut). Then, you will buy copies and tuck them away for a hilarious graduation or wedding surprise someday.
We Shoot Monday Through Friday, Not Weekends
Here's something that surprises people: we only photograph on weekdays. Mornings and evenings give us the best outdoor light, and weekday “golden hour” is just as pretty as weekend “golden hour”. If you're on maternity or paternity leave, this isn't a problem. Your schedule is already flexible. If you or your partner work at Mayo Clinic, you likely have more flexibility than you realize. Salaried Mayo employees are generally allowed to flex their schedule on a given day (going in a little late or leaving a little early) without it counting against them. Mayo physicians also have Research Days built into their schedule. These are days with no surgeries or clinic appointments. For school-age kids, we schedule late afternoon sessions immediately after school. There are also school breaks like MEA and non-religious holidays like Veterans Day.
Indoor vs. Outdoor: What Timing Actually Depends On
Indoor sessions can happen any time of day, any time of year. Scott has the lighting equipment and skill to make an indoor session look like a magazine cover, so if your schedule or the weather doesn't cooperate, indoor is always on the table.
Outdoor sessions depend on natural light, so the timing shifts with the season. Mornings usually run 8 to 11 am year-round. Evenings depend on when the sun sets:
Fall (September–October): 4 to 6 pm, or golden hour
Winter (November–March): 2 to 4 pm, or golden hour
Spring/Summer (April–August): 5 to 9 pm, or golden hour
What a Typical Family Portrait Session Covers
A standard family portrait session runs 1 to 1.5 hours. In that time, we work through a full set of groupings, not just one big posed shot. A typical “shoot list” includes:
The whole family together, parents and kids
Kids only, all together
Parents only, just the two of you
Mom with the kids
Dad with the kids
Individual portraits of each kid
Extended Family Sessions Add More
If grandparents, aunts, uncles, or cousins join your family photo session, plan for 2 to 3 hours instead. Everything above still happens, plus a longer list of groupings:
Grandparents with everyone
Grandma alone
Grandpa alone
Grandma and grandpa together
Cousins only, all together
Grandparents with the cousins, together and individually
Grandparents with each son's or daughter's family, together and individually
More individual family groupings for each son or daughter (see the list above)
Girls only
Boys only
These sessions also tend to be the ones where a family home or cabin makes the most sense as a location, since it's already the place everyone gathers. Just make sure you have lots of food and drinks (preferably alcohol) on hand to keep everyone busy and happy.
A Few Things That Make Any Session Go Better
Make sure your family eats before the photo shoot, and bring snacks. Also, go to bed at a normal time the night before, and keep kids on their usual nap schedules if you can. Most importantly, don't schedule shots or oral surgery for the day of your portrait session. We're serious. This happens, and parents genuinely can't figure out why their kids are fussy and running fevers.
FAQ
Do you photograph family sessions outside of Rochester?
Yes. While most of our families live in Rochester or Southeast Minnesota, we photograph sessions all over Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Do you photograph at events, not just planned sessions?
Yes. We've photographed families at the Minnesota State Fair, family reunions, and 4th of July BBQs. If your family has an annual tradition, we can often build a session around it instead of scheduling a separate photo day.
What if my baby won't stop crying during the session?
That's exactly what breaks are for. We plan for feeding, soothing, and outfit changes as part of the session, not as an interruption to it.
Do you still photograph our family once our kids are in school?
Yes. We keep doing annual family portrait sessions every year through high school, usually combining a senior shoot with a family shoot the year your kid graduates, and we keep going as long as your kids are still coming home, even after they've left for college.
Do you photograph on weekends?
No, we shoot Monday through Friday only. Weekday mornings and evenings give us the best golden hour light, and we're used to working around Mayo Clinic schedules, parental leave, and school hours to find a window that fits.
What time of day is best for outdoor family photos?
Mornings run 8 to 11 am year-round. Evenings depend on the season: 4 to 6 pm in Fall, 2 to 4 pm in Winter, and 5 to 9 pm from April through August.
Can you photograph indoors if the weather doesn't cooperate?
Yes. We can shoot indoor any time of day or year. Scott is highly skilled with lighting equipment, so an indoor session doesn't mean a compromise on quality.
How far in advance should we book a Fall session?
Fall is our busiest season by far, and most of our returning families book about two months out. If you want peak color, plan to book by mid to late Summer.
How long does a family photo session take?
A standard session runs 1 to 1.5 hours and covers a full set of groupings, not just one big posed shot. If you're including extended family, plan for 2 to 3 hours to get through everyone comfortably.
Why do families add grandparents or extended family to a session?
Usually one of two reasons: a grandparent is closely involved in day-to-day family life, and you want that reflected in your photo history, or a grandparent's health is declining and you want recent, genuine photos while you can still get them.