South Carolina
Family session · Charleston
In short
Family session in Charleston starts at $375: 75 min on location with a photographer who works in Charleston, and 40 edited photos delivered to a private gallery within 5 business days.
Why choose Family session in Charleston?
A Charleston family session is nearly always a visiting-family session — this is a place people come to, and the photographs are usually part of a holiday rather than an annual ritual. That changes the brief: the session has to be somewhere worth walking to, short enough for children after a travel day, and scheduled early enough to avoid a summer afternoon that regularly hits ninety-five degrees with full humidity.
Worth knowing about Charleston
From June through August the afternoon here is the wrong time to photograph children: high nineties with full humidity and a thunderstorm most days around four. Family sessions in those months run between seven and nine in the morning, which is also when the live oaks at White Point Garden are at their best and the historic district is empty.
What does the session in Charleston look like?
- White Point Garden
- Live oaks, open ground and shade, at the end of the peninsula. The most practical family location here.
- Angel Oak, Johns Island
- A three-to-four-hundred-year-old live oak. Twenty minutes out and best under overcast.
- Sullivan’s Island or Folly Beach
- Sand and open sky, twenty minutes from the peninsula.
What does family session in Charleston include?
- 40 retouched photographs
- Posed group frames and candid coverage
- Individual portraits of each child
- Private online gallery within 5 business days
- Print release for personal use
Permits at these locations: Angel Oak, Johns Island: City of Charleston Recreation Department permit required for wedding and engagement shoots. Tripods and props are not allowed on or around the tree.
FAQ — Family session in Charleston
When should we photograph in the summer?
Between seven and nine in the morning. June through August afternoons in the Lowcountry regularly reach the high nineties with full humidity and a thunderstorm most days around four, which is not a working condition for small children. The early session is also when the historic district is empty and the light under the live oaks is at its best.
Is the Angel Oak worth the drive with children?
Twenty minutes each way, and yes if the day is overcast — it is genuinely extraordinary and children respond to it in a way they do not to a street. In direct sun the canopy produces hard dapple that no exposure reconciles, so it is worth checking the forecast and keeping White Point Garden as the alternative.