Whenever someone inquires about setting up a session with me, I almost always recommend scheduling their session during golden hour. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, golden hour occurs two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset. This is when the golden light comes flooding through the trees and adds a “glow” to your images.

This is my favorite light to shoot in because it adds so much warmth and color to your images, which is something I shared when I explained my style here. While I can and will photograph you at other times of the day, golden hour is the only time of day where you will achieve that “glow” in your images.

As a photographer, it’s important to know which times of day photograph well and which ones don’t. If you ask me to take your portraits at noon or one, I will probably recommend we schedule for a different time due to the location of the sun. At that time of day, the sun will be directly above you, causing you to have strange shadows on your face, and dark shadows under your eyes. And nobody wants that! By shooting earlier or later in the day, the sun will 1) be diffused by the trees and won’t be so harsh and 2) it will be hitting you at more of an angle, allowing me to pose you in a way where there aren’t any shadows hitting you that will be distracting in the image.

One thing to keep in mind is that this “glow” doesn’t happen every night. If there are too many clouds, then the sun might not flood through the trees like it would on a partly cloudy day. But you know what? That’s okay! As much as I love photographing during golden hour, so many of my favorite images didn’t occur during this timeframe. So, don’t fret if it’s going to be cloudy during your session! That will actually be a little bit easier for me anyway 😉 haha I hope this clears up any  confusion and educates you a little bit more as to why I prefer to shoot during golden hour. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to me!

With joy,
Kelsie