The 20 best places for family photos in Philadelphia

I get asked this more than any other question: where should we do our family photos? Here are the twenty Philadelphia locations I actually book, sorted by neighborhood, with the honest notes — where the light lands, where you’ll fight for parking, and which ones are a nightmare at 2pm on a Saturday.

Center City & Old City

City-center locations give you architecture instead of foliage, which reads as timeless rather than seasonal. The tradeoff is people. Every spot below is worth an early start.

1. Elfreth’s Alley

The oldest continuously inhabited residential street in the country, and it photographs exactly the way you hope: cobblestone, shutters, boot scrapers, a hundred feet of uninterrupted brick. It is also narrow, and real people live there. I shoot it at 8am on a weekday, work quickly, and keep the group small — four to six people is the sweet spot. Bigger families do better one block over on American Street.

2. Washington Square

The most underrated park in Center City. Broad shaded paths, a central fountain, and enough tree canopy that midday light stays workable when everywhere else is blown out. Parking is street-metered and manageable on a Sunday morning.

3. Rittenhouse Square

Beautiful, and busy in a way that can actually help — the crowd gives kids something to do besides look at me, which is how you get the candid half of the gallery. Come at sunrise if you want the park to yourself, or lean into the chaos and shoot late afternoon.

4. Franklin Square

Best pick if you have kids under six. Carousel, mini golf, a big fountain, and nobody minds if a four-year-old runs. I treat it as a playground session with portraits attached rather than the other way around.

5. Cherry Street Pier

Covered, which makes it my rain plan and my July plan. Industrial glass, plants, studio bays and a deck opening onto the Delaware. The light inside is enormous and directional. Check their public hours before you commit.

Fairmount Park & the Schuylkill

Fairmount Park is over 2,000 acres and effectively a dozen different locations. Saying “let’s do it in Fairmount Park” is like saying let’s meet in New Jersey. Here is where I actually go.

6. Horticulture Center & Centennial Arboretum

My default recommendation for families who want variety without driving between spots. Formal gardens, a reflecting pool, mature specimen trees, open lawn, and a greenhouse. Free parking on site, real bathrooms, and enough room that two families can shoot at once without meeting. If I could only keep one location on this list, it would be this one.

7. Shofuso Japanese House and Garden

A koi pond, a waterfall, an authentic 17th-century-style house, and maples that turn absurd shades in late October. It is small, it charges an admission and a photography fee, and it requires booking — but the pictures do not look like anywhere else in Philadelphia.

8. Lemon Hill and Sedgley Drive

Rolling lawn above the Schuylkill with the mansion behind you and the skyline off your shoulder. Late-day light rakes across the grass here beautifully. Bring shoes for a slope.

9. Belmont Plateau

The postcard skyline view, from a wide open field. Great for big extended-family groups because there is nothing to trip over and you can back way up. Windy — tell everyone with long hair.

10. Boathouse Row and Kelly Drive

Water, sculls, sycamores and the boathouses themselves. The riverside path is busy with runners and cyclists, so I keep the group off the trail and use the lawn strips. At blue hour in winter the boathouse lights make an extraordinary background.

11. Azalea Garden & the Water Works

Just below the Art Museum. Late April into early May it is a wall of pink; the rest of the year the terraces and columns at the Water Works carry the frame on their own. Ten minutes’ walk from Museum parking.

Northwest: Wissahickon, Chestnut Hill, Germantown

12. Wissahickon Valley Park (Forbidden Drive)

Seven miles of gravel trail along a creek in a gorge, twenty minutes from Center City and it feels like the Poconos. Valley Green Inn, the covered bridge and the stone arches are the anchors. Trail surface is stroller-friendly, which is rare for anything this wooded. Arrive early on weekends — the lots at Valley Green and Bells Mill fill by 10am.

13. Morris Arboretum & Gardens

Meadows, a rose garden, an enormous swan pond and a canopy walk. It is the most manicured option on this list and priced accordingly — admission plus a photography arrangement. Worth it for milestone sessions.

14. Awbury Arboretum

Fifty-five acres in Germantown, free, and almost never crowded. Big open meadow, hedgerows, an English-landscape feel. This is my answer for families who want to spend the whole two hours moving without seeing another photographer.

15. Germantown Avenue, Chestnut Hill

Belgian block street, stone storefronts, string lights. A good urban option that is calmer than Old City, and you can end the session with ice cream, which buys you twenty extra minutes of goodwill from any six-year-old.

South & West Philadelphia

16. FDR Park

Lagoons, boathouse, gazebo, big skies. Parts of the park have been under long-term construction, so I scout it fresh before recommending a specific corner — but when it is open it gives you water and open space in South Philly without a drive.

17. Clark Park

The heart of University City. Shaded, sloping, full of dogs and Saturday farmers-market energy. Perfect for families who live in West Philly and want the pictures to look like their actual neighborhood.

18. Bartram’s Garden

The oldest surviving botanic garden in North America, with a meadow that opens onto the Schuylkill and a skyline view most people have never seen. Free, uncrowded, and genuinely beautiful at golden hour. Slightly awkward to reach, which is exactly why it stays quiet.

19. East Passyunk & the Italian Market

If your family is a South Philly family, shoot South Philly. Awnings, murals, row-home stoops, the 9th Street stalls. It is loud and moving and the candid half of the gallery basically shoots itself. Saturday mid-morning for maximum life; Sunday for a calmer version.

Riverfront & skyline backdrops

20. Race Street Pier

The Ben Franklin Bridge overhead, the Delaware on three sides, a clean lawn and a stepped upper deck. Sunrise here is spectacular and the pier is empty. Sunset puts the light behind the bridge for silhouettes. It is a small footprint, so I pair it with a short walk through Old City to fill a full session.

Two honorable mentions: Penn Treaty Park in Fishtown for a lower-key skyline-and-water combination, and Cira Green, a rooftop park in University City, when you want the city itself to be the backdrop rather than trees.

Permits, fees and fine print

The short version: city parks generally require a permit for commercial photography, and private gardens and arboretums usually charge a separate photography fee on top of admission. A few places restrict professional sessions altogether, and the rules genuinely do change from season to season.

You do not need to research any of this. Once we pick a location I confirm the current policy, handle the permit or booking, and tell you if a fee applies before you pay anything. What I ask in return is a little lead time — some gardens book photography slots weeks out in October.

How to actually choose

Three questions, in this order.

• Where does your family already spend time? The park you walk to on Sundays will always beat the prettier park across the city, because your kids behave like themselves there.
• How far can your youngest walk? A two-year-old sets the radius. Locations where everything is within a two-hundred-yard loop — the Horticulture Center, Awbury, Washington Square — are worth more than a dramatic location with a hike attached.
• What do you want on the wall? Trees and gardens for warm and timeless; brick and cobblestone for graphic and urban; water and skyline for “this was Philadelphia, this year.”

Whichever you pick, the structure of the session is the same: we make the posed portraits early while everyone is fresh and cooperative, then spend the second half letting your family be a family while I stay out of the way. Both halves end up in the gallery in roughly equal number.

If autumn is what you are picturing, read the fall family photos guide next — peak color in Philadelphia is a narrower window than most people expect. And before you buy anything to wear, the what-to-wear guide will save you a shopping trip.