Winter photo sessions in Philadelphia: why cold works

At the winter solstice the sun in Philadelphia never climbs much more than a quarter of the way up the sky, even at noon. It stays low from morning to night. That single fact is why winter is the most underrated season to photograph in, and almost nobody books it.

Low sun all day

In July the sun in Philadelphia climbs high overhead and stays there for most of the day. Overhead light is the enemy of a good portrait: it puts shadows in eye sockets, under noses and under chins, and it makes everyone squint. That is why summer sessions get squeezed into the two ends of the day.

Winter does not have that problem at all. The sun rises late, tracks low across the southern sky and sets early, never getting high enough to be harsh. From about one o’clock onward in December and January you have angled, directional, soft light of the kind that in June you would have to wait until eight in the evening for.

The practical result is that winter gives you a wider usable window than midsummer, not a narrower one. It just finishes by five. For families with small children, an afternoon session that ends before dinner is a considerably easier proposition than one that starts at bedtime.

The month-by-month picture is in the golden hour guide.

What bare trees do for a photograph

People assume bare trees mean an ugly background. In practice they change it in three useful ways.

Light gets through. Woodland locations that are dark and green-cast in summer become open and bright. The Wissahickon, which loses its light an hour early for most of the year, is transformed in January.

You can see the structure. Branch patterns against a pale sky are graphic and clean. It photographs beautifully in black and white, better than summer does.

Views open up. The skyline visible through bare branches from park high ground is simply not visible in July. Belmont Plateau is a winter location for exactly this reason.

Winter light also tends to be cooler and flatter under cloud, which suits some palettes very well: deep greens, burgundy, camel, charcoal, cream. It is a different look from autumn warmth and not a lesser one.

Snow, honestly

Everybody wants snow photographs. Philadelphia does not reliably supply them.

We get some snow most winters, but the number of days with fresh, clean, still-on-the-branches snow and a photographable sky is small, and it is not predictable more than a couple of days ahead. Booking a session for a specific date in the hope of snow is not a plan.

What does work is arranging in advance that if real snow arrives we will try to shoot within a day or two, and keeping the arrangement loose. Fresh snow is at its best within about twenty-four hours, before it goes grey at the edges of the sidewalk.

What to know if you get the chance. Snow is bright, so cameras tend to underexpose it and leave it grey; that is a technical thing I handle, but it is why phone photographs of snow so often look muddy. Overcast snow days are lovely and even. Sunny snow days are brilliant and contrasty and need more care. And falling snow photographs best against a dark background rather than a white sky.

How long anyone actually lasts

This is the real constraint and I would rather be blunt about it.

In genuinely cold weather, a small child has about thirty to forty minutes of good humour, and then it ends abruptly. Not gradually. One minute they are fine, the next they are done, and nothing recovers it.

How I plan around that:

• Shorter, denser sessions. A winter session should be planned to get what it needs early rather than to fill the clock.
• Park close. The car is the warm room. In winter the distance from the parking spot matters more than the quality of the view.
• Coats on between frames. There is no rule that everyone stays in shot clothes the whole time. Coat off, four frames, coat back on. It works and it buys you another twenty minutes.
• Something hot at the end. A café or a hot chocolate as the finish line changes the mood entirely, and the photographs of everyone holding cups are usually among the best of the session.
• Hands and ears first. Those go before anything else. Gloves and hats between frames.

Two hard limits. Very small babies lose heat fast and I will not keep one out in serious cold. And if there is wind on top of low temperatures, the effective cold is much worse than the number on the forecast, which matters especially at exposed locations like Valley Forge or anywhere on the river.

Dressing for it

The general principles hold, in the what to wear guide. Winter adds a few.

Layers, not one thick coat. Thermals underneath do the work invisibly and let the outer layer be whatever looks good.

Texture carries winter. Cable knit, wool, corduroy, shearling, chunky scarves. In a season with less color available, texture is what keeps a frame from going flat.

Coats are allowed to be in the photographs. A good coat is a real part of how your family looks in January and pretending otherwise produces stiff, cold-looking pictures. Bring the coats you actually wear.

Hats and scarves are props as well as clothing, and they give restless children something to do with their hands.

Proper boots. Ground in winter is wet, muddy or frozen. Nice shoes ruin an hour.

Where to go in winter

Anywhere with structure rather than foliage. Stone, brick, bridges, water, architecture. Old City is at its best in winter, when the tourist volume drops and the brick and cobblestone do not depend on leaves.

Anywhere with a view that trees normally block. Belmont Plateau, park high ground, the river paths.

Boathouse Row at dusk, which in winter happens at around five in the afternoon rather than nine at night. The lights on the water at blue hour are the best evening photograph in Philadelphia and winter is when it is actually accessible with children.

Somewhere with a café at the end of it. Genuinely a location criterion in January.

The indoor option

If it is truly too cold, a session at home is not a downgrade. Window light in winter is soft and low and comes into rooms at a shallow angle, which is very flattering. Nobody is cold, nobody is rushed, small children behave better on their own territory, and you end up with photographs of your actual life rather than of a park.

For families with a new baby this is often the right call regardless of season.

Winter family sessions also have one practical advantage worth stating plainly: the calendar is open. January and February are the easiest months of the year to get the date and time you want.