Wissahickon family photos: the honest guide

The Wissahickon is the best woodland location in Philadelphia and the one people most often book at the wrong hour. It is a gorge. That single fact changes when you shoot, where you stand and how long you have.

The light leaves early

Start here, because it decides everything else.

The Wissahickon is a steep-sided valley with a creek at the bottom and mature tulip poplars closing over the top. The sun goes behind the west rim well before it sets. In the deeper sections near Valley Green, the usable light is gone something like an hour before the sunset time on your phone. Not soft. Not moody. Gone. The whole valley goes flat and slightly blue, and skin tones pick up green from the canopy.

So the standard advice, book the last hour of daylight, is wrong here. What works instead:

• Mid-morning, roughly 9 to 11. The sun is high enough to clear the east rim and get down into the valley, and the canopy does the diffusing for you. This is my usual pick.
• Two to three hours before sunset, not one. You get the low warm light while it can still reach the valley floor.
• Any time at all on an overcast day. Flat white sky is a problem in open parks. Under a canopy it is a giant softbox and the whole day opens up.

If you want the classic last-light backlit frames, we position at the breaks in the canopy: the bridges, the wider gravel stretches, the open ground at the northern end. Those hold light twenty or thirty minutes longer than the trail does.

Four stretches, four different sessions

Forbidden Drive runs several miles along the creek and is closed to cars. People say “let’s meet on Forbidden Drive” as though that narrows it down. It does not.

The southern end, near Rittenhouse Street

Closest to the city and the least scenic stretch. Useful mainly because it is the easiest to reach from Center City and it is quieter than the middle. Fine for a short session, not where I would spend two hours.

Valley Green

The middle, and the postcard. The inn, the creek widening out, ducks, the stone wall along the water, big trees. It is also the single busiest point in the park on a good weekend. Beautiful, crowded, and worth it if you go early.

North of Valley Green toward Bells Mill

My favorite working stretch. Same creek, same trees, a fraction of the people. Within a ten-minute walk you get water, stone, deep woods and a couple of bridges. If you can walk, walk north.

The top end, Northwestern Avenue

More open, more sky, less gorge. This is where you go if you want woods in the photos but do not want the light problem described above.

The specific spots worth walking to

The covered bridge at Thomas Mill Road. Weathered wood, a dark interior, an open mouth at each end that frames people beautifully. Shoot from outside looking in, or stand your subjects at the entrance where the light falls off behind them.

The stone bridges and culverts scattered along the creek. Arches, moss, running water. Good for couples, good for a single strong frame, bad for a group of ten.

The creek edges where the bank flattens out. Kids will get in the water. Plan for that rather than fighting it, and bring the second pair of shoes.

Devil’s Pool. I get asked about it and I generally say no. It is dramatic. It is also crowded and slippery, and I would rather not add to the traffic there. The rocks upstream give you a similar look with none of the trouble.

Parking, honestly

This is the part that goes wrong.

• Valley Green Inn: a small lot right at the busiest point. On a nice Saturday it is full by mid-morning and people circle. If we are meeting here, arrive fifteen minutes early or plan to park elsewhere and walk in.
• Bells Mill Road: smaller, less contested, drops you onto the good northern stretch.
• Northwestern Avenue: the top end, usually the easiest place to leave a car.
• Rittenhouse Street / Lincoln Drive: the southern entrance, closest to Center City.

Two things people do not expect. There is no reliable bathroom along most of the trail. And phone signal drops in the deeper sections, so agree on a meeting point in advance rather than planning to text when you arrive.

Permits, dogs and the rules

The Wissahickon is part of the Fairmount Park system and run by Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, which requires a permit for commercial photography. That is my job, not yours.

Dogs are common on the trail and generally welcome on lead. If yours is coming to the session, read the guide to bringing a dog to your photo session first, because there is a right and a wrong way to do it.

Forbidden Drive also carries cyclists, runners and, at times, horses. Nobody minds a photo session. Everybody minds a tripod in the middle of the trail, so I work from the edges.

Who the valley suits

Engaged couples: excellent. Two people walk easily, the trail gives you distance and privacy, and the woods photograph as somewhere rather than anywhere. One of the strongest engagement session locations in the city.

Families with kids over about five: very good. There is water, there are sticks, there is a bridge. The candid half of the session runs itself.

Toddlers and strollers: workable but pick your ground. Forbidden Drive is flat hard-packed gravel and a sturdy stroller is fine on it. The side trails are rocky, rooted and steep, and an umbrella stroller will not make it. Stay on the main drive.

Grandparents or anyone with a bad knee: the main drive, yes. Anything off it, no.

Extended family of ten or more: this is the weak case. The trail is narrow, there is nowhere to spread out, and getting twelve people to walk a mile in nice clothes is its own project. Send the big groups to an open lawn instead.

Season by season

• Spring: the best-kept secret here. Late April into May the understory greens up before the canopy fully closes, so more light reaches the floor than at any other point in the year.
• Summer: deep shade and ten degrees cooler than the street. The practical answer to an August session.
• Fall: the busy season, for good reason. Timing is the whole game, and I have written up when Philadelphia foliage actually peaks separately.
• Winter: underrated. Bare trees mean light finally reaches the valley floor, the creek is loud, and you will have the place close to yourself.

The structure of a family session here is the same as anywhere else: posed portraits early while everyone is fresh and clean, candid work once the kids have found the creek.