The Fairmount Water Works is the best sunset location in Philadelphia and I will argue about it with anyone. Columns, a stone terrace, the river, the Art Museum sitting up on the hill behind you, and a west facing view with nothing in the way of it. There is no other spot in the city that gives you that many different photographs inside a five minute walk.

This is the Sweeney family, on an October evening, with their Bernese Mountain Dog.

I Photographed Their Engagement, Then Their Wedding

I photographed Kat and Kyle’s engagement session in Fairmount Park back in 2016, then their wedding at The Curtis, and I have been photographing this family ever since. We shot this one a few minutes down the road from where their engagement photographs were made, which I did not plan and did not notice until I was writing this.

A wedding is one day. It is a huge day, and it deserves everything I have, but it is one day. Then the couple goes and builds an entire life, and if you are lucky they keep calling you back to photograph it. I have families I have been shooting for well over a decade now. Sitting down and looking at those galleries lined up in order is the single best part of this job.

A mom and dad sitting on a stone step with their son on his dad's lap during a family session at the Philadelphia Water Works

Start With the Whole Family, Then Let It Loosen Up

Every session I shoot runs in the same shape. We do the frames the family actually came for first, while everyone is fresh and nobody has melted down yet. Then it gets loose.

So we started up on the grass under the trees with the dog, and I got the ones that go on the wall. Everybody in one place, the dog mostly cooperating, me working fast. Once those were in the bag I stopped asking anybody to do anything.

A family standing between two tall columns at the Fairmount Water Works with the Schuylkill River behind them

A Bernese Mountain Dog walking toward the camera on the promenade at the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia

A dad holding his grinning son with the river and a railing behind them at the Philadelphia Water Works

Photographing at the Water Works

The architecture here does a lot of the work for you if you know where to stand. The columns give you natural frames on both sides. The balustrade gives you a clean line and a place for a kid to hold onto. The promenade runs east to west, so at this hour the light comes straight down it, and everybody walking toward you is rimmed in gold and throwing a long shadow out ahead of them.

I keep going back because it also stacks. In one hour we shot on the lawn, under the colonnade, along the promenade, at a green door, in tall grass, and down by the water. Nobody moved a car. When you are shooting with kids, that matters more than the location itself.

A close portrait of a small boy during a family session at the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia

The Black and White Set

I convert a frame to black and white when the color is competing with the moment instead of helping it. Out here that happens a lot, because a low October sun over green grass throws warm and cool everywhere and it is loud.

These are the in between ones. Him planted in the grass with a hand held on each side. Him toddling over to his mom with her crouched down and one arm out. Her stopping to straighten his shirt without any idea I was still working, which is usually the frame the family ends up loving most.

A black and white photograph of a small boy toddling toward his mom, who is crouched down with one arm out, as his dad walks behind him in Philadelphia

A black and white photograph of a dad holding his son with both of them looking at the camera at the Philadelphia Water Works

One Green Door

There is a deep green door on one of the buildings and I use it every single time I shoot here. Flat, quiet, saturated, and it throws no light back at anybody. It turns a busy riverfront into a studio backdrop and it takes ten steps to get to.

Two of my favorite laughing frames from the whole session came off that door, and none of it was anything I asked for.

A mom and her son both laughing at the camera against a green door during a family session at the Philadelphia Water Works

A mom kissing her son's cheek in front of a green door at the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia

The Last Twenty Minutes

The end of a session is always the best part of it, and it is the part people are most tempted to skip because a kid is done and everyone is thinking about dinner. Stay.

The sun got low enough to come through the grass instead of down onto it, everything went translucent, and the whole family got the best light of the day. That is the light I book these sessions around. It shows up once, it lasts twenty minutes, and there is no way to manufacture it later.

A family standing together on a sunlit lawn with long golden shadows and a large tree beside them at the Philadelphia Water Works

A mom and dad walking their son by both hands with the low sun behind them at the Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia

Silhouettes to Finish

We walked down to the water for the last few minutes. The sky went orange over the river, and dad started throwing him in the air, which is the correct way to end any family session and also the fastest way to get real laughing out of everybody at once.

I expose for the sky on these and let the people go most of the way to black. You lose the detail. You keep the shape, and the shape is a dad with his kid up over his head against a sky that is doing something, which reads from across a room. It is the frame in this gallery I would print biggest.

A backlit photograph of a dad lifting his son into the air at sunset while his wife laughs beside them in Philadelphia

An orange sky over the Schuylkill River with geese on the water in Philadelphia

If You Are Thinking About a Philadelphia Family Session

Book the last hour of daylight and build the rest of the day around it. Everything on this page happened between about half past five and half past six. Move the naps, move dinner, move whatever you have to. There is no lighting setup that gets you what the sky gives you for free at that hour.

Pick one location that gives you four or five different looks inside a short walk, instead of three locations across the city with a car ride between them. The Water Works, Boathouse Row, the Art Museum steps, and Kelly Drive are all right there together, and you can shoot a full gallery without anybody buckling a car seat twice.

And bring the dog. Nobody ever regrets bringing the dog.

Location: Fairmount Water Works, Philadelphia
Photography: Jordan Brian Studios

Ready to Start Planning?

If your family is thinking about a session in Philadelphia, or in South Jersey, or down at the shore, I would love to hear about it. You can see more family sessions in the portfolio, read about how family sessions work, take a look at a family reunion session in Philadelphia, or get in touch and tell me what you have in mind.

A Golden Hour Family Session at the Philadelphia Water Works