Asian family of five with small white dog walks through a crosswalk in San Francisco, with Spark Social in the background.

A while back, during a chat with some fellow photographers, I had an aha moment: my favorite photo sessions happen when families are doing something they genuinely love. After some reflection and a lot of daydreaming, Family Adventure Sessions were born!

These sessions are for families who want more than a quick session for holiday cards. They’re for the movers, do-ers, and explorers.. If that’s you, keep reading. 😉

Family Adventure Sessions are activity-based photography sessions.

Think of it like a mini-documentary of your family having the best day together. They’re are a bit longer than my standard family sessions - 2 hours vs 1 hour. They leave plenty of time to capture connected portraits, dynamic action shots on-the-go, and the candid, spontaneous, and often hilarious things that happen along the way.

Does your family hike, skate, browse markets, fly kites, or play games? Do you love to museum hop, cafe stroll, or dine with gusto? Does your family garden, surf, bird watch, or make music together? I want to document you doing these things!!

Dad puts a ball during mini-golf while teenage son and wife look on, shot at Stagecoach Greens in San Francisco.

Ideas for Your Family Adventure

Don’t worry, you don’t have to climb Half Dome for this to count as an adventure. 😉
Here are just a few ideas:

Go for a nature walk along the coast or under trees.
Visit your favorite coffee shop and let the kids get hot cocoa
Have a beach day - sandcastles, snacks, and sandy toes
Fly kites at Crissy Field
Play music or cook together at home
Explore a local farmers market
Skateboard, bike, or rollerblade around the neighborhood
Museum hop, cafe crawl, or hunt for the best pastries in town
Backyard hangs with a swing, some bubbles, and fun tunes

If your family loves these kinds of things, we can document them in a Family Adventure Session!

Two sets of hands hold photo strips from a photo machine, shot at Spark Social in San Francisco.

Family Adventure Sessions Show Your Family’s Real Character

In these sessions, I aim to capture the essence of your family's silliness, kinship, and adventurous spirit. Because we have more shooting time together and because your family is doing something that feels like real fun, we get the gift of true presence.

Because these sessions have more of a documentary approach, we capture a wider range of emotions and exchanges. These sessions don’t just capture smiles and laughing. They capture tears, meltdowns, spills, and the inevitable moment of friction. I know from personal experience in rating my own family’s photos that those kinds of images are often my most treasured ones. This is what makes these sessions so enjoyable for me - knowing I’m capturing something that will be loved and treasured forever.

Family of five, plus white dog, peek their head out of cut-outs on a big painted banner of the San Francisco skyline, shot at Stagecoach Greens.

Ready for Your Own Adventure?

If your family is ready to ditch the time pressure of a traditional photo session and embrace an experience that feels more like a memory in the making, I’d love to plan something fun together.

Let’s create photos that feel like YOU. Contact me to start planning your Family Adventure Session!

Below are some images from a Family Adventure Session with a crew that likes to play mini-golf and saunter through outdoor food markets. We met up at Spark Social and Stagecoach Greens on a sunny Saturday and braved the crowds coming off the Giants game. Many laughs were shared, some tasty-looking noodles were gobbled, and a very cute dog was cuddled, kissed, and chased.