August and September are the ideal months to take family portraits for holiday cards. The sun is setting later in the day, and parents and kids seems to get busier by the day as the fall gets underway. (Some families start in June, as they are on vacation and out of school. This is a great option too.) Weekends are always busy year round with beachgoers, so carving out time on a weekday will be worth it!

Once October hits, there is a high demand for the ideal photo location and time slots. Additionally, it takes about 2 weeks to get your photos back in their edited form as well. So another important advantage to getting them done in the early fall is that it gives you plenty of time to order cards and gifts.

The most popular time of day for photos is nearing sunset, to take advantage of the warm back-glow of the beautiful ‘golden hour’. But due to the marine layer along the coastal areas of Del Mar, La Jolla and San Diego, it is always safest to plan to get photos taken about an hour and a half before sunset.

So in October, the start times for photos look something like this:

October 1st – 5:15 October 7th – 5:05

October 14th – 4:50 October 21st – 4:40

October 28th – 4:30 November – 1st 3:30 **Daylight Savings is the 1st.

Places like Balboa Park, artfully landscaped hotels and neighborhood parks with beautiful trees are well suited for mornings and daytime photo shoots. Here are a few of my favorites:

Mission Bay as seen below is a good morning location if you are looking for a backdrop that has sand and water. The sun rises in the east, and provides a good early-in-the-day beach alternative.