Port Aransas Family Photographer: The Complete Guide to Beach Photos
What to know and where to go for your family beach photography session! 
Family beach photography session in Port Aransas
Planning a family vacation to Port Aransas? A family beach photography session is one of the best ways to preserve those memories long after the sand is gone from your suitcase. As a Port Aransas family photographer, I love helping families capture authentic moments along the beautiful Texas coast.
Beach trips are a time when families gather together and take a moment to slow down and relax. Often, grandparents or other extended family members make the trip to the beach with you and there’s no better time, or place, to capture those memories together than at the Texas coast.
Port A is the perfect backdrop for your Texas beach photos with its wide beaches and beautiful sunsets. Some of my favorite places include:
Horace Caldwell Pier
Palmilla Beach
Mustang Island
Port Aransas Nature Preserve
Leonabelle Birding Center
South Jetty
Beach boardwalks
Pink Granite Jetties.
There is beauty all around the Texas Gulf Coast for a session as unique as your family. The relaxed atmosphere is perfect to kick off your shoes and play in the water’s edge with the kids.
Your guide to everything you need to know about beach photos in Texas can be found below!
Who are you and are you a professional beach photographer?
The too long don’t want to read version is- My name is Holly Seigmund and I have been a professional photographer for 10+years and have been taking photos at the beach for 5+ years.
The long version of who I am and what I do can be found on my about me section, if you really want to do a deeper, more long winded, investigative dive on me.
Want to see some of my other photos so you know I’m legit? Visit my portfolio and you can get a sense of my style and all the other different types of sessions I offer.
Why Hire a Photographer During Your Port Aransas Vacation?
As mom, I know how hard it can be to be present in your family photos. You’re doing great taking the photos, but years down the road, your kids will want to see their momma in the family photos. Everyone in the photos, that’s why you hire a photographer.
Selfies? No thank you, let’s avoid that blurry photo where someone’s head is partially cut off in the picture because no one had arms quite long enough to snap a decent selfie. (And pro-tip, please wipe the finger prints off the camera phone lens first, that’s where the foggy blur is coming from).
Have you ever asked a stranger at the beach to take your family photo? Now you’re all in the photo together, but your best bet is you found a Gen-Z to take your photo on your phone, this may produce a decent, yet still low quality cell phone photo. Hand your phone over to the people partying next to you on the beach and that phone is likely to end up in the sand or the water. Stop the cute older couple walking down the coast, but at best you get a closeup of your faces and no beach in the background and they’ll have you squinting into the sun.
Just hire a professional who’s done this before! Hire someone who knows what the best lighting is and knows how to handle the worst lighting conditions as well. Hire the beach photographer who can give you high quality images that you can proudly print on large canvases and hang up around your home. Professional beach photographers can turn your memories into moments that will last a lifetime. Invest in these memories your making at the Texas beach.
When is the best time to take beach photos?
My suggestion for timing your beach photos is to take them the first day or two of your beach stay. This is when you are the most fresh before any sunburns or long days playing in the waves tire everyone out. This also allows us a little buffer room if, heaven forbid, we have to reschedule because it’s actively raining and we can’t just wait it out.
As for the time of day, sunrise or sunset, it just depends on your family. Golden hour is typically the first hour of light in the morning and the last hour of light in the evening. It is a very beautiful glowy light that often avoids those harsh shadows for a more polished image. For summer in Texas golden hour is typically around 7:30-8:30 (or sometimes even just a bit later) in the evening. Mornings in Texas start early in the summer too with sunrise generally around 6:30 in the morning.
The pro’s of an evening session would be that you have all day to prepare and you don’t have to set an alarm while you’re on vacation and we may just catch one of those beautiful Texas sunsets.
The pro’s of a morning session are typically a little cooler session since it hasn’t started heating up for the day yet, and the sunrise that comes over the ocean when we’re in Port Aransas.
What do you wear to your beach photos?
Neutrals will always be a classic combination for your beach session. The cool color palette lends itself well to not overshadow the coastline, but to complement it. Some great color choices are:
Cream
White
Tan
Light blue
Sage green
Soft blush
Linen textures
Avoid:
Neon colors
Busy patterns
Matching white shirts and jeans
Large logos
Shoes? Nahhhh! You’re at the beach! Kick off those shoes and go barefoot in the sand. I love little tiny sandy toes, they make for a some cute detail shots.
What to expect from your beach photography session:
They’re family photos but they don’t have to be stiff. I love getting my clients to move and connect with each other, whether that’s running on the edge of the water, holding hands walking down the boardwalk or playing games under the pier. The more connection I can create with my clients, the more emotion you’ll see in your photos and that’s what it’s all about, sparking that emotion and the memories of your family beach vacation.
Kids will be kids! Let’s let them act like it. Reassure them that they don’t always need to look at the camera for me, some kids are a little shy and take a minute to warm up and that’s ok! I love to capture kids being kids and just playing! Let’s play games during our session to bring out those genuine smiles you know and love, vs the “say cheese” ones that look a little forced.
The best photos are often captured between poses, like the little laugh mom gets watching her kids making big splashes on the waters edge, or the big hug dad steals before he lets you go for pictures with the kids. I come armed with lots of poses, but the little moments in between are often everyone’s favorites.
Boys relaxing in the Palmilla Beach Chairs
Do you offer Extended Family Beach Sessions?
First off, you may be thinking what counts as an Extended Family Session? Extended Family Sessions are those that include grandparents, aunt’s, uncles, cousins, etc. It’s outside the typical mom, dad and kids session.
And YES! Of course I do! If you have managed the logistical planning of getting multiple sets of families all in the same beach town, at the same time, that deserves to be documented!
During your extended family session we will get the big one, the one grandma will show everyone because all her babies and grandbabies were all together for a photo at the same time and that’s what life is all about! But we will also get a photo with each individual family unit so everyone goes home with a their own family memories. All the kids together in a photo? On my list! Grandparents and just the grandbabies?? Sorry parents, you’re on break for a few minutes because we all know the grandparents like them grandkids the best. And when was the last time each couple took a photo together, just the two of them, with no kids??? Selfies don’t count and most people probably say their wedding was the last time just the two of them got a photo together….don’t worry, I’ll fix that.
What about this Coastal Texas Weather?
They say if you don't like the weather in Texas, just wait 5 minutes and it'll change.I can almost assure you, if it’s summer, it’ll be hot! It is what it is, but my sessions are efficient and quick and there is usually a nice breeze off the water.
WindWind happens at the beach….quite a bit. For women who spent time on their hair so it could be down, it can be a bit of a challenge if it’s super windy, but I do my best to rotate and try and get those quick shots before the hair may go flying. A light breeze though? Ohh that’s the perfect amount of carefree wind blowing through the hair that we love. We just work with what the Texas coast gives us.
RainHow dare I even say that! You’re session is 1/96th of the entire day. Yes, there are times where you look at the weather app and you see rain in the forecast, but that doesn’t always mean it will be actively raining during your session. Coastal showers tend to come and go pretty quickly and for the most part we can wait them out. If worst comes to worst and we can’t just wait it out, we can either reschedule or if that is not possible on either end we can refund.
Cloudy DaysMost people see cloudy days and think “oh no! my photo session”. I see cloudy days and think “we can photograph in any direction and avoid the squinty eyes!” Cloudy days are a-okay with me! And when that sun peeks out just right, it’s bliss! Not to mention they also cool it down just a bit. They may also provide those beautifully, colorful Texas sunsets that dreams are made of. Give me clouds any day on the beach!
Daily weather can be found and checked on The Weather Channel website for Port Aransas, Texas.
Hey that’s me, Holly Seigmund, and my hubby on the beach!
Are you local to Port Aransas, Texas?
Port Aransas has become our family's happy place. We purchased property here because we fell in love with the community, and we hope to call it our second home one day. Until then, you'll find us making frequent trips from Lexington, Texas to the coast—cameras in hand, ready to capture families making memories in one of our favorite places in Texas.
How far in advance should you book?
If you have your dates for your beach trip picked out and you know that photos is on your “must-do list” while you’re in town, then message me your dates as soon as you know. If I am not already planning on being there, maybe I can make a trip down.
I try and post the dates that I am going down on my social media so if you see that we’ll be there at the same time, then hit me up and let’s get your session booked!
We are kind of “on a whim” people so we often plan quick little getaways to our happy place, but if you know months in advance, just let me know and we will see what we can work out.
How long does a session take & how many images do we get?
Most of the time a quick 15 minute session is all we need. I am very efficient at my job and the typical 15 minute mini session produces a gallery of about 35-50 edited images for you to select your favorite 15 images from. I do offer full gallery upgrades for a small additional amount if you just can’t choose. More information on that can be found here on my booking site.
Think you need more than 15 minutes for your family? We can absolutely set up a 30 minute or 1 hour session so you have more time to hit up more than one location or just really relax and play with the kids.
Extended family sessions are usually about an hour to an hour and a half long, depending on the amount of people in your family.
Full half hour, hour, or extended family sessions come with all the images edited and included, no gallery upgrades required.
Can we bring our dog?
I get asked this a lot and the answer is always “as long as I can pet it and get puppy love”. Yes of course! They are a member of the family too!