Summer in Detroit Lakes moves fast.
Between the lake days, the long evenings, and everything your family has going on from June through August, it’s easy to keep saying “we should really get family photos done” without it actually happening.
But summer is genuinely one of the best times to do it, and there are more ways to approach a family session than most people realize.
Here are seven ideas worth considering if you’re thinking about family pictures this summer.
1. Celebrate Your Lake
If your family has a cabin on the lake, or a favorite spot you return to every summer, that’s not just a backdrop. That’s part of your story.
Lake sessions work especially well in the evening when the light is soft, and everyone has settled into the day. There’s something about being near the water that naturally loosens things up: kids explore, adults relax, and the photos tend to reflect that.
If Detroit Lakes is already a place your family loves, it makes sense to let it show up in your photos.
2. Document Your Family’s Summer Traditions
Some of the most meaningful family sessions aren’t posed at all.
They’re built around something your family actually does together — picking apples at a local orchard, exploring a favorite trail, spending an afternoon doing something you look forward to every year.
This kind of session is less about smiling at the camera and more about documenting what your family looks like when you’re just doing life together. The images feel different because they’re capturing something real, not recreating it.
If there’s a summer activity your family genuinely loves, that’s a session worth building around.
3. Show Off Your Backyard
Not every family session needs to happen somewhere unfamiliar.
If your backyard is where your kids spend their summers, running through the sprinkler, playing in the garden, climbing the same tree every evening, it’s already full of material. Familiar spaces are great for capturing the real, raw side of your family, since the kiddos are naturally at ease.
A backyard session works best when we treat the space as a participant, not just a setting. Your yard as it actually is, not staged or cleaned up into something it isn’t.
4. Capture Your Farm Life
This one is for families who live and work on a farm.
What feels ordinary to you: feeding animals, doing morning chores, and moving through the rhythms of a working farm make for genuinely remarkable photos. Most farm families don’t think of their everyday life as something worth documenting, but those are often the sessions people hold onto the longest.
5. Beat the Holiday Rush With a Summer Christmas Card Session
Here’s something a lot of families don’t think about until October: a Christmas card photo session during peak fall season, when everyone is busy, the weather is unpredictable, and kids are back in school and sports.
Summer takes that pressure completely off the table.
You get the long evening light, everyone’s relaxed, and yes, the summer tans don’t hurt either. By the time November arrives and people are scrambling, yours is already taken care of.
It’s one of those decisions that feels a little early, then feels very smart three months later.
6. Make a Weekend of It With Extended Family
If your family is already gathering in Detroit Lakes for a summer weekend, at a cabin, for a reunion, or just because summer is when everyone finally ends up in the same place, it’s worth adding a family session to the plan.
Extended family photos are some of the most meaningful images people end up with, and summer gatherings are one of the easiest ways to make them happen without coordinating a separate trip.
A session like this doesn’t need to be long or complicated. It just needs to happen while everyone is already there.
If you’re thinking about an extended family session, be sure to check out the best places for extended family pictures, too.
7. Come Out to the Farm for a Guided Connection Session
If you’re not sure what kind of session you want, or you just want someone to handle the details so you can show up and be present, this is usually where most families land.
At my private farm location just outside of Detroit Lakes, sessions are built around both the classic portraits (the ones for holiday cards and grandparents’ walls) and the in-between moments that happen when everyone stops trying so hard.
We start with the portrait everyone came for. Then we let things loosen up, capturing the fun and chaos of family life.
It’s a guided experience, which means you don’t have to manage the session. You just bring your family.
Learn more about these types of family sessions on the family page here.
Summer Doesn’t Last
That’s the honest truth about family photos in Detroit Lakes.
The evenings are long right now. The kids will never be this exact same age again. Your family dynamics are changing almost as fast as the seasons.
This is the time to get these memories captured, before they are gone forever.
Say hi over on my contact page, and we can start brainstorming your next family session.
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