Soft, hazy light - the kind that settles into the early morning hours and the last couple before everyone's head hits a pillow - it lands differently than the overhead, heavy weight of midday sun. It's warm. It's forgiving. It finds dimension without blowing out the contrast, it wraps you up somehow.

Midday is a different animal. Strong. Defined. You get the lines between light and shadow, the dappled movement of sun falling through tree leaves, highlights that have actual energy to them. It's not soft - it's dynamic. And dynamic can be exactly right depending on who we are and where we are and what we're doing.

Pool days? Midday. Ice cream cones on a sidewalk? Midday. Urban settings where the architecture is doing half the work anyway? Midday every time.

Evening golden hour is the predictable one. It's loving and easy to move through - the light practically does the work for you. And sun flares, the ones that sneak in at the edges of a frame at just the right angle - those find us most naturally at sunset. I will never turn one down.

I do want to be honest about one thing: I cannot move hills. I cannot shift clouds or relocate the mountain that might sit directly between your yard and the setting sun. Evening light is gorgeous and reliable when it arrives... and sometimes your specific location just doesn't let it. That's a conversation worth having before we commit to a time.

In-home sessions are their own chapter entirely. Morning is almost always where I want to be for those, especially in fall and spring, when the sun is sitting at the right angle to come through your windows and do something genuinely beautiful. That light won't be there at 2pm. It's worth planning around.