Telling the Story of Your Home Through the Seasons with Becca Cherry

Photographing your home means taking a step back and considering the story your home tells. No home is static. Although a picture is still, we can follow nature’s lead and infuse it with life. By building a shot list inspired by the seasons, we can weave a richer tale of home.

Consider your home as the year unfolds. A bud vase, filled with the first few delicate snowdrops of January, is also full of spring hope. Think of the kitchen in June, counters lined with terracotta pots filled with geraniums, their heady scent the fragrance of languid summer days. Recall October afternoons spent on the sofa, nestled amongst piles of warm wool blankets, while autumn leaves swirl outside. Or can you picture the flicker of December candlelight reflected in windows, the dark winter’s evening beyond. All tiny snapshots which evoke very specific moments in time.

If we pay attention to these seasonal shifts and bring them into our images, we can create photographs that are rooted in place and rich with atmosphere.

Follow the light

Rule number one of photography? Look for the light. Midsummer is a tale of light, and midwinter is a tale of shadow, while spring and autumn are the sweet spots in between.

In spring and summer, daylight is abundant and easy to catch. It leaves spaces awash with light and leaf shadows dancing on walls. Rooms that are dark and poky in winter become welcoming light-filled nooks in summer. The length of summer days here in the northern hemisphere means you may even have to resort to ways to reduce the light. It’s here where sheer curtains are your friend. Drapes of gauzy cotton or linen will help to block glare and soften stark shadows — a bonus if you can capture them wafting in the breeze.

In autumn and winter daylight is short, and shadow reigns. But what it lacks in abundance it makes up for in atmosphere. Think flickering candles or the soft warmth of a lamp. Perhaps there’s a corner of your home where the light hits just right at 2 pm on a winter’s afternoon, casting an ethereal glow — the perfect spot to style up a vignette. The short winter days also mean it’s easy to catch Golden Hour. This initial hour of light in the morning, and final hour of light before dark, is the best light to shoot in — when the sun is low, and the light is soft.

Notice seasonal details

The best images are those which evoke feeling in the viewer. By bringing the energy of a season into our homes, we breathe life into the pictures we take.

A simple way to do this is using flowers, whether that be delicate branches dotted with spring blossom or winter’s bare branches and sprigs of evergreens laden with jewel-rich berries. You can even take advantage of local produce: ceramic bowls spilling handfuls of summer-ripe tomatoes or fire-side mantels lined with an autumn harvest of colourful squash. Think about the textiles you use too. Your summer home may be dotted with cool floaty linens while in autumn/winter, warm wools and sheepskins tell an altogether cosier story.

These seasonal details are small additions, but they infuse the photographs with nostalgia. They become a moment in time, a specific place, a shared memory.  

Embrace your home’s best season

As photographers, it can be natural to want to try and capture a trending aesthetic, but the strongest images are always those rooted in truth. Most homes have a specific season they shine brightest in.  If we can notice this and lean into it, then visual storytelling becomes an easier job.

Take an old pink cottage surrounded by woodland. Your first thought may be, ‘Ah, this is an autumn house.’ But then you pause. Take notice. In spring, the woodland around the cottage is alive. The cottage is enveloped by a sea of yellow primroses and daffodils – an irresistible palette of pink and yellow. This cottage is undeniably a spring home. For a while, you may at first believe a red-brick Victorian villa to be a winter home, but reflecting, realise your mistake. In September, the Virginia Creeper which crawls across the house’s facade becomes resplendent, red leaves on fire in the mellow sunshine. The whole house seems to glow in the autumn light.

Pay attention to when your home feels most alive and lean into the authentic story your home wants to tell. Whether that be in the quiet intimacy of winter or the airy freedom of summer, as soon as you notice it, the story will tell itself.

The human touch

Incorporating seasonal details in our images helps to paint a bigger picture, one which the viewer can imagine themselves inhabiting.

When photographing your home, don’t be afraid to include signs of life. A blanket draped across an armchair, bowls full of berries on the kitchen table, linen curtains billowing through an open window or muddy gardening tools left by the back door. Tiny human signs of living can often tell a richer story than a perfectly styled room.

Viewers recall summer picnics spent with sticky-fingered young children. They recollect autumn walks through drifts of leaves, which crunch underfoot.  A crackling fire in the hearth brings to mind the first fire lit on a cold evening, the pet dog sprawled out on the rug, basking in the heat. That collection of muddy garden bulbs reminds them of afternoons spent gardening with a beloved grandparent.  These seasonal details connect the viewer to a particular time, place or even person.

Photographing your home through the seasons is about more than documenting a space. It is a way of noticing how we live within it.

Over time, these photographs become a record of small rituals and seasonal rhythms: the first sweet peas on the table, muddy boots by the door, evenings spent beside the fire and mornings in the garden sowing seeds. They tell the story not just of a home, but of the life unfolding within it.

If we take a step back and first pay attention, our homes will show us when they naturally shine. Then all we need to do is be ready to capture those moments and share them.

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