Well, a few answers come to mind...
1. Between the cave-dweller and lobster stages
2. Before the bruises start to show
3. After the hangover from the "we made it" party disappears
4. While the kids are still half-asleep and before they start acting half-crazy
5. After the teenagers wake up, just before moonrise
6. Thursday, between 11:15 and 11:47 after the guys get back from tee time and before the hang gliding lessons. Can you come then?
On a relatively serious note, we usually shoot two sittings a day, one morning and one evening. What's the difference? As far as the light goes, we tend to get a little prettier images in the afternoon; the sky is blue (it's an east coast thing) and people squint less because your eyes have been open all (or most of) the day. In the mornings the water has more sparkles, the temp is cooler, and we can do some really sweet silhouettes of smaller groups or individuals. And there are usually less fellow visitors standing behind you in a bright green suit waving at the photographer (patience, patience...).

But the biggest thing for you guys to think about is your family. We don't know them like you do, but as a GENERAL rule, kids from 6 or so down are more, um, on common ground in the mornings. With our little buddies we notice that as the day wears on their paths tend to diverge. So of those seven bundles of energy you started with this morning, 2 missed their naps and are now Pouty Peters, 1 is still sleeping and doesn't want to get up, 1 has red eyes from pool chlorine, and someone forget we were coming and gave the other 3 sugar and they are bug-eyed and bouncy. Good luck! The flip side is most teens believe noon is WAY early on vacation and don't move much till the 3rd dose of caffeine kicks in about the time they normally would be getting in from school.

So exactly HOW early is the morning shoot? We've had people ask us to show up at 11:00, sorry! We can usually go anywhere from 7:00 till 8:30 or so to start the ball rolling. The light is better the earlier you go, but pretty pix of your twins with eyes shut and drool hanging might not work for you.

The evening sessions can vary more. From mid-May through mid-July 6:00 or 6:30 for multi-family groups and as late as 7:00 for single families in some areas. Places like the park where we can work on the dunes are awesome early and late while more populated areas like Duck, Ocean Sands, and Pine Island lose direct light on the beach earlier. Bigger gangs take longer and need to get cracking quicker. Mid-July until the first week of August around 6:00 is good, then mid-August until mid-Sept. we're thinking 5:30 to 6:00.

So ask M.O.M. (the Majority of Mothers) what they think, check with everybody for dates for charter boat trips, surf lessons, tee times, and tea times then tell them to change their plans and do what you were gonna do in the first place. But really, get a few options in mind and give Laura a call and she'll consult "the Book" and we'll see about getting you set up. Between the four of us shooting, if you call a month or so out you can usually get your pick of time & date. If you wait until a bit later it gets a bit tighter, but we'll always do what we can.

Clothes preferably. The lighter the color and simpler the pattern the better. Think about a Lands End ad, how you can actually see the people and the background. Now picture a K-mart ad full of plaids and bold colors - can you remember the faces or the setting? Of course not, it’s too busy. So your best choices are white shirts, khaki or light denim pants, and sandals or bare feet (you are at the beach). Pale blues make you look tanner than you earned, but navy blue makes you look like a cave-dweller!

Sometimes families want a little visual separation and have a shirt color for each group, like Mom and Dad are peach, sister’s family in sky blue, your family in light sage, and so-on. Nothing wrong with a family rainbow!

Here's a little sample of some outfits we've seen lately and you can decide what works for you guys. Click on a thumbnail to see it larger.

That depends on where you are staying, how many are in your gang, and how mobile they are. Usually, if your families need more than 3 vehicles to roll it can get a bit complicated, but it's always up to you guys. And if you want something special like a lighthouse or pier in the background we can give you some ideas there. If we are moving away from your house we'll prefer to meet at the house and make sure we have a few things we might need and then we can caravan to some place nearby. For longer runs we'll just give you directions and meet you there.
Why would we move? Besides what you might want in your background there are differences in what you are sitting on (grass, small pebbles, soft sand), the number of fellow beach-goers around (it IS a public beach), cabanas, beach chairs, tents, shadows, and a bunch more we look at. Below you'll see some examples from different places we play, but here are a few suggestions. Click on the thumbnail to see it larger.

Carova (4 wheel drive) - Some of the prettiest places are up here. Fine, soft sand and dunetops. Wide, flat beaches. The middle sections are best, from m.p. 15 to about 19.

Northern Beaches (Pine Island through Ocean Hill, Corolla) - Still have great sand, but generally not much for dunetop access. Most shots here will be at or near the water's edge.

Northern Beach Alternatives - There are a couple of spots with elevation and vegetation good for smaller groups and we can arrange to meet you there to play. Soundside walk paths in Corolla Light are sweet. Some shade and a nice break from an east wind, too.

Whalehead Club - A great change from the beach for morning or evening sessions with Currituck Lighthouse, the sound, a beautiful wooden walkbridge, and some great climbing trees (we take no responsibility, etc, etc.) to work with. Soft grass and cool shade are a big help, just be careful where you go. The geese aren't potty trained yet.

Duck and Southern Shores - A great place to play volleyball, swim, lay out, fly kites, or sleep under your cabana. You can tell because that is what will be in the background in your pictures! Also a bunch of red sand (mini-pebbles) make it tough on the bottom of the people pile. Good place to come back to after your shoot, somewhere else....like, the park!

Main Beaches (Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head) - Depending on where exactly you are, there is softer sand and wider beaches than just to the north, but no spots to shoot among the dunes. You're close enough to hop in the car for a few minutes and drive south to where it's really pretty, so do it. C'mon, we dare you.

The Park - 15 or so minutes from KDH is the start of our favorite place to play. No houses, MUCH fewer people, wide beach, dunes, lots of parking, and a clean bath house with showers to change or hose the kids off make the park a little bit of a photo heaven for us. There is even a lighthouse across the street, and the marina is a couple minutes away so there is fun stuff for you to do before or after your shoot, so let's go play!

Hatteras Island - If you're staying down there you're already in luck! Depending on the neighborhood you'll find soft sand, w-i-d-e beaches, and a whole lot less crowd. Some areas aren't as sweet as others, but a short drive fixes that!

The cliff notes!

Northern Beaches - soft sand, little/no dune to work with puts us shooting by the water unless we go soundside or to the Whalehead Club.
Duck/Southern Shores - relatively crowded, NO dune shots, moving would be better.
Middle Beaches - lots of neighbors, good sand, slim chance of greenery. Let's go to the park!
The Park - if you want the best pictures, this is it!
Hatteras Island - check your location, could be great right outside your door.

If your family group is too large, or doesn't want to move (hey, we're on vacation, Mom!) we'll do the best possible with your spot, and have a good time making great pictures. But forgive us if we laugh when we all walk onto a flat, crowded beacn and someone says "We want pictures like that park, just HERE."

The number of pictures we shoot can vary from group to group. Your sitting fee includes an online gallery where the best of your images will be posted for one year from the time of your shoot, not like the usual 10 days only "buy now" that some studios offer. A group of 19 or less will see a minimum of around 2 dozen images, frequently more, depending on the kids and how long they hang in there with us. Medium size groups of 20-29 will usually see 3 dozen or more images, and as your gang grows, so will your gallery.

We'll try to edit most of the sneaky bunny ears, crossed eyes, and nose bubbles to protect the not-so-innocent. Physical print proof options change, and we'll be happy to talk about those after your shoot.

We'd love to stay and play all day but experience tells us the kids aren't into clean clothes and best behavior for the funny stranger for long, so we aim for being out on the beach no more than about 45 minutes or so. After we run through the multi-family shots we'll do the families with the youngest ones first and they can relax, unless you've got someone on dinner duty and they need to run before the roast comes to ruin. Most times we'll be back in the house around an hour after we meet.

Hair brushes to tame the fly-aways (good luck!) and some cool damp wash cloths to wipe down the kids are always a good idea. Cool drinks work wonders on a hot day to keep the kids cool and happy. Please try to leave the toys and sugary snacks behind, lots of well meaning helpers give little Sally a toy or a lollipop and then take it away just before a picture. My what a happy face that is! Would you tip a waiter who took your steak away while you chewed the first bite? And if you can stash your cameras away until after we're done the odds of having everybody looking at the RIGHT camera go way up.

When we sit down after the shoot to have a little talk with the ladies of the family you guys can point out the organizational genius in the family (as if you didn’t know already). Around a week or 10 days after the shoot your online gallery should be up on our website so everyone can see their pictures, and we usually keep them up for a year after the sitting. We'll give you all the login info when we get back in the air conditioning with the drinks.

Each family can order whatever, whenever they want. Those of you viewing the pictures online can add prints to your shopping cart and check out just like you can at Amazon.com, and if you have a set of proofs in your hands you can fill out the order form that we'll include with the proofs and you can send those in either through the mail or fax them to us. We'll take it from there and send it to the lab and get prints back to each family. If you are getting any retouching or a headswap done on the group shot, get that done first and we'll post the fixed image online so everyone can order from that at normal prices.

As soon as you've checked out the other Q&As and worked out the where and when's with the family give us a call (weekdays) at the studio @ 252.480.2395. All of us book up really quickly during the season. When you call be sure you have your contact info handy, address where you are staying (Google Maps is our friend), realtor and unit number, phone number of the house, and your cell (in case the house phone gets left off the hook). We can't really make a reservation if we don't know how to contact you, you know, in case of the odd hurricane, or the tide takes out the road, just normal Outer Banks stuff.

We are extremely people oriented so we make all our reservations on the phone instead of email. It gives us a chance to answer any other questions (who has good BBQ?) you might come up with and just say hello, Hello! So give Laura a call (the queen of it all) and the Shooters family looks forward to meeting you and your family on the beach...

Do's		Don't's
Do tell everybody someone is coming by to have some fun and take their picture out on the beach.		Don't let grandpa answer the door in his underwear with a shotgun because “nobody tole me!”
Do let the kids know these are fun pictures, not school pictures (or mug shots for the criminally inclined).		Don't threaten the kids - we’ve seen some so scared they start crying when the doorbell rings - we don’t need that kind of business or people.
Do feed the kids a nice LOW SUGAR snack or meal before they get dressed for the shoot.		Don't give them cherry kool-aid after they put on their only white shirt, or give them so much sugar you see the whites of their eyes and they just sit and vibrate!
Do offer a long term reward, if you want to offer one at all. Some kids do well with a long term reward like “ if we do good at this for a while we can go to the pool later today” - sort of like the corporate Christmas bonus that keeps you working all year!		Don't use quick bribery - “ One more smile and you get a face full of pixie sticks”- if they don’t get it, the kid goes off, if they do they will be a mess if we need more shots – that and it usually doesn't work.
Do put on a little sunscreen and work it in well, enough in advance that you don’t shine so much in your beach photos.		Don't put on so much sunscreen that sand sticks to you or enough that you slide down the dune and into the water when you sit down.
Do bring a little clear (or amber) cool drinks, and maybe a couple cool damp cloths in a baggie in case it’s hot out there and the ladies might bring a brush, too.		Don't pack for the Amazon - your car or house, is right there - no canned meats, powdered eggs, or water filtration kits will be needed. We promise.
Do be flexible - yes, there is a breeze, and there are other people, but we’ll do our best to minimize all that - remember it is a public beach.		Don't scream at strangers, rip down cabanas, or curse the weather gods. It could all come back to haunt you, and us.
Do try to get everybody ready at the same time - we knows it’s hard, but give it a shot. We do the big group early, then when we finish each family, they are off duty!		Don't expect to do one family at a time and then the group. By that time the first kids have already gone to snoozerville, or fussyland, or Dad went for coffee….(it’s all happened more than once).
Do respect our beaches - it’s one of the best, we love it like it is (or was) so take only pictures, leave only foot prints.		Don't rip up the sea oats, leave your trash, talk bad about our home, or get the Life Guards drunk - it might be funny, but what if we really need them?
Do relax! Family pictures are all about love and enjoying the crazy, funny, unique characters we all are. If you love your family you’ll love your pictures; cross-eyed, rabbit-eared and all. So relax, enjoy, and let’s have a good time!		Don't stress out, over coach, be afraid, be ashamed, nit-pick, lose sleep over, fret about, medicate, brain wash, or attempt to trade in your family. They may not be the Brady Bunch but you’ve gotta love’em!

Mostly enjoy it! But on the occasion that it's not so much fun there are some options to work with.

Some days it's windy enough to fly a brick on a string. Depending on the direction we can reduce that by changing locations, if we have a strong East or Nor'east breeze we can go soundside at the Whalehead Club or Salvo day use area, or use Currituck or Bodie Island lighthouse for your background. Some large families can set up on the west facing grand entrance type stairs at their rental which can be a nice perspective for their portraits. And sometimes you just laquer the hair down and go for it!

If it's raining and you've got the space and opportunity we can work indoors and still try to pull off an ocean view or gather 'round the fireplace or even shoot on a covered deck if it's big enough. We can try and reschedule you for better days if one of us is going to be scheduled in your area and you can re-form your crew. Sometimes we can check the radar for the next break and wait it out.

In the event of a hurricane, well, at least you have a home somewhere safe to head to while we take pictures of the Weather Channel guys leaning into the pretend wind.

So the short answer is, in the event of bad weather we'll try to work something out so we can have some fun with your family, and if we can't make it happen this time we'll see you next year!