Family vacation photos in Brazil: where to go with children, when to shoot, and your children’s image rights

A family vacation photo session in Brazil is a 30-minute shoot during your holiday, on a beach, a riverbank or a viewpoint chosen for your children's ages, priced from $180 with 20 edited photos delivered within 7 days. The planning that matters is not the poses: it is the destination, the hour, and the heat, in that order.

Destinations that work with children

Porto de Galinhas: the tide decides

The natural pools are why families choose Porto de Galinhas. The Prefeitura de Ipojuca's page says the best time to visit them is at low tide, especially in the morning, and advises checking the tide table first. It also says the water stays at about 27 °C all year, warm enough for a toddler to sit in. On land, the painted chicken sculptures around the village are a ready-made backdrop for small children, and the same page points to Maracaípe beach next door for the sunset. We place a family session at the morning low tide on the pools, or at sunset at Maracaípe on days when the low tide falls at noon. See family photos in Porto de Galinhas for the detail.

Bonito: water clear enough to see the fish

Bonito runs its attractions on a voucher system that, according to Bonito's tourism secretariat, has limited visitor numbers since 1995 and offers about 9,000 places a day; tours are bought from local agencies and done with guides. Children are welcome, but each attraction sets its own limits. The Rio da Prata float takes children from age 5, under-12s only with a parent or guardian, and phones only in a waterproof bag with a wrist strap. For a family with a younger child, the session happens on the bank or a short trail rather than in the water. The secretariat says the rivers are clearest from May to September. Our page on family photos in Bonito covers the spots.

Florianópolis, Maceió and the Iguaçu Falls

Florianópolis gives a family many beaches within a short drive, so we pick the sheltered side of the island on the day the wind is blowing. Maceió's city beaches sit behind a reef, and the coast north toward Maragogi has natural pools that, as in Porto de Galinhas, are a low-tide plan. At the Iguaçu Falls the challenge is the opposite of a hike: the park is easy to walk, but everyone gets wet, so we bring towels and plan the session on the first viewpoints, before the children are tired.

The hour that beats the heat

In the Northeast the sun is strong from early morning, and the light is softest in the first and last hour of the day. Sunrise in Porto de Galinhas falls between 04:57 in mid-October and 05:36 in mid-July, and sunset between 17:14 and 17:46, according to US Naval Observatory tables for 2026.

A sunset session that starts at 16:30 is easier than a sunrise one for most children, and it avoids the hours between 10:00 and 15:00, when the sand is too hot for bare feet and squinting faces ruin the frame. For babies we keep the session to the shade at the edge of the beach and use the full 30 minutes with breaks. Bring water, a change of clothes and one favourite toy; it buys more smiles than any prompt from the photographer.

School holidays and crowds

Most Brazilian schools break for a few weeks in July and for the long summer holiday from around mid-December into early February, though the exact dates vary by state and by school. In those weeks Brazilian families fill the coast, and beaches such as Porto de Galinhas and the Maceió pools are at their busiest. If your dates are flexible, March, May, August, September and November give quieter beaches; on the Northeast coast, September to March also brings the driest weather. Carnival week is a holiday of its own, and very busy, in the Northeast.

Your children's images under Brazilian law

Brazil protects children's images by law. The Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente, Lei nº 8.069/1990, defines a child as a person under 12 and an adolescent as 12 to 18, and its article 17 includes the preservation of the image in every child's right to respect. The Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados, Lei nº 13.709/2018, says in article 14 that children's personal data may be processed only with specific, prominent consent from at least one parent or legal guardian.

In practice that means three things on our sessions:

1. The photos are yours. We deliver them to you and do not publish a child's image anywhere without a separate, written consent from a parent, which you are free to refuse.
2. Other children stay out of the frame. On a busy beach we compose around other families' children rather than including them.
3. Older children have a say. A teenager who would rather not be in a frame is not pushed into one, and we agree the shots with them as well as with you.

Sessions for families

Grandparents and cousins can join a family session; tell us the group size when you book, and any longer session or larger group is quoted in writing before booking. Send us your destination, the dates and the children's ages on the booking page, and we will pick the place and the hour, or see our guide to the best time for photos in Brazil first.