Light is never neutral. It has a personality, a rhythm, and a seasonality that shapes how we live in our spaces.

At 3:30 in the afternoon in summer, my bedroom is filled with what I can only call editorial light. It is so strong and directional that even my plants have to be moved to gentler corners of the patio. This isn’t just light for living — it’s light for storytelling.

The living room at sunrise is equally dramatic. The first rays spill across the floor, flushing the room in a soft radiance that creeps toward the bedroom door. That moment creates an almost sacred feeling, as if the architecture itself is breathing with the sun.

One client once described a room so beautifully, recalling how the light first entered around 7:30 a.m., painting everything softly. We planned the shoot to begin then, but a week before, she realized her memory was tied to another season, and that exact light wouldn’t appear. We went ahead with the shoot, and the documentation was still beautiful, but it was a reminder: homes shift with time. Morning light in summer is not the same as in fall or winter. As photographers, we have to ask — are we documenting the home as it is, or are we telling a story the client remembers?

The same lesson comes from color. In one home, a cascade of bougainvillea outside the kitchen window flooded the walls with pink. The room looked as if it were painted in rose light, when in fact it was the flowers creating that effect. It was striking, almost romantic — nature painting with its own palette. But it was also misleading. The photographer’s eye has to discern the difference: is this true light, or is it a borrowed illusion? Sometimes the magic of a moment is worth capturing exactly as it is, even if it’s temporary. Other times, we need to step back and let natural light remain the subject. In this case a white kitchen was completely pink, what do I show and capture?

Designers know this truth as well. When you’re choosing paint for a home, you have to ask yourself: Did I pick this color in winter, or did I pick it in summer? The quality of light in those two seasons can transform the feeling of a room entirely. The walls haven’t changed, but the light has — and with it, the emotion of the space.

Our homes will always look different depending on the time of day and the season. As we move toward fall and winter, it’s important to remain conscious of that. Light is both documentation and storytelling, shifting between accuracy and memory.