Growing Up on the Family Farm in Chesnee, SC

Some places are more than a beautiful backdrop for family portraits in Chesnee, SC. They are part of a family’s story.

For Tyler and Nacolle Finger, that place is their family farm near Chesnee, South Carolina. Tyler grew up in the area and has never lived more than two miles from where he and Nacolle are now raising their five children. Farming stretches back through generations of his family. Years ago, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal featured Tyler farming soybeans alongside his grandfather, Marshall Cooley. Today, Tyler farms approximately 1,300 acres, primarily growing wheat and soybeans.

When we planned their family portraits in Chesnee, SC, photographing them on the farm just made sense. The fields aren’t simply where Tyler works. They are part of the life Charleston, Stetson, Holston, Boone and Conway are growing up knowing.

Family Portraits on the Farm in Chesnee, SC

With five children ranging from two to nine, life on the Finger farm is anything but quiet.

The older children are beginning to help during planting season, while the younger ones are still much more interested in the farm equipment. Each already has a favorite truck, tractor or combine. And when they aren’t following what’s happening on the farm, there is fishing in the pond, mud holes to find and plenty of room to be children. 2026 Fall Mag 5 Final

Those details are what made their farm the right place for their portraits. It gave us something no beautiful location chosen simply for photography could have given us: a setting that already belonged to them.

Five children growing up on their family farm near Chesnee, SC

On-Location Family Portraits Tell More of the Story

One of the things I love about on-location family portraits is the opportunity to include more of what makes a family’s life their own.

That might mean photographing a family at home, on a piece of property that has been passed down through generations, or somewhere they return to year after year. The location doesn’t need to be elaborate. It simply needs to mean something.

For the Finger family, the farm tells part of the story before anyone says a word.

Tyler wants his children to understand the work behind producing food and to grow up connected to the land in much the same way generations of his family have been. He describes farming as something that gets in your blood—and hopes his children will develop that same connection as they grow. 2026 Fall Mag 5 Final

A Family Story Rooted in Spartanburg County

Photographing families beyond the studio gives me the opportunity to create portraits that could not belong to anyone else.

For this family, that meant traveling to their farm in the Chesnee area of Spartanburg County and photographing them surrounded by a landscape that is part of both their history and their everyday life.

Years from now, the children will be older. The farm will change. So will the people who live and work there.

But these portraits will always show this particular season: five young children growing up together on their family farm.

Tyler summed it up beautifully: