Couple photoshoot in France
You are here for a few days and you would like something better than the picture a stranger took of you on the steps. That is a modest ambition and it is entirely achievable.
- From
- €220
The session
What the ninety minutes actually contain
The first fifteen are a walk. Nothing is asked of you except to keep talking to each other, and most of what we shoot in that stretch is discarded. It is the price of the rest: by the third stop, nobody is thinking about the camera.
After that we work in short bursts with pauses between them. You will spend more of the session walking than posing, which is exactly the point.
Choosing where
Visitors tend to name a monument. We will usually suggest the street behind it. A landmark in the frame makes the picture about the landmark; a quiet quay, a covered passage or a stairway makes it about you and still says where you were.
If a specific place matters to you — where you first stayed, where you got engaged — say so at the start. That beats any recommendation we could make.
Early is the whole trick
The same location is a private set at seven in the morning and a queue at eleven. Nothing in our technique compensates for the difference. Couples who accept the early start get a session that looks nothing like what everyone else brings home.
Around the session
If a proposal is part of the trip, the two can be booked together: the proposal photographed from a distance, then the session straight afterwards.
Couples marrying in France often add a session earlier in the week — see wedding photographer. And if you are travelling with family, a family photographer session works the same way.
Price
From €220 for about 1 h 30, with the full range on the pricing page. A deposit of 30% holds the slot.
What holds you back
The questions people hesitate to ask
- We are hopeless in front of a camera
- Nearly everyone is, for the first ten minutes. That is why the first stretch is a walk rather than a shoot, and why we do not ask you to look at the lens. Being told to hold still and smile is what makes people look wrong; having somewhere to walk to fixes most of it.
- What if it rains?
- We move the hour if we can, and if the trip is too short for that we shoot anyway. Wet stone in a city like Paris is genuinely better material than a flat blue sky, and we carry the umbrella.
- We only have one free morning
- Then that is the session. Tell us the window and we build the route around it rather than asking you to give up a day you came here to spend.
- Will there be crowds in the pictures?
- Not if we start early. The places worth photographing are unusable from mid-morning, and the same square at seven belongs to you. It is the single largest thing under our control.
- How many photographs do we get?
- Every frame worth keeping from ninety minutes, typically several dozen. No guaranteed number is promised, because a quota is met with filler.
How it runs
How it works
The hour, then the place
We choose the time of day first and the location second. A mediocre spot in good light beats a famous one at noon, every time, and visitors usually have that ordering the wrong way round.
A route, not a backdrop
Two or three places within a short walk, so the series changes as it goes. Standing in one spot for ninety minutes produces ninety minutes of the same photograph.
The session
We give you something to do rather than a pose to hold: walk there, stop when you feel like it, talk to each other. The instructions are about movement, never about faces.
Delivery
Sorted, treated and delivered as a private gallery within 5 to 10 business days, which you can reach from home.
Full gallery delivered within 5 to 10 business days.
Pricing
What it costs
€220–€350
- Duration
- 1 h 30
- Delivery
- 5 to 10 business days
- Deposit
- 30%
TODO_TVA
Included
- A short exchange beforehand to choose the hour and the route
- Ninety minutes of shooting, two or three linked locations
- Selection and treatment of every frame kept
- Private gallery in full resolution, downloadable from anywhere
Options
Questions
Frequently asked
What time of day should we book?
The first hour after sunrise, or the last before sunset. In summer that means starting very early, which sounds unappealing and is the reason the pictures work: the light is soft and the streets are empty.
Can we change clothes during the session?
Once, if there is somewhere sensible to do it near the route. Two changes eat most of the ninety minutes in walking and waiting, and the second half of the session is usually the better half.
Do you shoot outside Paris?
Yes, in the cities the team is based in and beyond them with travel quoted in advance. For a coastal or countryside session, tell us where you will be staying and we will say honestly whether it is worth the drive.
Tell us about the day
Describe what you want to keep from it. You get back a written proposal with a figure in it, not a catalogue.