Family photographer in France
Family photographs go wrong when adults decide the children should behave. We work the other way round and let the children set the pace.
- From
- €190
The session
Why the hour decides everything
Ask a parent when their children are at their best and they will answer without hesitating. That answer is the session time. Everything else — the park, the light, the clothes — can be worked around; a two-year-old thirty minutes past a nap cannot.
So the first question is never about locations. It is about what time everyone wakes up.
What we do with an hour
Ten minutes of everybody together, taken early while patience is intact. Then the group breaks up: children run, adults follow, and we photograph what happens. The last stretch, once the energy drops, is where the quiet portraits come from.
Nobody is asked to line up, and nobody is asked to smile on command. The instruction, when there is one, is to go somewhere or to do something.
Visitors and residents
For families visiting France, the session usually happens near where you are staying, in the first days of the trip rather than the last — jet lag works in your favour early and against you later.
For families living here, it is usually annual, in the same month each year, and the series is worth more than any single image in it.
Around the session
Couples often add a couple photoshoot on another morning without the children. For a family gathering built around a wedding, the two are booked together and the group list is agreed once.
Price
From €190 for about 1 h 15, 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
- Our children will not sit still
- Good. A photograph of children sitting still is a photograph of children waiting for permission to leave. We shoot movement on purpose, and the two or three calm frames that parents also want come at the end, once everyone has run about.
- We want one picture with everybody in it
- You will get it. We take it in the first ten minutes, while patience is intact, and then stop asking. Left to the end it becomes a negotiation with tired children and it shows on every face.
- The baby is only a few weeks old
- Then we come to you rather than the other way round, and we work around the feed. Nothing about a session should require an infant to be somewhere at a fixed hour.
- We are only here for a week
- That is most of our family bookings. Give us the morning that suits and we will pick somewhere within a short walk of where you are staying.
- Do we have to match our clothes?
- Please do not. Coordinated outfits date a photograph faster than anything else in it. Wear what these people actually wear; avoid large logos and very bright single colours, and that is the whole rule.
How it runs
How it works
Times, not themes
We ask about naps, meals and the age of the youngest before anything else. A session at the wrong hour cannot be rescued by a good location, and the reverse is not true.
Somewhere they can move
A park, a wide quay, a garden — space where a four-year-old running is part of the photograph rather than an interruption of it.
One hour, no more
Small children give you about forty good minutes. We book an hour and expect to use two thirds of it, which is why we do not schedule anything after.
Delivery
Sorted, treated and delivered as a private gallery within 5 to 10 business days.
Full gallery delivered within 5 to 10 business days.
Pricing
What it costs
€190–€320
- Duration
- 1 h 15
- Delivery
- 5 to 10 business days
- Deposit
- 30%
TODO_TVA
Included
- A short exchange about ages, nap times and what the light allows
- One hour on site, outdoors or at your accommodation
- Selection and treatment of every frame kept
- Private gallery in full resolution, reachable from any country
Options
Questions
Frequently asked
What is the best age for a first family session?
There is no bad one, but the hour matters more with the very young. Under three, book close to a wake-up rather than a nap; over six, the constraint disappears almost entirely.
Can the session happen at our rental apartment?
Yes, if there is daylight from a reasonable window. Interiors are often better with small children than any park, because everything they need is already there. We shoot without flash and move nothing that matters to you.
Can grandparents join?
Yes, and it is worth arranging. We usually photograph the wider group in the first twenty minutes and then let the grandparents watch while the immediate family carries on, so nobody stands about.
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.