Family session
Photographs of your family that you are in as well, made at the hour your children are at their best, with nobody asked to sit still and smile.
- Reply within about two hours
- Price agreed before the session
- Free reschedule for bad weather
What’s included
- 40 retouched photographs
- One location, no rush
- Private gallery within 48–72 hours
Who it is for
Who books this, and why
The parent who is never in the photographs
Whoever holds the phone is missing from the family album. Seventy-five minutes with someone else behind the camera puts both parents in the frame, holding the children rather than directing them.
Families with children too quick for a phone
Under six, children move faster than a phone focuses and stop cooperating the moment they notice it. Nobody is asked to pose; the photographer follows what they are doing, and forty photographs leaves room for the few where everyone looks up at once.
Three generations in one place, for once
A grandparent visiting, cousins home for the summer. When the family is only together for a week, one morning outdoors is a small price for the group photograph everyone asks for afterwards.
Portfolio
Family session portfolio
A selection of family session shots to inspire your shoot.
How it works
From the first message to your gallery
Tell us ages and nap times
The start time is built around the youngest child, not the calendar. One line on the booking form — ages, when they sleep, who gets difficult when hungry — is what the photographer plans from.
Place and time confirmed, weather watched
Usually the same working day: a photographer, one location with shade and room to run, and an early start. If the forecast turns before the day, the session moves at no cost.
Twenty minutes of play before the session proper
Children spend the opening minutes performing for the camera. The photographer lets that run its course — a game, a walk, a snack — and the frames that count come after, in the same spot, without packing up to move.
Forty photographs in 48–72 hours
Retouched and delivered to a private gallery. Expect a handful where everyone looks at the camera and many more where nobody does; the second kind tend to be the ones that get printed.
Four details — place, date, session and how to reach you — are enough for a written quote. Nothing to pay to ask.
Before the session
How to prepare
Short, practical, and the part most people skip. None of it costs anything, and all of it shows in the photographs.
- Coordinate colours rather than matching outfits: two or three tones that sit together, and no two people in the same shirt.
- Feed everyone before leaving home, and bring a snack that does not stain — crackers, not chocolate or berries.
- Bring whatever the youngest is attached to — a toy, a muslin. It calms them, and it often ends up in the best frame.
- Do not promise a treat for smiling. A bribed child produces the same fixed grin in every photograph.
- Wear shoes everyone can run in and sit on grass in; the session is not spent standing.
- Keep a spare top in the car for anyone under four.
Book Family session in your city
Available in 1 Portuguese cities and destinations. Choose yours.
About this session
Book the mood, not the light
- Starting from
- €200
- Duration
- 75 min
- Edited photos
- 40
- Cities
- 1
With small children the usual advice about golden hour is wrong. Late afternoon has the better light and the worse mood, and the mood wins every time: a session at six in the evening with a tired three-year-old produces forty photographs of a tired three-year-old. Early morning, before the nap and before the heat, is less flattering on paper and far better in practice. This is the one service where the schedule is set by the youngest person present.
Seventy-five minutes at one location, without moving, is the other half of it. Children need about twenty minutes to stop performing, and a session that spends that time walking between locations never gets past the performance. One place, no rush, and enough frames that the good ones are not an accident — forty retouched photographs, delivered privately within 48 to 72 hours, and the session is rescheduled at no cost if the weather turns.
Frequently asked questions about Family session
What time works with small children?
Early morning, before the nap and before the heat. A late-afternoon session has better light and a worse mood, and the mood wins.
What if my child cries or refuses to join in?
It happens, and it does not cost you the session. The photographer stops, the child is comforted, and nobody is told to smile. A child on a parent’s lap five minutes after crying is a photograph worth having too, and seventy-five minutes leaves time to get back to the rest.
What happens if it rains?
The session is rescheduled at no cost if the weather turns. Say so as soon as the forecast looks wrong; there is no point deciding at the park gate with everyone already dressed.
Will I be in the photographs as well?
Yes, as much as the children. The photographer directs the adults too — where to sit, when to pick someone up, when to put them down — so you are never left wondering whether you are in the way.
Our teenager does not want to come.
Teenagers usually object to being posed, not to being photographed. Give them something to do — carrying the youngest, walking ahead with a sibling — and keep their part short. The frames where they forget to object are often the ones they ask for later.
Do we have to find the location?
No. Name an area, or leave it to the photographer, who will know which park has shade at nine in the morning and which one puts a car park in every background.
Family session, from €200
Tell us the place and the date. You get a written quote within about two hours during the working day, and the price you are quoted is the price you pay.