Couple photoshoot in London

Where a couple photoshoot in London actually happens

Most couple sessions we shoot run along the river, because that is where London gives you the most in the least walking. The stretch from the red phone boxes near Parliament Square, down the steps to the Embankment wall with the London Eye across the river, and over the bridge to the arches on the South Bank side is four distinct backgrounds inside ten minutes on foot. It holds up in grey weather, it holds up in rain, and at sunrise you have it almost to yourselves. The full route is on our Big Ben photoshoot page.

If you would rather not be photographed in front of the obvious landmarks, we go west instead: the pastel houses around Notting Hill and Lancaster Road, the cobbles of St Luke’s Mews, and Little Venice with its canal boats ten minutes away. Different photographs entirely, and almost nobody there on a weekday morning. Couples staying in the City often choose Millennium Bridge and St Paul’s, or the Victorian warehouses of Shad Thames with Tower Bridge behind.

What an hour actually looks like

We meet at a point we agree in advance, usually by a landmark you cannot miss. The first five minutes are the awkward ones and we plan for them: we start you walking and talking to each other rather than standing still and smiling at a stranger. From there it is a loop through three or four spots, with direction the whole way through — where to put your hands, where to look, when to keep walking. Nobody is left to work out what to do with their face.

Somewhere in the middle we take the two or three frames you will actually print: the ones where you are both still, close, and the city is behind you. The rest of the hour is movement, which is where the photographs people love usually come from.

When to book it

The first hour after sunrise is the best light and the emptiest streets, and in London that means 8am in December but before 5am in June. The last hour before sunset gives you the same light with more people in it. An overcast day is not a problem at all — flat light is kind to faces and makes the stone and brick read properly. We plan around the forecast, and if the weather turns properly nasty we move you for free.

Engagements, anniversaries and small weddings

A couple session covers most reasons people book: an engagement you want photographed properly, an anniversary trip, a first holiday together, or simply the fact that every photo of you both is a phone selfie at arm’s length. We also shoot small weddings and elopements in London — a registry office, a church, a dinner afterwards — and those are quoted for the hours you need rather than by the session.