Are you looking for a family photographer for a spontaneous family portrait in the Eifel region of Germany?
Recently, I had the pleasure of photographing this large and incredibly spontaneous family (the parents who booked me themselves have 4 children, and their children already have nearly all grandchildren) in the village of Butgenbach in the Eifel region of Germany.
How far are you willing to travel for a group portrait?
They emailed me first to inquire if it was even possible. I always tell people that up to an hour or an hour and a half of travel time is no problem for me when it comes to a large family portrait. I often drive to the Ardennes for family photoshoots, having been to Waimes and a lovely cottage in the area. Of course, I do charge travel expenses for such a trip, which are partly composed of my travel hours and partly of fuel costs. In this case, I spent 2.4 hours on travel time. Add to that the photoshoot and post-processing, and you're quickly looking at 6 hours of work time. This needs to be paid for, of course. That's why I charge 50 euros per hour for travel.
Can we have photos taken around the holiday home?
That depends on the type of house and its location. In the case of a beautiful, atmospheric holiday home in the countryside, that's certainly possible, but in the case of the house in Butgenbach, I opted for a beautiful field full of dandelions, just a 2-minute walk from the house.
How do you know in advance where we can take photos?
Naturally, I don't know that in advance unless I've been there before. However, I'm always inspired by nature, and during my drive via Baraque Michel, I had already seen beautiful green fields full of yellow flowers everywhere. Then, of course, I look at the light first. Is it sunny or cloudy? On this day, it was cloudy. I then need to pay slightly less attention to sunlight, and the light is more even. I can determine the background more myself than when it's sunny. Of course, I also make sure that there are no houses, cars, or lampposts in the background because, yes, you can Photoshop everything, but ideally, you don't want such distracting elements in the photos.
And then we started taking photos. Everything went quickly, and everyone was eager. They had also had family photos taken before, so it was very easy to direct this group. We started with a portrait of the whole group, then grandma and grandpa with the grandchildren, then just the grandchildren. It's always important to photograph children as quickly as possible because their attention span is a bit shorter. They really don't want to pose for an hour. That was the case now too. They happily went off to pick flowers together.
Then I continued with the families separately, the couples separately, and the children from each family separately.
Below are some photos from this spontaneous family photoshoot.
