Family photography in Dubai
Most families I photograph in Dubai are here for a week or two. There is one afternoon set aside for pictures, everyone is slightly jet-lagged, and at least one person did not want to come. That is the normal starting point, and the session is built around it rather than in spite of it.
So it is short, it moves, and nobody has to hold a pose. What you get back is your family as it actually is that week — which, once the children are grown, turns out to be the part that mattered.
Where we shoot
- Beach at golden hour — the easiest option with small children: they have something to do, and the light does the work.
- The desert — twenty minutes out of the city and it looks like nowhere else. Best in the cooler months.
- Downtown and the old quarter — architecture, colour, and shade when the sun is high.
- Your hotel or villa — worth considering with a baby, or when nobody has the energy to travel.
With children
I do not ask children to smile. It does not work, and asking twice makes it worse. Instead I give them something to do and photograph what follows — running, digging, arguing, laughing at something out of frame. The good pictures come out of that, reliably.
Sessions run 60 to 90 minutes, which is about the length of a small child’s patience, and we stop when it runs out rather than pushing through for the sake of the schedule.
What is included
- A personal driver from your hotel to the location and back — genuinely useful when you are travelling with children and a pushchair.
- Water on every shoot.
- A choice of long-train dresses in several colours if you would like them in the pictures.
- Selected, retouched images at full resolution.
What to wear
Pick a palette rather than an outfit — two or three colours that sit well together, and let everyone choose within it. Avoid large logos and busy prints, which pull the eye away from faces. Bare feet on the beach photograph better than shoes.
Pricing
Price depends on the length of the session, the number of locations and how many images you want retouched.
Send me your dates and how many of you there are, and I will come back with a price and my availability. Book a date with a $50 deposit. Family work is in the portfolio.
