Choosing a Portrait Session Location

One of the keys to a successful portrait session is choosing the perfect location. This is our brief guide on how to do just that!

You need to consider potential locations alongside the time of day that you’ll be having your shoot. We do most of our shoots in “Golden Hour”, the ideal lighting that occurs in the hour before sunset. Golden hour gives us the perfect lighting for a session in almost any location, and is particularly important for open locations with no shade, such as beaches.

Where there is plenty of shade, we can book your session at any time of day with great results. However, taking photos in an open location with bright sunlight won’t give you the best results. While our photographers are skilled working in any lighting conditions, bright sun with no shade can be unflattering and reduce our ability to use your location to its full potential.

The map below shows some of our favourite locations in all three cities where we operate. It also shows you the areas in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch where we can offer portrait sessions with no extra travel fees.

We have used colour coding to indicate which locations are only suited to golden hour shoots (orange icons), and which ones work at any time of day (green icons).

The paw icon indicates a location that we recommend mainly for dog shoots. Unless otherwise noted, this will be somewhere dogs are allowed off-leash

The heart icon indicates a location we suggest mainly for sessions with people - engagement, maternity or family