Private event photography
A birthday, an anniversary, an engagement party or a reunion — covered properly, so nobody has to take pictures.
What’s included
- 120+ retouched photographs
- Three hours of coverage
- Candid coverage plus group portraits
- Private online gallery within 5 business days
- Print release for personal use
Portfolio
Private event photography portfolio
A selection of private event photography shots to inspire your shoot.
Book Private event photography in your city
Available in 18 US cities and destinations. Choose yours.
About this session
Name the twenty minutes for the group photographs
- $600
- 3 hours
- 120
- 18
There is a window at every private event when everyone is present, dressed, and has not yet been at the bar for two hours. It usually opens about forty-five minutes after the stated start time and lasts around twenty minutes. Naming that window in advance — and telling the people who need to be in the photographs that it exists — is the single decision that most affects whether the group shots happen at all. Left to find itself, it closes, and the group photograph gets taken at eleven o’clock with four people missing.
The rest is candid, which is the point of hiring someone rather than asking a cousin with a nice camera. Three hours of coverage means the photographer is present before the arrivals and still working through the speeches, and nobody in your family spends the evening holding a phone instead of talking to people.
Give the photographer a short list of who matters rather than a list of shots. At a sixtieth birthday the people who need to be in a frame with the person whose birthday it is are not obvious to a stranger in a room of eighty, and they are the photographs that get printed. Four names and a sentence about each is enough, and it takes two minutes to write.
Light is the thing that decides how a private event photographs, and it is usually decided months earlier by whoever booked the room. A venue with windows and lamps photographs warm; a function room with ceiling downlights photographs like a function room. Where the room is difficult, coverage leans on the moments and keeps the wide shots few. A hundred and twenty or more retouched photographs within five business days, a print release included, from $600.
Frequently asked questions about Private event photography
When should the group photographs be taken?
Early, and before the bar has been open for two hours. The moment everyone is present, dressed and still sober is usually 45 minutes after the stated start time, and it lasts about twenty minutes. Naming that window in advance is the single thing that most affects whether the group photographs happen at all.
How long should we book?
Three hours covers most private events: the photographer is present before the arrivals and still working through the speeches. Shorter than that and either the arrivals or the speeches are missed, and those are the two parts nobody can restage. For a party running past midnight, coverage of the first three hours is usually a better buy than a thin spread across six.
Who should be in the photographs?
Give a short list of names rather than a list of shots. At a sixtieth birthday the people who need to be in a frame with the person whose birthday it is are not obvious to a stranger in a room of eighty, and those are the photographs that get printed. Four names and a sentence about each is enough, and it takes two minutes to write.
What if the venue is badly lit?
It is planned around rather than fought. A function room with ceiling downlights photographs like a function room, and where the room is difficult the coverage leans on moments and faces and keeps the wide shots few. Venues with windows and lamps photograph warm — if the room is still being chosen, that is worth more to the photographs than anything decided afterwards.