Family · portrait session
Your parents, and theirs
Two hours in the house or the city they know, while everyone is in the country at once.
Two hours in the house or the city they know, while everyone is in the country at once.
Almost every couple we photograph tells us the same thing afterwards: the pictures they look at most are not the ones of themselves. This session exists because of that.
USD 480 for two working hours at one location with up to six people, planned around your parents and grandparents, edited photographs within a week. Up to twelve people is USD 960. We can come to the family house. Direction in English, conversation with your family in Vietnamese.
Because the window is small, and people who live abroad know it better than anyone. You are home for two weeks. Your grandmother is ninety one. Your brother flew in from a different continent and leaves on Sunday. The last time everybody stood in the same room, someone took a photograph on a phone, in a doorway, with the flash on.
We do not think this needs a sales argument. It needs a date and two hours.
Often it is booked alongside a wedding, on one of the quiet days before or after, when both families are already in one city and dressed well. It is also booked entirely on its own, by people who are not getting married at all.
One of the sessions we point couples to happened on Phu Quoc. Tai and Sandy flew home from the United States to be photographed at a resort there, and the groom's parents came down with them. Ten minutes under the same flowers, in the same light, and those are the frames the family asked for first.
The family house is usually the right answer. The altar, the tiled floor, the courtyard, the chair your grandfather always sits in. Those things carry the photograph, and a park cannot replace them. We will come and look at the room beforehand if we are in the same city, mostly to find where the light comes in and at what hour.
If the house is too small or too dark, which happens, we move outside to one place close by rather than touring the city. Older relatives should not spend the session getting in and out of a car.
If the family is spread across cities, we have teams in Hanoi and in Saigon and we go to where the family is, not the other way round.
A family session is a logistics job dressed as a photo session. This is what we actually do with the time.
We ask for two things before the day: the names and faces that matter most, and anything we should know. Who cannot stand for long, who is hard of hearing, who will be difficult about being photographed. It is not a sensitive question to us, it is the plan.
| What | Included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Family portraits, up to 6 people | 2 working hours, one location, edited photographs in one week | $480 |
| Family portraits, up to 12 people | 2 working hours, one location, a second pair of hands on the day | $960 |
| Ao dai portrait session | 2 working hours, one location, for the couple or one person | $380 |
| Wedding day, photo and film | Our team, from getting ready to the party | from $3,000 |
USD 480 for two working hours at one location with up to six people, planned around your parents and grandparents, with edited photographs delivered within a week. For a larger family, up to twelve people, it is USD 960. If you want a couple shoot as well, the ao dai session is USD 380 and the two are often booked together.
Six people in the USD 480 session. Up to twelve is USD 960, because past six the two hours change shape: more of the time goes into gathering and settling everyone, and we bring a second pair of hands so nobody is left standing in the sun. Beyond twelve, tell us the number and we will quote three hours rather than guess.
Yes, and most of our family sessions are planned around exactly that. We photograph seated, we keep the walking to a few metres, and we work in one place rather than moving between locations. Tell us beforehand and we will build the two hours around her, not around the light.
That is often the best version of it. A family home has the altar, the furniture, the courtyard and the light that everyone in the photographs will recognise, which no park can give you. We will come and look at the room in advance if we are in the same city.
Agree on two or three colours and let people choose inside that, rather than matching exactly. Ao dai for the older generation photographs beautifully and they usually already own one. Avoid loud patterns and bright white shirts under strong sun.
Within one week, edited. If you are flying out sooner than that, say so when you book and we will put a small set together before you leave.