What a Proposal Photography Package Covers

Most enquiries about proposal packages in Sydney arrive late at night, from someone who's been turning the same idea over for weeks.

Sometimes there's a ring already hidden in a sock drawer.

Sometimes there's just a date, a headland and a feeling that it should be soon.

Most of those messages end with the same question, which is what the day actually looks like with me in it.

So this is the whole shape of it, from the first message to the gallery landing in your inbox.

I shoot proposal photography in Sydney most weekends, and the shape holds whether you're asking at sunrise on the coast or on a quiet path 10 minutes from home.

The messages that come first

Once you've booked, most of the planning happens in a long and fairly excitable thread of messages.

I'll ask for the date, the time you're picturing, and a dropped pin of the exact spot rather than the name of the park.

Parks here are big, and I'd rather be standing in the right 20 metres of one.

I'll ask what your partner thinks is happening that day, because the cover story decides how early you can arrive and how dressed up you can both be.

I'll ask who else knows, and whether anyone's waiting nearby to appear afterwards.

And I'll ask for a recent photo of the 2 of you, so I can pick you out of a crowd from 40 metres away.

Choosing where you'll ask

If there's a place with history for the 2 of you, that beats any view I could suggest.

If you're still deciding, I've put together the best places to propose in Sydney with light and crowds in mind, because both change everything.

Golden light 40 minutes before sunset does more for a suburban oval than midday sun does for the harbour.

I'm a Hills District photographer by base, so I know the quiet corners out this way as well as the obvious coastal ones.

I'll also hold a second spot in reserve, 5 minutes from the first, so the weather stays a detail rather than a decision.

The signal you'll give me

Before the day, you and I settle on a signal.

It's usually something you'd do anyway, like taking both their hands or pushing your sunglasses up onto your head.

That's the moment I lift the camera.

There's one piece of choreography I'll ask for, and it's worth running through once in your kitchen.

Turn your partner so their back is to me and their face is to the light, then kneel on the side closest to where I'm standing.

It takes 2 seconds, and it puts the expression you'll want most right in the middle of the frame.

Keep your eyes on them the whole way through, and leave the rest with me.

Where I'll be standing

I arrive 30 to 45 minutes ahead of you.

I walk the spot, find my angles, and work out where the light will have moved to by the time you get there.

Then I'll message you a photo of exactly where I'm sitting, so you can steer your partner while looking perfectly relaxed.

I shoot the proposal from 30 to 50 metres back with a long lens, usually from a bench, usually looking like someone waiting on a friend.

The first your partner knows of me is when you point me out afterwards.

How long I actually shoot for

The proposal itself is usually over inside 90 seconds.

I start well before that, from the moment you come into view, because the walk up is where the nerves show most honestly.

Then I keep going through the ask, the yes, the ring, and the 2 or 3 minutes afterwards where neither of you says anything useful.

For the ask on its own I'm on site about an hour, and with portraits afterwards it's closer to 2.

The portraits straight afterwards, while you're both still shaking

I give you 5 minutes on your own first.

You'll want to ring your mum, look properly at the ring, and say a few things that aren't meant for me.

Then I'll walk over, introduce myself properly, and the portraits begin.

This part is my favourite hour of the whole job.

Hands still shaking, cheeks flushed, both of you laughing at nothing at all.

I keep it moving rather than posed: walk that way, tell them again what you just said, hold still while I get the ring on your hand.

Half an hour in, you're warm and loose and looking at each other exactly the way you did 10 seconds after the yes.

How quickly you'll see the photos

You'll have 4 or 5 edited images the same night, or by lunchtime the next day at the latest.

That's on purpose, because everyone you ring wants to see something.

The full gallery lands within 2 weeks.

It arrives as a private online gallery you can download at full size and share with whoever you like.

The edited images are yours to download, print and share for personal use, which is set out in full in my terms.

What proposal packages in Sydney cost

My proposal packages are priced by how long I stay, rather than by how many images you end up with.

The shortest covers the ask and the minutes either side of it.

The one most people book adds the portrait session straight afterwards, and the longest moves to a second location for the golden hour.

Current prices for all 3 sit on my packages page, and if you're weighing this up against the rest of the list, what a photoshoot costs in Sydney puts those numbers in context.

I'm normally still 30 metres away when the best of it happens, which is the whole idea.

I'm normally still 30 metres away when it happens.