We have been going through a difficult time in our history.
Perhaps a period in which the impotence in face of so many tragedies, human attacks, natural catastrophes has become our daily bread. Difficult to swallow.
This day was no different. A little more than a year ago, the fires around a city that had just welcomed me, left me in the excitement that...
It's been over a year since this session. Days, hours, new chapters added up.
The place remains the same with the normal changes by the passage of time, of the high and low tides and of the elements. The story is still being written today, with the necessary delay of all the good things in life.
This is one of our favorite places. And maybe it would make sense to take some of our favorite people here. Them.
It's not always easy to...
My month. My day.
A day to pause. To enjoy. To inspire so that I can be back on track with new eyes.
I doubt that I can go to sleep without seeing and answering all the emails, it's stronger than me. Good stories can't wait. Although mine is so often suspended in the written pages of yours.
But today is the day to...
This is a question that comes up almost every week. And maybe it's time to demystify what happens from the incredible moment we shared until the day the gallery, with so many good memories, is available.
The most obvious answer is this: it takes so long because it actually takes long! And it depends from one photographer to the other, from the method and the editing process, the workflow.
But as this answer doesn't clarify anything, let's break it down!
Lisbon is trendy!
The number of people on the streets has increased with all its positive and negative things.
But still, it's an incredible city.
The colorful houses that stretch down to the river, its seven hills giving space to the best views of the city spread by "miradouros" and "varandas", the food, the people.
And what better place to photograph and be photographed?
We know that not everyone are a morning person.
Especially when you are on vacation.
But we also know that early waking allows us to live the spaces and the city in a completely unique and special way.
Feeling the city wake up for another day of life and see the sunrise is a privilege that many people don't do every day or have never done and it warms our hearts to know that some couples we photographed have seen their first sunrise together, with us.
If you are in doubt whether...
Planning a moment as special as a wedding proposal is the best way to ensure a beautiful and unique moment that isn't just a ring and a knee on the floor.
All the little details make a difference and can contribute to an epic moment in your lives!
After we photographed more than 20 wedding proposals in the last few years, I thought I could give you some advice on this topic. I don't want to create an exhaustive guide for the perfect wedding proposal, because, as we all know, it doesn't exists!
There is yours, and may it be as you dreamed of!
▲ BEFORE ▼
Propose or not propose
First of all, you must realize that you are tuned in and that, although unexpected (the proposal), a wedding is something that is part of your plans, in the short, medium or long term and that the only answer that may result from the question "Will you marry me?" is a "Yes."
In this topic only you will know if it is with each other that you want to spend the rest of your lives, if you can reconcile your differences and if it is the right time to ask the question.
The ring
This is a sensitive subject. We have already photographed proposals that did not even had a ring. By being a symbolic object and complying with tradition, most proposals have an associated ring as well as a knee on the floor. But there are also proposals in which, despite the emotions, there is only a beautiful declaration of love, some vows read out loud and, for us, the words spoken at this moment become almost like the first vows exchanged between you two and can steal the protagonism of any ring.
But if your final option is to offer a ring then the best is for you to create allies between the friends and family of your future bride or groom to reconcile tastes, dreams and, of course, the size!
Plan
We always meet with our future bride or groom (yes, we've already had proposals from the feminine side of the relationship) to plan the moment. This meeting can be in person or via Skype!
It is important for us to be in tune with what you imagine and to help you in all we can to make it even more special.
It is important to plan from the way we can integrate ourselves into the proposal to the place, to create a B plan just in case, among other details that will allow you to be more relaxed, confident and enjoy the best of the moment!
▲ DURING ▼
Have a photographer or not
I'll sound suspicious, but to me, it doesn't make sense otherwise. I have friends who didn't record the moment and it got lost forever among loose and diffused images from so many other good memories. I must say that so many times the nerves and excitement speak louder that many brides don't even remember how everything unfolded, nor noticed the small details like the incredible view or the musician hired to play your music right by your side.
So, despite realizing that you may not choose to have a photographer, I must reinforce that we do not interfere with your special moment and that this is the only way to make it last forever!
Where
It's important for you to define a place where to propose and this choice can reside in so many factors that become almost as difficult as choosing a place for a photo shoot.
The ideal will always be to choose a more quiet place that allows you the intimacy of declaring your love without a huge audience, a place that is special to you, that has something to do with you or your history, or that you both enjoy deeply.
We have already made wedding proposals in popular places such as Cais das Colunas or the Mirador de São Pedro de Alcântara and, of course, we always have a lot of people there. It is not impossible, at all, to capture the moment, but it is always more difficult to ensure that no one stands between us and that only you two appear in the pictures.
When
The time of day can also give your moment a special shine. We always photograph at sunrise or sunset and if at sunrise the probability of finding the places empty is greater, the truth is that many people do not have the best mood when they wake up. So it's at sunset that we capture the vast majority of our wedding proposals!
Capturing the moment
We can capture your moment in so many different ways: we can be in place at the agreed time, waiting for you in a strategic place and photograph the moment without interfering; you can ask us to take a picture with your mobile phone and then we can position you the best way possible in the best framing; we can plan a photo shoot and then the proposal can be made in the middle of the session... well, there are so many possibilities and we are always open to your ideas and suggestions.
We always work together to make it even more special!
▲ AFTER ▼
Take a photo shoot
In order for the moment not to be just a wedding proposal, all the wedding proposals we make include a post-session. That is, after the proposal, we take a walk around the area to capture some moments of just the two of you in this new stage in which you are no longer boyfriend and girlfriend and become bride and groom!
After all, it will be your first pictures and memories together after the proposal and we love to capture these moments of love and passion.
Basically, planning and preparing for a wedding proposal can be super simple, but we know that the best things in life require time, dedication and affection to become the best moments of your lives.
We look forward to tell this important chapter in your story and this incredible moment of your lives!
If you have doubts or need our help, don't hesitate to contact us!
We are here for you!
Along with this post, we could not miss sharing with you the wedding proposal of Niquita and Kishan, photographed last year for Flytographer.
It was a unique and special moment when the vows written by Kishan were not left out, a true declaration of love that enraptured hearts.
Theirs, and ours!
As a way to get something off my chest.
I thought a lot about writing this post. And it isn't in a light mood that I do it, but there are things that, although deserving zero of my attention, are so often repeated that we can't pass them by as lightly as we would like
Here at Terra we are photography 24/7. We dedicate ourselves to this as if it was our most precious possession that requires all our affection and commitment.
We grew up with the internet.
It's easy to talk with people, to know what's happening on the other side of the world, to shop and even to read a book.
But, for a long time, Internet has been dictated by social media platforms... So many!
There is always something that leads us to enter Facebook or Instagram to see what others are doing... and, in the end, everything comes down to this: whether it is Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or Instagram, those are all just a big window to the lives and work of other people and to expose how we live, what we eat or where we are.
You're only pregnant for 9 months!
Although it seems an eternity, it is said by who knows, that it happens too quickly for how much you want to enjoy it, for all the things there was to do, for so many ideas and plans ...
While some bellies become comfortable, easy-to-use props that seem to match with everything else, so many other become too big, carrying restless babies looking forward to live and that, sometimes, shorten the already too short 9 months!
Months and months and days, many days of preparation, planning and even some chaos, culminate in one day!
In just one day.
The last of so many stories and adventures to tell. The first of a new, better, happier and most amazing chapter!
We always wake up before time, awakened by the responsibility that is to live and document such an important moment.
We go to the window and we guarantee that Saint Peter was generous and brought us sun and heat in full August.
Life passes.
We change our house, our job. We cut our hair shorter and then even shorter.
We renew the wardrobe, we move house again. Photographs are timeless!
There is no expiration date on the good times, the bonds and the affections when we register them. We can keep them forever. Sharp and colorful even when threatened by the haze of oblivion.
A few days ago I have been with my grandmother.
Years passed for her. She said goodbye to so many people she loved, to all the places where she lived.
In the wallet, although worn and more or less yellowed, she brings the whole family in photographs.
Each one a story to tell and always the same war in the bet if a photo is from my grandmother or from her sister... and even if another picture is me when I was (even more) smaller or my mother.
These images, these stories and these moments in which we remember other past moments or people that still exist in us, although they have long departed, are only possible because they are forever on a piece of paper, aged and washed out, but allowing such clear and still so alive memories. Opening my grandmother's wallet is entering a real time machine!
Will it be that, many years from now, Madalena, who we have met with just a few days of life, who we have photographed again a couple of times more and who is now waiting for the arrival of her younger brother, would forget these moments when she went and we were so happy?
Of course not! Because the photographs will stay with her and with us forever.
Because this is the best legacy we can leave her, and perhaps the best we can take with us wherever we go: memories!
No matter how much time passes by and that the memory loses the north of the details with which we counted the days, we will always have the photographs to tell the story of the families, of the love, of the ties, of an afternoon of sun or of the bluest sky we can ever remember.
... And also the story of a happy family at the edge of a pond, to where the two dogs decided to jump with the four legs together, to try their luck with the ducks that were swimming around!
Forever, with us and now with you too, the memories of an incredible afternoon at the Lagoa Azul (Blue Lagoon):
Sometimes we cross to the other side, who knows if the right one?
The truth is that there are many places that are proclaimed to be the right place for the best view of Lisbon.
But for us, the best view of Lisbon is on the other side. The only one that allows you to contemplate the city from end to end, perceive the hills and identify the buildings that rise higher, overlapping the disorderly houses that spread until the river.
All christenings bring new challenges.
When we photograph children everything is covered with discovery and unpredictability, but also with magic.
We met this family of four on the day of Francisca's christening, and even though we only knew, at that time, this chapter, this was a story whose book we didn't want to stop reading.
We know the effort and the dedication so that everything went well, although everything was planned from the other side of the world.
And everything went well!
But other chapters were about to come... chapters that we will show another time! Today is christening day here on the blog!
In a spectacular setting and an unique light, we mix an incredible session but also the answer to some (many) doubts that lead you to leave aside the possibility of wearing your wedding dress again.
The wedding dresses are delicate and unique pieces, they store stories and emotions and deserve much more than the darkness of forgetfulness and the small corner of a closet!
It became more and more punctual the times we photograph our "babies" in the studio.
If the end result is incredible the way to get there is, often, time consuming and stressful. Not only for us who always want to give our best, but also for the newly parents who see their greatest love exposed to people they do not know and in an environment that is strange to them.
Not always do babies wake up willing to collaborate, not always do they sleep at all times, not always the final result of these sessions show their more real and raw side.
A baby to who the environment is strange, who only wants the mother's lap, who has cramps or who is just not so happy on the day of the session, will cry! And if a baby's crying has its charm and appeal, it's also a desperation factor for parents that may cause them some anxiety.
When the gray days make us want no more than the warmth and comfort of the whiteness of the sheets, we yearn for sunny days, for stories we have not yet told and for those we have already told, that we miss and to which we have sincere promises to add new chapters.
Every day is a good day for shooting, it may rain or shine, and the photos taken in this soft winter light are so beautiful, but after a rainy day there is no one who doesn't crave for a drastic season change.
What to do with your wedding dress after the big day?
Clean it and pack it together with the memories, accumulating the dust of time and voted to oblivion so that it never fits again?
Or wear it again? Feel again the emotions you felt when you dressed it for the first time, knowing that that dress was the one you were going to dress once again, remember the sounds and smells of an intense and moving day, and shake the dust with good memories?
The places where we photograph are, so often, places we have never stepped on before and this surprise of the unknown feels good, it forces us to explore and to be creative without any reference.
In this place we have combined ruins, the sea, the incredible view to Berlengas, the end-of-day light that graces the stories and makes everything even more magical and special.
All lined up for an incredible session!
And even the wind, misaligning the hair, filled the session with motion in her flying free gown, forcing longest and tightest hugs to blow away the cold.
After this session we looked forward for the big day.
We always want more because a good story never ends in only one chapter!
