Queer Christmas card photoshoot London

A couple in Walthamstow rang me on the second of December wanting photos for their Christmas card. They knew they’d left it late. We met that Saturday at half two, got forty minutes of decent light, and the sun was behind the terraces by twenty past three.

The cards landed on doormats somewhere between Boxing Day and New Year. That happens to someone every year, because a card reads like a December job, so people book it in December, when the light has gone and the printers are already three weeks deep.

Book your queer Christmas card photoshoot in London for October and the rest of it stops being a scramble.

Why a queer Christmas card photoshoot in London belongs in October

Work backwards from the doormat. Royal Mail’s last recommended second class posting date sits around the eighteenth of December in a normal year, with first class a couple of days later. If anyone on your list lives in Dublin or Melbourne, your real deadline is the first week of the month instead.

Most UK card printers want five to seven working days on top of delivery, so the order needs placing by the end of November. Editing and choosing eats another fortnight once you allow for the argument about which photo makes you look better. That lands the camera work in the second half of October with a couple of weeks of slack for weather.

Booking late doesn’t get you a worse photograph. It gets you a card that arrives after the day.

You lose the light in London by four

Clocks go back on the last Sunday in October and the useful hours collapse overnight. Sunset drops to about twenty past four by mid November and keeps falling until the solstice, when it’s properly dark before four o’clock. A December outdoor shoot means starting at half one and being finished by three, which is a hard sell to anyone with a job.

Early October still gives you light until half six. Even after the clocks change you’ve got something workable until quarter to five. The difference between shooting in week three of October and week two of December is roughly two hours of daylight, and you feel every minute of it.

Who’s actually in the card

Here’s the part that comes up on nearly every one of these bookings and never turns up in a photography article. Someone asks, usually quietly and usually while the other one is in the kitchen, whether they can have two versions. One with both of them in it for friends, and one with only the dog for an aunt who hasn’t quite got there yet.

My answer doesn’t change. You can have whatever you want and I’ll shoot both inside the same hour, so nobody’s paying twice for a hedge.

What I’ll also say is that most couples who ask for the second version never send it. Something about seeing the pictures side by side settles it for them.

For plenty of people this card is the first time a partner turns up in the post at a parent’s house. That’s a considerably bigger thing than a photo session, and I’d rather hear about it beforehand than work it out from the way someone’s shoulders go when the camera comes up.

Where in London these happen

Hampstead Heath in the third week of October is the obvious answer and it earns it, because the leaves are thin enough to see through the trees while there’s still colour on them. Columbia Road works when you want life going on behind you, though pick a weekday unless you enjoy crowds.

For couples who’d rather not perform in front of strangers, the flat usually wins anyway. A kitchen with the lamps on at four in the afternoon photographs warmer than anything I can build in a park. Photographers on the roster cover most of east and south London and tend to shoot within walking distance of their own front door, so have a look at who covers Hackney if that’s your side of town.

What to wear when it isn’t cold yet

People open the card in December but you’re shooting in fourteen degrees with half the leaves still up. Knitwear is the answer here. Coats photograph as bulk and they hide the way two people stand next to each other, which is the whole content of a good couple’s picture.

Skip anything with a small repeating pattern, since it goes strange once the image drops to card size. Matching outfits are a choice rather than a rule. The sets I like best are two people who clearly got dressed in the same house without discussing it first.

The printing bit nobody plans for

Photographers hand over files, not cards. That last step is yours, and it’s where the timeline usually breaks, because a proof arriving on the twenty-eighth of November feels early right up until you notice the printer’s Christmas queue.

Order a single sample card before you order fifty. Screens run brighter than paper and a photograph that looks rich on a laptop can come back muddier than you expected, particularly if you shot indoors under warm bulbs. One sample costs a few quid and saves the whole run. While you’re at it check the crop, because a lot of card templates are squarer than a camera file and something is going to get cut off. Usually it’s whoever stood on the end.

What it costs

Shoots on queer.photo usually start around £500 and a card session sits at the lower end, because it’s short and there’s one clear thing to deliver. Every photographer on the roster sets their own rate and publishes it on their profile, so you can see a number before you write an enquiry.

Cards are separate money. Reckon on forty to eighty pounds for fifty from a decent UK printer, more for heavy stock or foil. Nobody bundles that in, and going direct gets you a better price anyway.

Choosing the right fit

For this job specifically, ask to see everything from one shoot rather than a best-of selection. A Christmas card needs one photo where every person has their eyes open at the same moment, which is a boringly different skill from making one beautiful picture.

Then look at whether they’ve photographed households that look like yours. Not as a loyalty test. Somebody who’s done it before won’t burn the first ten minutes working out where to put everyone, and won’t arrange you into a shape that quietly assumes one of you is the guest.

Read a few profiles properly before you enquire. If a bigger December do is also happening, the same thinking applies to booking a photographer for the party itself.

Common questions

When should I book a queer Christmas card photoshoot in London?

Book by the end of September and shoot in October. That leaves a fortnight for editing and choosing, which puts your card order with a printer by the end of November, comfortably ahead of Royal Mail’s mid December posting date.

How much does a Christmas card photoshoot cost in London?

Sessions start at around £500 and a card shoot usually sits near the bottom of that range because it runs about an hour. Each photographer on queer.photo sets and publishes their own rate. Printing is separate, normally £40 to £80 for fifty cards from a UK printer.

Can we do the shoot indoors?

Yes, and from November onwards it’s usually the better call. A living room with the lamps on at four gives a warmer picture than a park at the same hour.

Do you photograph two mums or two dads with children?

Constantly. Every photographer on the roster is queer or works mainly with queer clients, so nobody is going to ask which of you is the real parent. One practical tip: if your kid has a favourite parent this week, mention it before we start, because that’s who they’ll be clinging to in every single photo whether anyone planned it or not.

How many photos do we get?

Expect thirty to sixty edited images from an hour, and you only need one of them for the card. Most people use a second on the inside and stick the rest on the fridge.

What happens if it rains?

We move it. Booking in October rather than December is exactly what buys you a second date, which is the real argument for going early.

Ready when you are. see portrait options, or find a photographer.