Pinup couple photoshoot in den Haag

I met Viv, from Thesugarcoatedcompany back in October, when she reached out to book a photoshoot with her mother in Amsterdam. Months later, we wanted to do a session at the beach, but life, the weather and some travel plans got in the middle and weren’t able to do it until this bizarre May of 2020

But it actually always is. In the Netherlands, you can never trust the weather forecast. And as a photographer, you kind of have to deal with it all the time, and you learn it the more you work. We had to postpone this session at least 4 times before we ended up deciding that, no matter what, we would do the session on the final date we picked. As you may have read in the home page, where I gently present myself to the world, I mention that I love beer. And the day before, I may (or may not) have had one too many. So yeah, I had a bit of a hungover that day. Adding up to that, the weather the previous day had been precious, but guess what… Nope. Not on our day. I think we had winds of like 80km/h. It was discouraging already, and as Viv, Edwing and Bas met up, we already felt like it was going to be a disaster.

So we start walking in the beach, with this lovely 80km/h summer breeze, looking for a spot to begin. It was around 5:30/6pm, so the sun was still up high in the sky, bright as hell. I was already thinking I don’t feel so comfortable taking photos in plain day light, as I normally go for sunset, or sunrise ( if my body allows me to wake up as early as 4am in summer for that.) Bas, the doggo, wasn’t happy to be there, he just kept barking and hiding. Poor little thing. I understand him. I come from Tarifa, one of the capitals of wind in Europe, and I never got used to these winds. I have to say I pretty much hate it.

Anyways, we find a spot. We drop our stuff there, and start shooting. Getting used to the light, getting used to being 1.65m when these two are over 1.70m, getting used to that hangover headache I was having… But the moment I started shooting, it all vanished.

All credits go to Viv, Edwin and Bas, for being the coolest little fam. For following all my directions and make it all as easy as it was. The winds didn’t stop us, the 10 tons of sand we eat didn’t either. My camera malfunctioning only did the session even more interesting, and so did my hangover. And then you realize, that the perfect conditions never exist, and that storytelling photography is not about looking for them, but to simply that: tell a real story.

It would have been a lovely session at the beach if Eolo (god of the wind) would have behaved, but would have been this epic? Well, I don’t think so.