From the first coffee to delivery

The stages of the work

1. 

   01At first contact

   Stage 1: Listening

   Before the photographs comes a conversation: what you need, what you like and what you want to remember twenty years from now.

   Our first meeting takes about an hour, in person by the lake or on a video call. I ask how you picture the day, which photographs you like and, above all, which ones you don’t. I take notes by hand, in the same notebook I carry in the field.

   Then I send you two complete galleries of similar work on Pixieset, not just the ten best shots: that way you can see how I work from start to finish. The quote arrives within two days, itemised line by line.

   Tools

   • Pixieset
2. 

   022–4 weeks before

   Stage 2: Scouting and planning

   I study the place before I get there: where the sun rises, where the shadows fall, where I can fly and where I can’t.

   With PhotoPills and The Photographer’s Ephemeris I work out where and when the sun, the moon and the Milky Way will be; with Google Earth Pro I check gradients, trails and viewpoints. For drone flights I check where take-off is allowed and apply for permits well in advance.

   Whenever I can, I do a proper site visit at the same time of day as the shoot. For a wedding on the lake I go to the villa a week before, in the afternoon light, and mark the right spots on a map.

   Tools

   • PhotoPills
   • The Photographer’s Ephemeris
   • Google Earth Pro
3. 

   031–2 days before

   Stage 3: Preparation

   I pack my backpack two days ahead, without rushing: four hours’ walk from the car, there’s no going back.

   Two days before, I charge every battery, format the CFexpress cards and clean sensors and lenses. My backpack is a 35-litre Shimoda Explore, always packed in the same order: I know where to find everything, even in the dark with gloves on.

   The rest depends on the job: the Gitzo for landscapes, the Peak Design travel tripod when there’s a long walk ahead, the Lee filters for water and long exposures. I check the forecast three times and always have a plan B.

   Tools

   • Sony CFexpress Type A TOUGH (CEA-G)
   • Shimoda Designs Explore v2 35
   • Gitzo Systematic Series 3 Long (GT3543LS)
   • Peak Design Travel Tripod (Carbon Fiber)
   • LEE Filters LEE100 + Big Stopper
4. 

   04On the day

   Stage 4: The day of the shoot

   I arrive before the light and leave after it. In between, I shoot less than you’d think and watch a great deal more.

   For landscapes the alarm goes off two hours before sunrise: I want the tripod in place when the sky starts to lighten. I carry two bodies, the Sony A1 II or the A7R V for detail and the A7S III for night work; the Mavic 3 Pro only takes off where it’s allowed.

   At weddings I arrive an hour before everyone else and study the light in the rooms. In hotels and interiors I shoot tethered to a laptop with Capture One: the client sees every frame as we build it.

   Tools

   • Sony Alpha 1 II
   • Sony Alpha 7R V
   • Sony Alpha 7S III
   • DJI Mavic 3 Pro
   • DJI Fly
   • Capture One Pro
5. 

   05The same evening

   Stage 5: Immediate backup

   Three copies before I leave the location: the cards, the laptop and a drive that travels in a different bag.

   That same evening, even in a tent or a mountain hut, I offload the cards onto the MacBook with Photo Mechanic, which writes a second copy to a Samsung P7 at the same time. I don’t format the cards until I’m home: they are the third copy.

   The drive travels separately from the laptop, one in the backpack and the other in the suitcase, so a theft or a fall can’t wipe out a wedding. At home everything goes onto the Synology NAS and, overnight, to Backblaze: a copy far from home.

   Tools

   • Photo Mechanic
   • Apple MacBook Pro 16" M5 Pro (Liquid Retina XDR)
   • Samsung Portable SSD P7
   • Synology DiskStation DS925+
   • Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
6. 

   061–2 weeks after

   Stage 6: Selection

   I choose in two passes, a few days apart: first I discard, then I keep only the photos that stand on their own.

   The first pass is a quick one, in Photo Mechanic: I discard blurred frames, closed eyes and duplicates. The second comes a few days later, in Lightroom Classic, with a rested eye: I compare similar photos two at a time and choose the one that says more.

   From a wedding I usually deliver between 400 and 600 images; from a ten-day trip I keep about thirty. The rest stay in the archive, but I don’t show them.

   Tools

   • Photo Mechanic
   • Adobe Lightroom Classic
7. 

   072–4 weeks after

   Stage 7: Editing and colour

   Colours true to what I saw, not to the fashion of the moment. I retouch lightly: I take away, I don’t add.

   I process my files in Lightroom Classic on a BenQ monitor calibrated every month with the Calibrite: if the colour is right here, it will be right in print. High-ISO night files go through DxO PureRAW first; Pixel Shift files for large prints, through Imaging Edge Desktop.

   In Photoshop, with the Wacom tablet, I remove only what distracts: a cable, a sign, a spot on the sensor. I don’t move mountains and I don’t add skies. I edit video in DaVinci Resolve.

   Tools

   • Adobe Lightroom Classic
   • BenQ PhotoVue SW272U
   • Calibrite Display Pro HL
   • DxO PureRAW
   • Imaging Edge Desktop
   • Adobe Photoshop
   • Wacom Intuos Pro Medium (2025)
   • DaVinci Resolve Studio
8. 

   082–6 weeks after

   Stage 8: Delivery and archiving

   A private online gallery, high-resolution files and, if you like, an album or a print prepared by me.

   The photos arrive in a private, password-protected gallery on Pixieset, ready to download in high resolution and in a web version. For weddings I send a preview within a week and the full gallery within six weeks.

   I check prints one by one: a proof on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper with the Epson SC-P900, an inspection in daylight, a signature on the back. The archive stays on the NAS and in the cloud for at least ten years: if you lose your files, just ask me.

   Tools

   • Pixieset
   • Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308
   • Epson SureColor SC-P900
   • Synology DiskStation DS925+
   • Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage