Woman looking back over her shoulder beside a wooden fence, golden sunset sky behind — Cerro Gordo, La Herradura

Blog & FAQ ·

Why you see Beata in so many of my photos

If you have looked through my galleries, you have probably noticed the same woman again and again: on the Balcón de Europa at sunrise, on the white steps of Frigiliana, on Cerro Gordo at sunset, in a garden next to the Alhambra. She is Beata, my wife, and these photographs are not client sessions. They are what we do for pleasure on our days off.

Smiling woman in a red shirt on a tree-lined street

My wife, and my muse

Beata and I got married on Cerro Gordo, above La Herradura, in September 2024 — our wedding album is here. A year later we moved to La Herradura for good, and she now runs her own nail studio in the village, Bahia Nails.

She is also the most patient model I could ask for. She will jump off a rock as many times as it takes, or wait on a clifftop until the sun touches the sea.

Smiling woman with a colourful scarf in her hair in a street

Why we keep shooting

A photographer who only picks up the camera when someone pays stops getting better. Our sessions are where I try new things, so that I never have to experiment on a client’s day:

  • Different hours. Sunrise on the Balcón de Europa in Nerja, mid-morning on the rocks in Almuñécar, afternoon in Frigiliana, sunset on Cerro Gordo. Each light needs a different approach, and the only way to know it is to work in it.
  • New techniques. Shooting straight into the setting sun with a flash, so that the face and the sky both survive (sunset portraits). Shooting bursts, so that one frame of a twirl or a jump is exactly right (several frames of every moment).
  • New places, and new angles on familiar ones. In Granada we went looking for somewhere quieter than the crowded centre, and that is how the photographs in the garden next to the Alhambra came about.
  • Directing. Poses, movement, where to look, what to do with the hands: the things that make a client relaxed in front of the camera are the things I practise with Beata.
Two women in blue lace and a red swimsuit posing hands on hips on a beach at dawn

Where she has been

Many of the places on my location pages are there because we went there together first: Nerja and the Axarquía, Frigiliana, La Herradura and Almuñécar and Granada. She has also been my model in Torre del Mar, and as a silhouette at the castle in Salobreña.

Beata on the Balcón de Europa in Nerja at sunriseNerja, sunrise
Beata at the old sugar factory in MaroFábrica de Maro
Beata lying on white steps in FrigilianaFrigiliana
Beata jumping on the rocks by the sea in AlmuñécarAlmuñécar, the rocks
Beata on Cerro Gordo against the setting sunCerro Gordo, sunset
Beata in the Carmen de los Mártires garden in GranadaGranada
Red-haired woman in white sitting on a wet cobbled street

What it means for you

Every photograph of Beata is one I took the way I would take yours: with the same editing and the same care. When you book a session, you get everything those days off have taught me — the light at each hour, the spots that work, and a way of directing that makes you forget the camera.

If you would like to be photographed in one of these places, check your date, or see portraits and couples.

And if you would like to meet Beata herself, her nail studio in La Herradura is at bahianails.com.

Portrait of a woman in tortoiseshell glasses, soft light

Questions and answers

Can I book a session in the same places?

Yes. Any of these places can be a portrait, couple or family session: tell me which one when you check your date.

Woman in a white shirt sitting in tall grass at golden hour

Articles

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Woman in a black bodysuit posing on the boot of a white Mustang

When, where — and how it should feel

Dates go early for May, June and September. Send the date, the place and the feel you have in mind — I reply as soon as possible, guaranteed.

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