Family Photographer in Barcelona

A private photo session for your family, anywhere in Barcelona — two, three or four hours on foot through the old city, the parks, or down at the beach, at whatever pace your group actually moves. One photographer, a route planned around who’s coming, and nobody made to pose for the camera. Priced for the whole family, not per person.

Candid, reportage style — I direct the scene, not the stare
A car and driver if you want one — door to door, instead of splitting the group across taxis
Tickets sorted where they're needed — Park Güell is timed entry, and it sells out
Ninety images minimum, edited within 7 days — gallery plus full-resolution files
Photographing families here since 2003

Rated 5.0 based on 105 reviews on TripAdvisor

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What a Family Photo Session in Barcelona Looks Like

Gaston Magrinat has photographed families in Barcelona and Catalonia since 2003, rated 5.0 across more than 100 reviews. A session runs two, three or four hours on foot and is priced flat for the whole family rather than per person, from €465 — most photographers here charge by headcount and cap the party at four or five. Directed, not posed: he places people and photographs what happens next, at whatever pace the group moves. Ninety edited images is the minimum, delivered within seven days as a private online gallery to share, with the full-resolution files supplied for download.

The first part of any family session is spent talking — with the adults, and more importantly with the children, who need a little time to work out who I am and why I’m carrying a camera. It’s rarely more than fifteen minutes. Once the camera stops being an event they go back to what they were doing, and that is when the session actually starts. For the rest of the session I choose the spot, the light and the background, then let the family walk into it rather than arranging them in it.

Families I've Photographed in Barcelona

Every family here is a client, not a model, and the ages run from small children to grandparents.

What I Bring Besides a Camera

Anyone can show you a portfolio. What decides whether a session works is duller than that: being at the meeting point before you are, knowing what to do with a bored nine-year-old or a teenager who didn’t want to come, and having somewhere else to go when the square you planned for turns out to be full of a school trip.

I am there before you are, and it is always me

The meeting point and the start time are confirmed in writing, I get there ahead of it, and nobody is sent in my place. I take the photographs and I edit them afterwards; nobody else opens the files.

Plans change during the session, not only before it

A park is shut, a market is packed, someone has had enough after ninety minutes. We shorten the walk, sit down for twenty minutes, move on to the next place and carry on. If the whole day has to move, tell me and we move it, with cancellation and reschedule terms written down before you pay.

Other people's children are not new to me

Before photography I ran camp programmes for fourteen and fifteen year-olds, and later worked in a wilderness program for teenagers who were in trouble. Teenagers are the hardest people on any family session, usually the ones who were brought rather than asked.

“You captured some great shots for us! I absolutely LOVE the one of me and Grace…thanks so much! I really love all the photos. You managed to work miracles with some less than enthusiastic teens. — Sherrill Family, North Carolina”

I know where to be at the hour you are free

Which squares are empty at nine and unusable at noon, where there is shade in August, what is closed on a Monday, which beach has somewhere to change a toddler and which does not. Most of this cannot be looked up, and it is what keeps a session moving instead of walking between disappointments.

How the Hours Get Used

The groups I photograph run from two parents and one small child to three generations out together for the first time in years — adult siblings, grandparents, teenagers, cousins who only see each other on trips like this. What changes between them is not the photographs. It is the order the hours get used in.

It builds

The first stretch is a walk — a few frames along the way, nothing arranged, everyone getting used to the idea. Then it changes gear: they stop checking where I am and start talking to each other. From there I work it the way you would cover a sporting event, reacting rather than calling for it, because none of it comes round again. What I want is the group with each other, not with me.

Stopping is not lost time

Children stop, grandparents tire, someone wants an ice cream. Those are not interruptions to the session, they are what the session is for. A mother crouching down over a child who has fallen, ice cream down a chin, someone running ahead in a park — the day does not have to go well for the photographs to be good.

There is usually one who didn’t want to come

Sometimes fourteen, sometimes forty. I leave them alone at the start, put them at the edge of the frame rather than the middle, and give them something to do that isn’t looking at me. Most of them are in the middle of the group by the end.

The route is built around the slowest walker

Distances stay short, there is somewhere to sit every twenty minutes, and we do not cross the city because a place looked good in a photograph. If your group is spread across ages that do not walk at the same speed, that is a planning question rather than a problem, and it is what the car and driver exists for.

A Car and Driver, If You Want One

A car and driver is a convenience rather than a requirement. Most families walk — three or four people, the old city and a park — and the session works perfectly well that way. It is worth knowing what it changes.

What it gets you

Air conditioning between locations, which in July and August is the difference between a group that is still enjoying itself at hour three and one that isn’t. Somewhere to leave pushchairs, bags and jackets instead of carrying them through the photographs. Door to door from wherever you are staying. Older members of the group sitting down between stops rather than walking every metre of it. And the quieter places — the coast, the hills above the city, anywhere awkward to reach on foot — become part of the session instead of a separate afternoon.

What taxis do to a session

One taxi is easy. Two cannot be held together: the second leaves when it leaves and the group arrives in pieces. From some places you cannot get one at all without walking back out to a main road first. All of it is time not spent photographing.

It is a flat price for the session rather than an hourly rate, and it is in the table below.

How Pricing Works

One price for the whole family, set by how long you want me for — most sessions run three or four hours.

2 hours
€465
3 hours
€665
4 hours
€865

No per-child rate, no extra-person fee — nobody counts heads, and all prices include VAT.
At least ninety edited images from any session, often past a hundred and fifty on the longest. Ninety is a floor, not a target.
Edited means reviewed, corrected and presented at their best, not manipulated. Nothing is held back to be sold back to you afterwards.
A car and driver is €300 for any session up to four hours — the same figure whether you use it for one crossing or all afternoon. Beyond four hours, or out of the city, it is quoted.
Entrance tickets are paid direct at their price, mine included where a site charges for entry.
Everything else is quoted — a full day, a session out at Montserrat, the wine country or the Costa Brava, or anything with more people than a car holds.

Booking and cancellation

Paying

All prices include VAT
Your date is held once the session is paid in full
Booking more than 60 days ahead? A deposit holds the date, with the balance due 30 days before

Cancelling

21 days or more before — refunded in full, apart from any deposit
20 to 8 days before — half refunded
Inside 7 days — no refund
Entry tickets and anything else bought for you are non-refundable

Good to know

Sessions run for the time booked, from the agreed start
Images of adults may be used in my portfolio and on this site unless you tell me otherwise beforehand
Images showing children are used only with written consent from a parent, and that consent can be withdrawn at any time

Questions, answered

How much do we need to plan?

Very little. I need to know who is coming and their ages, where you are staying and what dates you have, and I propose the route and the start time. It is all settled by message before anything is confirmed, in English or Spanish — I am a native speaker of both.

How far ahead should we book?

As early as you have dates. Summer weekends go first, and anything ticketed has to be decided when you book rather than later. Last minute is often possible — ask rather than assume.

What should we wear?

What you would wear anyway, with one local caveat: you will be walking on uneven stone for two to four hours, often in heat, and shoes decide how the last hour goes. Colours that sit together across the group work better than everyone in their best outfit — not matching, just not one person in bright red while the rest are in linen. Bring a change of clothes for small children.

How many people can you photograph at once?

There is no set limit for a session on foot. Most groups are three to six and larger families are fine. The limit is transport: if you want the car and driver, the group has to fit one vehicle, and anything beyond that is quoted case by case.

What if someone can't walk far?

Say so when you book and the session is built around it — shorter distances, level ground rather than steps, and stops chosen with that in mind. A pushchair is no obstacle. Where walking is the real constraint, the car does most of the work.

What time of day is best?

Early morning and late afternoon are kinder, and in July and August they are the only comfortable hours. With small children, though, the hour the youngest is at their best beats the light — a tired three-year-old at golden hour is worse than a cheerful one at eleven in the morning.

What happens if it rains?

The session goes ahead. Wet stone throws light back and a flat grey sky is the cleanest background there is. If the weather is genuinely unusable, or somebody is ill, we move it.

Can we photograph in Park Güell?

Yes. The monumental zone is timed entry, and I buy the tickets and bill them at their price rather than marking them up. In summer it sells out two to three weeks ahead, so it needs deciding when you book rather than on the day. Entrance is paid by you, including my own ticket — any site that charges to get in charges for the photographer too.

Can we photograph at the Sagrada Família?

Outside, always — it is one of the settings people ask for most. Inside is possible, but it is rarely a good use of a session. Entry is timed and nominative, so every person needs ID matching the booking, and summer dates sell out two to three weeks ahead. Between the queue, security and the crowd inside, most of a two-hour session would go on getting in and moving through — and it is busy enough that a group cannot stop and stand anywhere. Photography there is restricted, and I would need a ticket of my own alongside yours. My advice is to see it properly on a separate day and keep the session outside. I can arrange tickets either way.

Can we print and share the photographs?

Yes. You get a private gallery with a link you can send to family and friends, and the full-resolution files to download and keep — print them, share them, post them online. There is no print package and nothing further to buy.

Will photographs of our children be used anywhere?

Not without written consent from a parent, and that consent can be withdrawn at any time. Adults work the other way round: images may be used in my portfolio and on this site unless you tell me beforehand.

There is no part of a session where I am not working — the camera stays ready, and most of what I am doing is watching the group and anticipating the moment before it happens rather than catching up with it afterwards. It is second nature by now, but it is the only way to be ready for whatever the day gives you.

— Gaston Magrinat

Tell Me Your Dates and Who's Coming

That is all I need to start — the dates you are in Barcelona, and who is in the group. How long, where we go, whether there is a car: none of it has to be decided before we talk.

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Email reply within 24 hours.

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