Maternity photographer in Madrid

A maternity session is booked for weeks 30 to 34, which means the due date picks the season and the season picks the place. That is more of a decision in Madrid than in most cities, because the year here has two very different halves. Thirty-two weeks in December or February is the easy case: low light all day, the Palacio de Cristal on a grey morning, and nobody standing in the sun. Thirty-two weeks in May puts you in the Rosaleda of the Parque del Oeste, a free rose garden with more than twenty thousand bushes in flower and paths flat enough to walk slowly. Thirty-two weeks in July is the case where a maternity photographer should say plainly that outdoors is a bad idea in the afternoon. The answer then is your own flat, by the window with the blinds half down, or the first hour after sunrise.

When to book in Madrid

Count back from the due date to week 32 and you know the season. A December to March session can go at almost any hour between ten and four; mid-morning on an overcast day is the softest. April and May are for the last two hours before a sunset that falls between about half past eight and twenty to ten, which suits anyone who feels best in the evening. June and September still allow a session outside, in the morning. In July and August outdoors means dawn, and otherwise home. Whatever the month, we keep the session short on the feet: sitting frames between standing ones, and water in the bag.