Family Photography in Koregaon Park, Pune

Fifteen people is a group

A family group in a public or private space is noticeable in a way a couple is not.

Two people being photographed in a garden is unremarkable. Fifteen people arranging themselves is an event, and venues respond to it differently.

That is the practical reason to ask in advance rather than turn up. A place perfectly relaxed about photography may still not want a large group occupying a space for half an hour.

Asked beforehand, most will either agree, suggest a better time, or say no clearly — all three of which are useful a week out and useless on the day.

The size of the group also decides what is physically possible. A large family needs room to spread out, which rules out most interiors and a fair number of gardens.

Home works well for smaller groups. Beyond eight or ten people it usually stops working, whatever the room.

The other question worth asking a venue about a group is how long you will be there.

Permission for twenty minutes is a very different proposition from permission for an hour, and venues are far more willing when the ask is specific and short.

Twenty minutes is genuinely enough for a family group that arrives ready, which is the argument for agreeing the meeting time a day early.

Vague requests get vague answers. Specific short ones usually get a yes.

It is worth choosing the meeting point as carefully as the location.

Large groups arriving separately at somewhere unfamiliar lose fifteen minutes finding each other, and that comes out of the light rather than out of the schedule.

One named, obvious meeting point solves it, and it is the sort of detail that decides whether a session feels relaxed.