My First Hen Weekend Photography in Benidorm Costa Blanca

Hen Weekend Photography in Benidorm Costa Blanca Spain

Some photography assignments are carefully planned weeks or even months in advance, with detailed briefs, shot lists and an idea of exactly what the client wants before you arrive. Others are rather more open-ended, and you have to see what happens once you meet the people and start working together. My first hen weekend photoshoot in Benidorm was definitely in the second category.

I was approached by one of the bridesmaids about two months before the shoot. She explained that a group of women from Switzerland were coming to the Costa Blanca for a hen weekend and wanted to arrange a one-hour photoshoot on the beach in Benidorm. There wasn’t really any more of a brief than that, which made me wonder whether the shoot itself was intended to be a surprise gift for the bride-to-be. Whatever the reason, I knew I would need to arrive prepared for pretty much anything.

I packed my camera, flash and a selection of lenses and headed down to meet them. The group had travelled from Switzerland, and communication was going to be an interesting part of the day. Their English and Spanish were limited, and while we could communicate, we certainly weren’t going to have a detailed conversation about photographic technique. Fortunately, photography has a language of its own, and between my suggestions, their ideas, gestures and a fair amount of laughing, we quickly worked out what we were going to do.

Starting with the More Traditional Photographs

We began the photoshoot in a fairly conventional way, taking group photographs and working through some nice poses. At this stage everyone was still getting used to me, the camera and the idea of having a professional photographer following them around, so it made sense to start with something fairly structured.

As the session progressed, however, the atmosphere began to change. Everyone became more relaxed, there was more laughing and the photographs started to become less formal. This is something I have experienced many times when photographing people. At the beginning, people are often very conscious of the camera and want to know exactly what they should be doing, but once they realise that they don’t have to perform for it, their personalities start to come through.

That is when a photoshoot can become much more interesting.

Photography Should Be a Partnership

One thing I have learned over many years as a photographer is that communication with the client is essential, but I don’t believe that a photographer should take complete control of a shoot. There is a temptation, particularly with group photography, to tell everyone exactly where to stand, where to look and what to do throughout the entire session. Sometimes that is necessary, of course, but if you control every moment you can also remove some of the personality and spontaneity from the photographs.

I much prefer photography to be a partnership between the photographer and the people being photographed. I bring my experience, technical knowledge and ideas, while the clients bring their personalities and their own ideas about what they would like to achieve. When the two work together, people tend to feel much more confident and relaxed, and that inevitably leads to better photographs.

This was particularly important with this group because they had travelled all the way from Switzerland to the Costa Blanca to celebrate their friend getting married. They knew each other far better than I did, so they were also able to come up with ideas that I wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. My role was to take those ideas and turn them into photographs.

From Posing to Playing in the Mediterranean

As the shoot continued, the photographs became more relaxed and playful. Eventually we decided to move towards the water, and what started as a few photographs of the group standing near the sea gradually developed into something considerably more adventurous.

Before long, they were wading into the Mediterranean, and eventually people were falling into the water. By this point, the carefully arranged hair and makeup from the beginning of the shoot were very much at risk, but nobody seemed particularly concerned. In fact, I think everyone was enjoying themselves far too much to care.

The final photographs were very different from the ones we had taken at the start. Instead of carefully posed group portraits, we had photographs of friends laughing, getting soaked and generally having a fantastic time together. Hair was wet, makeup was probably beyond saving, and I’m sure it wasn’t quite what they had expected when they first arrived on the beach, but those photographs captured the spirit of the day far better than anything overly formal could have done.

The Best Photographs Are Not Always the Most Perfect

This shoot was a good reminder that the photograph you originally imagine isn’t necessarily the photograph that ends up being your favourite. The more traditional group portraits were important because they gave everyone the kind of photographs they had probably expected from a professional shoot, but the images towards the end had something different.

They had genuine energy and personality.

There is a difference between asking someone to smile for a photograph and capturing them when they are genuinely laughing. The same applies to group photography. You can arrange people into a technically perfect composition, but if everyone looks uncomfortable, the photograph will never feel completely right.

Sometimes allowing people to move, talk, laugh and even make a mess produces a much better result. In this case, getting into the Mediterranean Sea certainly wasn’t something I had planned when I arrived, but it turned out to be one of the best decisions we made during the shoot.

A Hen Weekend on the Costa Blanca

The Costa Blanca is an obvious destination for groups celebrating important occasions. With its Mediterranean climate, beaches and long stretches of coastline, there are plenty of opportunities for outdoor photography, and Benidorm offers a particularly lively setting for a hen weekend.

For groups travelling from abroad, a beach photoshoot can also be a great way of creating something that goes beyond the usual photographs taken on phones during a night out. The photographs become part of the memory of the trip and, in this case, a record of the group celebrating together before one of their friends got married.

For me, it was also a reminder of how varied photography work in Spain can be. One week you might be photographing a property, a yacht or a corporate event, and the next you could find yourself on a beach in Benidorm photographing a group of friends from Switzerland who are gradually deciding that getting completely soaked is a good idea.

My First Hen Weekend Photoshoot

This was my first dedicated hen weekend photoshoot, and I really enjoyed the experience. I went into it without a detailed brief and with no real idea of exactly how the hour would develop, but that turned out to be part of the fun.

I arrived prepared with my camera, flash and lenses, but I didn’t arrive with a rigid list of photographs that I expected to produce. Instead, we started with some direction from me, incorporated ideas from the group and allowed the photoshoot to develop naturally.

By the end, we had created a mixture of traditional group portraits, more relaxed photographs and some wonderfully chaotic images of the group in the Mediterranean Sea. The important thing was that everyone finished the shoot in a really good mood, which I think is just as important as the photographs themselves.

Hen Weekend Photography in Benidorm Costa Blanca

If you are travelling to Benidorm, Alicante or elsewhere on the Costa Blanca for a hen weekend, a professional photoshoot can be a great way to document the experience. It doesn’t have to be formal or overly complicated; an hour on the beach with your friends can produce a surprisingly varied collection of photographs when everyone is willing to get involved.

As a photographer based in Spain, I particularly enjoy shoots where I can work with people rather than simply photographing them. My job is to bring the technical expertise, creative ideas and direction, but the people in front of the camera need to bring their personalities. When those two things come together, the photographs tend to feel much more natural.

That was certainly the case with my first hen weekend photoshoot in Benidorm. What started with a fairly serious group of photographs ended with everyone walking into the Mediterranean, getting completely soaked and probably ruining their hair and makeup. It wasn’t necessarily how I expected the shoot to finish, but it was a great way to end the day, and we all walked away in a very good mood.

For me, that is what good people photography should be about: creating photographs that not only look good, but also remind people of how much fun they had when the photograph was taken.