Honeymoon Photoshoot in Alaçatı & Çeşme

The stone streets, the windmills and the Çeşme coast. How we plan a honeymoon session around your days on the Aegean.

We photograph honeymoon sessions in Alaçatı and Çeşme, on Turkey's Aegean coast. We are based in İzmir, about an hour away, and we plan each session around where you are staying: the stone streets of the old town, the windmills above it, and the coast at Çeşme, usually in the last hour and a half before sunset.

Where do we photograph a honeymoon session in Alaçatı?

Alaçatı's old town is small. Stone houses, narrow streets, shutters painted in the same few colours. The streets are the obvious choice, and for a reason: the walls hold warm light after the sun has left the street, and a doorway frames two people without anyone arranging them.

The difficulty is people. In summer the old town fills from late afternoon and restaurants set their tables into the street. A quiet corner can disappear in ten minutes. So we don't choose a street by how it looks at noon. We choose it by who will be standing in it at seven.

The windmills sit on a low hill at the edge of town. No shade, no walls, only sky. After the enclosed streets it is the one place in Alaçatı where the horizon is behind you.

What about Çeşme and the coast?

Çeşme is fifteen minutes away and a different kind of picture. Alaçatı is walls and texture; the coast is open space and moving water. Couples who want both usually start in the old town and finish by the sea, which simply follows the light. The streets go into shade first. The water holds the sun longest.

We know this coast from weddings too, at Dilaila Beach in Çeşme and Port Alaçatı Hotel in Alaçatı. That is where we learned which stretches of shore stay calm when the wind picks up.

Often we begin where you are staying. The terrace, the open shutters, the walk out to the street. Twenty minutes there gives the session a quiet place to start before we go into town.

What time of day is best?

We start about an hour and a half before sunset. That time moves more than people expect. In late June the sun sets after half past eight; by mid-September it goes down around twenty past seven.

Before that window the light is high and flat, and the stone is hot to stand on. After sunset there are roughly twenty minutes of blue light, when the restaurant windows start to glow and the street turns cool. We usually stay for them.

Will the wind be a problem?

Alaçatı is windy. It is the reason windsurfers come here, and in July and August it can blow for days. We don't fight it. Hair moves, a linen shirt fills, a dress wraps around a leg, and those tend to be the frames that look least arranged.

What we change is where we stand. The streets are sheltered; the windmill hill is not. On a strong day the hill gets ten minutes instead of forty.

How long does a session take?

There is no fixed length. We plan it around where you are staying, how far you want to move, and how much of the evening you want to give it. A session that stays in the old town is short. One that starts at your hotel and ends on the coast takes longer, mostly because of the drive between them.

Can the session be filmed as well?

Yes. The same team photographs and films, so no second crew asks you to repeat a moment. If there is a film, the edit takes two to three weeks.

How is a honeymoon session priced?

Like the length, the price follows the session, so we don't publish a fixed one. Tell us your dates and where you are staying, and we will reply with availability.

"In Alaçatı we don't look for a wall. We wait for the light to reach one."