Lisbon Wedding Photographer - Dimas Frolov Wedding photographer in Lisbon since 2007: weddings, elopements, proposals.

None from you. I bring my own professional cameras and lenses, everything is backed up on the day, and I need no power, no floor space and no load-in time. For indoor and evening coverage I bring my own lighting. The only thing that genuinely helps is somewhere safe to leave a bag between locations, and that is a convenience rather than a requirement.

The address and the timings, whether photography is restricted anywhere inside - some palaces, churches and museums have rules of their own or charge a separate fee for a professional camera - and who my contact on the day is. If there is a planner or a venue coordinator, their phone number saves everyone an hour. For an outdoor location I also want to know how we get there and how much time the transfer takes, because that time comes out of the shoot.

Lighting, yes - I bring my own for indoor and evening coverage, and I do not depend on the venue for it. Sound equipment is not part of a photography service.

No. I am a photographer, so music on the day is someone else's department.

It does not put your day at risk. I work with fully backed-up professional equipment, so no single camera and no single card is ever the only thing standing between you and your photographs. This is the practical difference between hiring a professional and hiring someone with a good camera, and it is the part nobody thinks about until the day it matters.

Hard to name a single one. The places I keep coming back to are Monserrate Palace in Sintra, the Jeronimos Monastery in Belem, Sao Jorge Castle and the old viewpoints above Alfama - each of them gives you three or four completely different backdrops within a few minutes of walking, which is rarer than it sounds. For couples who want the coast rather than the city, Praia da Ursa and Praia do Guincho are hard to beat. The weddings I remember, though, are not the grandest ones. They are the ones where something went wrong - rain, a delay, a ceremony moved at an hour's notice - and the photographs came out better than the original plan would have allowed.

Weddings, and the smaller occasions that sit around them - proposals, engagement sessions, the morning after the wedding, first anniversaries. A wedding is the one event where the photographs outlive everything else that was paid for that day: the flowers, the catering, the venue. That is real pressure and it is exactly what makes the work interesting. I also enjoy family sessions with small children, because nothing there goes to plan and the best frames are always the ones nobody posed for.

I have been working as a photographer since 2007, full time, after leaving a career in engineering. I started with portraits and weddings for international couples travelling abroad for their wedding day, which taught me to work fast, in difficult light, with people I met for the first time an hour before the ceremony. Lisbon is my base now and I work across Portugal, with the same kind of clients and the same approach. Over the years that has come to more than 240 published photo stories and over 360 client reviews.

In wedding photography, Jerry Ghionis and Yervant. Both treat light and posing as a craft - they build a picture rather than wait for one - and that is the standard I measure my own wedding work against. Outside weddings, Annie Leibovitz: her portraits are a reminder that a photograph of a person is about who they are, not only how they look.

The number of photographs is not capped - you get every frame that worked, retouched, with only duplicates and technical mistakes removed. Each package carries a guaranteed minimum rather than a limit: at least 25 finished images for a one-hour session, at least 60 for two hours and 150 or more for a long session, and in practice it is usually well above those figures. Delivery takes about three weeks, and five days on the longest package. Expedited processing within two to five days is available as an extra.

It is the most common thing clients tell me before a shoot, and it is almost never true. People simply do not know what to do with themselves in front of a camera, and that is my job rather than yours. I direct continuously - where to stand, where to look, what to do with your hands, when to move - so you do not need to prepare anything or practise poses. Several of the reviews on this page were left by couples who said exactly this before we started.

Yes. Couple and engagement sessions, proposals, honeymoons, family sessions with children, teenagers, individual portraits for women and men, maternity, events and corporate work, and interiors. Weddings are the largest part of what I do, but a good share of my clients first come for a couple or family session while they are in Lisbon and come back later for the wedding.

There is no setup in the usual sense - I work with available light and the camera is ready from the moment I arrive. For a wedding I normally arrive about an hour before the part you want covered, which is enough to see the rooms, the light and the route between locations. Sessions run from one hour in a single area up to four or five hours across two or three areas, and a whole-day option is available; wedding coverage is built around your timings rather than a fixed block. Travel time between areas inside the session is not charged, and I plan the route in advance so that we spend the time photographing rather than walking.

Most of my work is outdoors - viewpoints, beaches, gardens, palace grounds and the streets of the old town. I plan a session around the position of the sun, so the time of day matters far more than the forecast. Rain is not a reason to cancel: Lisbon has arcades, covered viewpoints, markets and interiors within walking distance of the best spots, and wet streets at night photograph beautifully. If the weather makes a location genuinely impossible, I will suggest an alternative or another day rather than shoot something we will both regret.

It is your session. Bring references, a list of the shots your family expects, or a place that means something to the two of you, and I will build the route around them. If you would rather not plan anything, I will propose the locations and the order myself - that is where most clients start, and we adjust on the day. During the shoot I direct continuously: where to stand, where to look, what to do with your hands. You do not need any experience in front of a camera, and most of my clients have none.

Two things come up in almost every review. The first is that it felt relaxed and often genuinely funny, even for people who were dreading being photographed - clients describe it as spending a few hours with a friend who happens to be working. The second is that nothing was missed: the small moments, the reactions of the guests, the details. After that they mention clear communication before and after the day, and that the photographs arrived when I said they would.

Yes, regularly. Sintra, Cascais, the Estoril coast, Setubal, Comporta and the Alentejo are all normal working distance, and a large part of my portfolio was shot there rather than in the city itself. I also take destination weddings further afield - travelling to a wedding abroad and working with a couple I meet the day before is something I have done for years. Tell me where the wedding is and I will confirm what the travel involves.

We shoot anyway. Lisbon is built for it - arcades, covered viewpoints, markets, tiled staircases and interiors are usually a few minutes from the best outdoor spots, and wet streets at night photograph better than dry ones. Rain changes the route, not the session. If the forecast makes one particular location genuinely impossible and your dates allow it, I would rather move that part than deliver something neither of us wanted.