Frequently Asked

For high season (April–June and September–November) please reach out at least 8–10 weeks ahead; balloon mornings close out months in advance. Weddings and destination work need a 3–6 month window to plan properly. In low season (January–March) two or three weeks is usually enough. If your date is flexible, write anyway — I can show the open windows in my calendar and we can choose the right light together.

If we shoot inside the balloon, yes — you'll need a flight ticket and I need a civil aviation permit for commercial shooting. I handle that whole process, including the operator agreement and permit paperwork. But the classic "balloon morning" sessions are usually shot from the ground: the ridges of Red Valley, Love Valley, or the terrace of a cave hotel. No extra ticket there; the balloons launch between 5:20 and 5:40, and we frame them as they rise.

Cappadocia's colour comes from stone and sand — tones close to skin (sand, ivory, burgundy, olive, copper) sit naturally in the frame. For a moving sunrise, a long flowing dress; for a valley walk, comfortable layers. I avoid pure white and pure black because they split the light. After you book I send a personal wardrobe moodboard with two or three direction ideas; arriving with a small, considered selection keeps you relaxed through the whole shoot.

Yes — I work with two trusted artists in Göreme and Ürgüp, and I pass on their contact details after you book. Pricing usually sits between €120 and €200, and they prep you in your hotel room on the morning of the shoot so we don't lose sunrise time on the ground. Their English is strong. If you'd rather bring your own stylist, that's also fine — I'll share the moodboard directly so the tone stays consistent.

In Cappadocia balloon flights are cleared the night before, around 20:00 local — if wind or visibility cancels them, I message you straight away. Balloon sessions are rescheduled free of charge to any available morning within 90 days. For rain or snow we move into the cave hotels, the back streets of Göreme and the sheltered pockets of the valley. Honestly, some of the best frames come out of that soft grey light.

The two closest airports are Nevşehir Kapadokya (NAV) and Kayseri Erkilet (ASR). Nevşehir is about 40 minutes from Göreme; Kayseri around 75. From Istanbul both have several direct flights a day. I can recommend an airport shuttle if you need one; once you're in Göreme, you can walk almost everywhere. On the shoot day I handle transport — I pick you up from your cave hotel and we drive to the location together.

Where you stay is half the shoot. In Göreme, Museum Hotel, Sultan Cave Suites and Kelebek all have terraces with balloons drifting close overhead; up in Uçhisar, Argos in Cappadocia is quieter and more architectural. For smaller budgets Mithra and Kale Konak are both honest choices. After every booking I send a short mood PDF, and we plan the terrace shooting window and route based specifically on which hotel you've chosen.

Yes — Rhodes, Santorini, the Amalfi coast and the south of France are regular routes for me; I take on four to six destination projects a year. Travel and accommodation are covered by the client; economy from Istanbul is fine. I build in one prep day before the wedding and usually a short venue walk-through. For destinations outside Europe, let's start with a short brief — every location brings different light and its own paperwork.

A couple session delivers 80–100 frames, a balloon session 100–130, a wedding 300–500. Every image is fully edited: colour, skin tones, light cleanup — but the skin is never plasticised and the sky is never swapped. The gallery opens on a private password-protected page, with web-size previews and print-ready high-resolution files as separate downloads. There's also a favourites function if you want family and friends to pick their top picks.

As a rule, no. A RAW file is a half-baked frame for me — colour, contrast and skin tones are not yet decided. Passing that half-state to a viewer is not work I can sign my name under. In specific cases (brand projects, long-term archive needs) I can release RAWs under a written agreement and an additional licensing fee. If we talk before the shoot, we can build the right frame for that request together.

Within seven days of the shoot I send a sneak peek of five to eight frames — something to post, or to show family. The full gallery (80 to 150 images, depending on the package) is delivered within 21 days of the session. Weddings and destination work can take four to six weeks because every frame is colour-graded by hand. Your online gallery stays live for 12 months, and the high-resolution download is unlimited.

Once the deposit is paid there's a 48-hour grace window — cancel inside that, full refund. After that the deposit is non-refundable, because I'm holding your date off the calendar. But up to seven days before the shoot you can reschedule once at no cost, and the deposit carries over to the new date. For weather-driven cancellations (balloon grounding, documented illness) no rescheduling fee applies — we simply pick a new date together.