Beach engagement session in the Mediterranean - couple at sunset, Espiguette

Beach engagement session in the Mediterranean: Johanna and Nicolas at the Espiguette

July 21, 2024 – Updated May, 2026

Johanna and Nicolas will marry in September 2024 at Château de Valflaunès, facing the Pic Saint-Loup. Two months before, we met at the Espiguette for their engagement session. It often starts like this: an hour together before the big day, to get to know each other in front of the lens, to test the light, to see if there is a connection.

Johanna and Nicolas kissing on the Espiguette beach in black and white

The Espiguette: why this location keeps coming back

The Espiguette beach, on the Grau-du-Roi side, is 45 minutes from Montpellier and a world away from the crowded urban beaches of summer. Dunes, fine sand, space. Even in high season you can find an isolated stretch, which is rare along the Languedoc coast. For an engagement session, that matters: a couple who knows they are being watched by strangers does not let go in the same way.

What I look for here is the end-of-day light on the water and the sand. That light is an ally: it softens, it warms, it creates halos that do not need to be added in post-processing.

Couple walking on the Espiguette beach during their Mediterranean engagement session

We met an hour and a half before sunset, at 7:45pm. To calculate that window precisely for your own session:

Calculate the golden hour in South of France

7:45pm, July 12th

Johanna wore an off-white dress, loose and fluid — the kind of fabric that catches the wind and comes alive in a photograph. Nicolas, a white shirt and beige shorts. Light tones that stand out against the sky without competing with the light.

The first minutes of a session always look like this: a little stiffness, smiles slightly too deliberate, an awareness of the lens. Then something relaxes. Johanna laughed at a joke from Nicolas that I did not hear, he took her hand, and from that point on I barely had to direct anything.

Couple embracing during a beach engagement session in the South of France

What I look for in an engagement session

Grand poses interest me less than the details that tell something true. Their hands intertwined, the tattoo on Nicolas’s arm, a stolen kiss when they thought I was adjusting my camera.

Silhouettes

As the sun drops, I look for backlight. Placing the couple between the lens and the setting sun, slightly underexposing to keep the sky’s detail and let the subjects become silhouettes.

Couple silhouette hand in hand at sunset - Mediterranean engagement session Espiguette

It is a simple image, almost graphic, but it carries a weight that direct-light portraits do not always have.

The details

Detail of hands intertwined during a beach engagement session in the Mediterranean

These personal details enrich the visual narrative. The hands touching, the tattoo, the way they hold onto each other: elements that will make the images recognisable in ten years.

Tender looks exchanged during an engagement session at the Espiguette beach, Mediterranean

An engagement session also serves this: learning what a couple does naturally when they forget you are there. Those reflexes, those physical habits between them — I will find them again on the wedding day. Knowing them in advance changes something.

Couple silhouette kissing at sunset - wedding photographer Montpellier Mediterranean

Johanna and Nicolas left the beach with the sun. Two months later, I found them again at Château de Valflaunès. I already knew how they look at each other.

Read the story of their wedding at Château de Valflaunès

Planning an engagement session in the South of France? Let’s talk.