Photo session gift card: what it includes, price and validity

Short answer: A photo session gift card is one of two things. Either a specific session with me behind the camera, from 280 €, where you choose what gets photographed. Or a credit voucher of 60, 80, 100 or 160 €, valid for two years, which whoever gets it spends on whichever session they like. The 350 € Family session comes as one complete gift, with no expiry date. It arrives by email within minutes. Pick yours on the gifts page.

What exactly does a photo session gift card include?

That depends on one thing: are you giving a session, or giving money? The difference matters far more than the price. I'll start with the bigger gift.

Give a session with me behind the camera and you're giving a whole shoot: a pregnancy, the first days of a newborn, a family portrait. Those cards start at 280 €. You pick the session when you buy it, and whoever gets it only has to tell me when it suits them. If that's what you're after, the family shoot with me is the most common choice.

Then there's the 350 € Family session. It's the one I can spell out in full, because nothing about it moves. You get 90 minutes in the studio for up to four people, and 35 edited photos in high and low resolution. Ten of them come printed at 13×18 cm on quality paper. There's also one change of clothes, with styling notes sent before you come. It has no deadline either. Pick it if you want to hand over something finished and forget the calendar exists.

"Time flies. And it makes me so happy that you come to keep these memories: from the pregnancy... to the first days with your baby." — Tami (Wonderstory)

The flexible option: credit vouchers

Alongside the sessions, the same gifts page has four vouchers: Mini at 60 €, Classic at 80 €, Big Portrait at 100 € and Double the Fun at 160 €. They're the cheapest way in and the most flexible, because they don't lock anyone into a choice.

A voucher is credit, not a session already paid for. It comes off the total of whichever session they choose. If that session costs more, they pay the difference at the studio at the end. If it costs less, the rest stays on the code for another time. It works like money, and it's good for two years.

The three lower amounts match the sessions at YOULO, the no-photographer studio in the same building, so a voucher covers a whole afternoon there. With me the sums work differently, because my sessions start at 280 €. The voucher pays part, and the rest gets settled at the studio. That's how several people usually chip in on one big gift, and it's also how you start small when you'd rather not choose the session yourself.

How long is it valid, and what if they take their time?

Credit vouchers last two years from the date of purchase. Not six months, not one year. Two full years, and you can read that number before you pay, not tucked into a footnote. The 350 € Family session goes further still: no deadline at all. This is what people ask about most, and worry about most, because almost everyone has an experience box in a drawer that never got used.

That generous window isn't generosity, it's arithmetic. Two things separate a reasonable deadline from an unfair one: you have to see it before you buy, and it has to leave real room to use it. I go into the legal side separately, in the article on whether gift cards expire in Spain, including why the Spanish consumer bodies disagree with each other about expiry dates.

In practice, two years cover almost any delay. Someone who gets the gift in her first trimester has time to spare. A new mother can wait until she feels well before coming to the studio. And once you've booked a date, you can move it as many times as you need: if the baby comes early, if someone has a temperature, if the day simply stops working.

"Come when you feel ready. There is no rush. The session should be a lovely moment, not an obligation. How you feel is part of it too." — Tami (Wonderstory)

What to do when the deadline gets close

That leaves the awkward question. What if the two years pass and nobody has used the voucher? Then the code stops working. The date travels with the voucher from the very first email, so it's never a surprise.

The fix is simple, and it beats waiting for a plan to appear. If the deadline is coming and there's still nothing in the calendar, book any date, even a distant one, and move it later as often as you need. And if you're right up against the deadline, write to me first. Moving a booking is easy. Bringing an expired code back to life isn't.

How does the gift arrive, and how does the code work?

There's nothing physical to ship, and that changes everything about the timing. You buy, you pay, and the certificate lands in your email a few minutes later. No plastic card, no courier, no delivery date to watch. That's why it still works on the day itself, which I go into when talking about the Christmas and Three Kings deadlines.

Two things worth knowing before you buy. First, I don't email the recipient. The email goes to whoever pays, and you decide whether to forward it, print it, or hand it over on the day. Second, redeeming it: the certificate carries a code, you type it in when booking the session, and it comes off the total right there.

That's the difference from the generic boxes. OCU, Spain's main consumer organisation, tried to book hotels 95 times for its report on experience gift boxes. Only three in ten places accepted. In four out of every ten refusals, the hotel said outright that it was turning down the booking because the customer was paying with an experience box. That happens when whoever sells the voucher isn't the one running the service. Here the studio is mine: Ronda de la Universitat 33, in the middle of the Eixample, minutes from Plaça Catalunya. The doors are open Monday to Friday 10:00 to 20:00, Saturdays 10:00 to 19:00 and Sundays 10:00 to 16:00. The calendar you see when you book is the real one.

A shoot with me in Barcelona, or an afternoon at YOULO?

Both happen in the same building in the Eixample. What changes is who directs, who presses the button, and what everyone takes home.

Give a session with me if:

• the gift marks a moment that won't come again: a pregnancy, a newborn, a family portrait
• you want directed, edited photos, with someone guiding the poses and setting the light
• the moment needs someone experienced: a sleeping newborn, a tired mum-to-be, a child who never sits still
• you want photos that hold up printed and hung on a wall, not just scrolled past on a phone

Give a gift voucher with YOULO in mind if:

• the point is a good time together: friends, a couple, or the kids
• you want the amount to cover the whole session: 60, 80 and 100 € match the three formats
• you want them to keep every photo they take, digital and the same day
• you want them to redo shots until they're happy, with no rush and no audience

When the gift is for several people at once, an afternoon at YOULO fits better, because what you're really giving is the time together. Here's how Viajeros Gastronómicos put it in their Google review:

"We gave it to our kids as an Advent calendar experience and it was a hit."

And the other way. Some moments won't come back: the pregnancy, the first weeks with the baby, the family exactly as it is this year. For those, a shoot with me is the one that holds up over time, even though it costs more.

Give a specific session, or an amount?

This is the real decision, and it isn't cheap versus expensive. It's you deciding versus them deciding. Give a specific session and the gift already has a name; whoever gets it only picks the date. Give an amount and it fits whatever they want, but it can fall short if they aim higher.

Choose a specific session if:

• you already know which moment you're giving and don't need anyone else to choose
• you'd rather the message be "here's this session" than "here's some credit"
• you want to give a full shoot with me, starting at 280 €, or the 350 € Family session
• the deadline worries you: the Family session doesn't expire

Choose a credit voucher if:

• you don't know what they'd prefer, and you want them to decide
• you'd rather not set the moment or the format, just put up the money
• you're fine with them topping up the difference at the end if they pick something pricier
• you're not even sure they want to be in photos at all. I deal with that case separately, in giving a session to someone who hates photos

And there's a third way if you're torn. Buy the largest voucher that suits you, and when you hand it over, tell them that if they want something bigger they only need to make up the difference.

"What you will remember in the end is how you felt, not whether you saved 50 euros." — Tami (Wonderstory)

How to choose your card and book

Two lines to sum it up. Want to give something fixed? A session with me from 280 €, or the 350 € Family session if you'd also rather have no deadline on the table at all. Want them to choose? A credit voucher of 60, 80, 100 or 160 €, good for two years. Either way it arrives by email in minutes, and you can move the date as often as you need.

Still unsure? Write to me and I'll tell you what fits. I've worked since 2019 in the same studio in the Eixample, in Barcelona, with 558 reviews and an average of 5.0. A good share of the families I photograph walk in with a photo session gift card someone bought them months earlier. You can pick yours on the gifts page.

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Tami · Photographer at Wonderstory and creator of the YOULO project

I've been photographing families and mums-to-be in Barcelona for more than seven years.