Le Sirenuse wedding photography

Le Sirenuse is a hotel on the upper road in Positano, built into the hillside with its terraces stacked above the town. It opened as a hotel in 1951 in what had been a family house, and it faces across the ravine rather than out to open sea — so the view from the terrace is the coloured houses of Positano tumbling down to the beach, which is the image most people have in mind when they picture this coast.

That orientation is the reason to choose it and the thing to plan around. A portrait made here has architecture in the background rather than horizon, which means the picture reads as Positano specifically rather than as the Mediterranean generally. It also means the light is reflected off the town — warm, bounced and indirect for much of the afternoon — rather than direct off the water.

Positano is built on stairs, and there is no version of a day here that avoids them. Getting between the hotel, the church and the beach is a climb in one direction and a descent in the other, and it takes longer than the map suggests. Build that into the timeline, tell the guests, and keep the portrait locations close to the terraces rather than scattered down the hill.