Trust Your Own Eye: How a Spontaneous Algarve Shoot Ended Up in MALVIE Magazine

Kate Belova · Founder & Photographer·September 17, 2026

A shoot with no brief

Most sessions start with a plan: a mood board, a call, a list of shots. This one started with a place. Anastasia, a lifestyle and editorial photographer based in the Algarve, had been passing the same corner of the coast for a long time: a bank of prickly pears, a wall of tall reeds that catches the evening sun, red cliffs behind. She liked it. So on the 5th of June, at half past seven in the evening, she took a friend there and shot it the way she shoots everything: natural colour, real gestures, nothing staged.

The place is Praia dos Tomates, the quiet continuation of Praia da Falésia near Albufeira, in the stretch everyone knows as the Red Cliffs. Falésia was named the best beach in the world in TripAdvisor's Travellers' Choice Awards in 2024, and most people photograph it from the top of the cliff. Anastasia went into the vegetation instead.

There was no plan to send the pictures anywhere. It was a creative shoot for its own sake, in her own style, for the pleasure of it.

Anastasia's "Algarve Summer" editorial in MALVIE Magazine: backlit reeds and dry grass at Praia dos Tomates

Then MALVIE said yes

Only afterwards, looking at the edited series, did she think: why not. She submitted it to MALVIE, the French fashion and beauty magazine, and it was accepted straight away. The story runs as a six-page editorial titled "Algarve Summer" in the Tropical Paradise issue (Vol. 68, September 2026), and one of the frames was chosen for a MALVIE digital cover.

MALVIE Magazine digital cover, photographed by Anastasia at Praia dos Tomates in the Algarve

Here is how she describes it, translated from her own message to us:

"It was completely spontaneous. A creative shoot, nothing more. I had always liked that spot with the cacti and the reeds. I wasn't planning to send it anywhere, I just shot it in my own style. Later I thought, why not, sent it to the magazine, and they took it right away. If there's a lesson in it, it's this: trust your own vision and shoot for the joy of it. That is what leads to a great result in the place you least expect it."

The model is Nastya, a friend rather than a client: a health coach and track athlete Anastasia had wanted to photograph for a long time. She later wrote on Anastasia's profile, and her review reads like a caption for these pages:

"From the very first moment she made me feel comfortable, confident and completely at ease in front of the camera. The final photos completely exceeded my expectations."

What the pages show

Look at the spreads and notice what isn't there: no famous cliff seen from above, no postcard arch, no golden-hour beach with a hundred people just out of frame. It is white linen against dry grass and red rock, sun flaring through the reeds, a face turned into the light. This is the Algarve from inside the vegetation, at eye level, and it reads as a fashion editorial precisely because it wasn't trying to be one.

Second spread of the "Algarve Summer" editorial in MALVIE Magazine, September 2026

Three practical things stand out for anyone planning their own session:

Hard light, on purpose. This was shot about an hour before sunset, when the light was still direct and harsh, the hour most guides tell you to wait out. Anastasia shot with the sun and used it: skin lit as if by flash, the reeds glowing, a fashion picture rather than a soft holiday portrait. Knowing when a rule is worth breaking is what you pay a photographer for.
Twenty minutes is enough. The whole session took about an hour: three looks, twenty minutes each. The pages MALVIE printed are the first twenty minutes. A sixty-minute booking is not a compromise when the photographer knows the spot.
One outfit, well chosen. Loose white linen, a small pair of sunglasses, nothing else. Against warm tones it does all the work. More on this in what to wear for a photoshoot in Portugal.

If you want this look for yourself

Anastasia works along the Algarve coast from Lagos to Tavira, speaks English, Portuguese, Russian and Ukrainian, and her profile carries over twenty reviews, all of them five stars. Her packages cover most of the reasons people book a photographer on holiday:

Solo Traveler Escape — in her words, "a relaxed walk with a friend who happens to have a camera". The closest thing to the pages above, and a good fit for a solo session.
Love Story in the Algarve — a couples session shot like a date, not a pose.
Maternity & Pregnancy Announcement — maternity portraits on the beach.
Algarve Family Memories — a beach day with the camera along.
Secret Proposal & Engagement — she scouts the spot and shoots the question from a distance.
Flying Dress — the red dress on the cliffs, rental included. We wrote a whole flying dress guide if that's new to you.

For brands and creators she also shoots content creator and fashion sessions, and the MALVIE pages are the reference for what that looks like. All packages, prices and reviews are on her profile. Prices are all-inclusive, and the booking is protected: you pay on Photo Portugal, and the photographer is paid once your photos are delivered.