I wanted to make a photography website that felt more like an experience than a portfolio.

So I built CINÉRA — a cinematic photography studio website with a 3D gallery, interactive archive, real availability, and a complete booking flow.

You can explore the work, pick a date and time, add your shoot details, and get booked without the usual back-and-forth.

On the studio side, there’s a dashboard to manage bookings and inquiries, plus automatic booking confirmations to take a bit of the repetitive work off the photographer’s plate.

This was built for an appointment-based business challenge, and honestly, I had way too much fun making it.

the 3d gallery transitions feel really fluid. did you model the room directly or build it in threejs?

Maya Kowalska Photography - Editorial Booking Engine & Studio Desk

Live Product: https://maya-wedding-photographer.lovable.app

Archetype: Solo Luxury & Destination Wedding Photographer (Warsaw & Europe) Built in Lovable

The Problem

Couples looking for a wedding photographer 12 to 18 months in advance hit a universal wall: the package guessing game.

Every inquiry starts with the same question: "Do you want 8, 10, or 12 hours?" Couples don't know yet. They haven't finalized dinner, speeches, or first dances. What follows is 2 to 3 weeks of back-and-forth emails, questionnaire PDFs, and awkward timeline math. In the meantime, prime weekend dates stay in unpaid limbo.

For a solo photographer like Maya shooting on location 3 days a week, this inquiry friction is crippling. She spends her weekdays playing admin and estimator instead of editing or shooting. When couples under-estimate hours to fit a budget, it creates high-stress overtime negotiations on the wedding night when the timeline inevitably slips.

The Solution: "Tell me the day. I'll figure out the hours."

We replaced the rigid package grid with an intelligent booking canvas and connected it directly to Maya's studio desk.

1. The Front Door (Client Experience)

No package guessing: Couples enter their date, any custom venue, and guest scale, then simply check the moments that matter to them (getting ready, first look, ceremony, portraits, dinner, speeches, party).

Live Run-of-Show Engine: The app dynamically schedules each event chronologically from morning to midnight and calculates the exact continuous elapsed coverage required in real time.

Creative Priorities: Couples define their 3 focal points (The Emotion, The Atmosphere, The Party), which dynamically shape their recommended collection and shot list.

1-Click Reservation: A pre-filled test payment flow settles the 20% deposit instantly, writes to PostgreSQL, and locks the date against double-booking.

2. The Follow-Through (Maya's Studio Desk)

Zero-effort booking intake: Instead of a vague email, Maya's private desk receives a confirmed date, logged deposit, client contacts, and creative brief.

Printable Wedding Day Dossier: The auto-generated run-of-show with visual moment references prints on a single clean sheet with one click, ready to slip into her camera bag on the morning of the wedding.

Configurable Engine: Maya retains full control over base pricing, extra hour rates, and individual moment duration weights in her studio settings.

Scoped for the Challenge vs. What's Next (The Complete Studio Vision)

To keep the challenge submission sharp, fully functional, and testable end-to-end within 90 seconds, I focused on the highest-friction moment: turning an inbound inquiry into a confirmed, paid booking with an auto-generated timeline.

Here is what was intentionally scoped as the next phase of the product:

-Digital Contract Signing & Counter-Signature: - Post-Booking Client Portal & Timeline Locking - Full Client Gallery & Asset Delivery - Automated Milestone Balance Invoicing & more Thank you!

#lovable #lovablechallenge