Documentary wedding photographer | Wedding 365#39

WEDDING 365 PROJECT – Daily choice of a documentary wedding image selected from my catalogue, collated from time spent documenting these unique events.

SHOOTING DATA: 5DMk2, 24mm lens, F1.6, 1/1600, ISO 250, underexposed by two thirds.

ETHOS: “Do you come here often?” Some images merit a simple title. I think this is a pretty decent example of working close to your subject with a short focal length lens. Do they feel challenged by my presence? No. Is it even obvious that they sense my camera at all? I’d say no again. There is a creative assumption, and I started out this way, to think that the only way to achieve candid wedding photography is to stand 20 feet off with the longest zoom you can carry, popping shots like there was no end to the red top cheque book you are servicing. I find the opposite. We’re going in to the wedding breakfast and this is the receiving line. When I looked at the final collection, it was pretty obvious that I’d been accepted as part of the wedding. There are only a handful in the complete set as I elect to watch in the main, raising a camera only when I see something worth capturing. That way subjects don’t feel like they are being machine gunned by a tog with itchy shutter finger. Love the interaction between bride and groom, but there’s more to the story. One mother delights at seeing the scene, the other is pensive, thoughtful, reflective. As for father of the bride, I don’t know, maybe he’s thinking; “Please hurry up and file through, I’m hungry!”