Natural and Un-posed.
This is the way I shoot: totally naturally. I don’t ‘set up’ any shots, I don’t put you into poses; I capture the real-life, true moments of your day, observing and recording those moments as they happen. After all, when you look back at a photo where you’ve been posed, you just remember being posed; when you look at a natural photo, you remember how you were feeling. Some people may call this ‘reportage’, others ‘photojournalism’, but names don’t really matter – what does matter is that your wedding is one of the most special days of your lives; not a ‘photoshoot’. I won’t be carting around huge flashes and stands, asking you to wait around for ages as I set up equipment, getting you to put one hand here and one arm there – I photograph you and your guests totally naturally. We can still do some group shots, of course, but these are best kept to a minimum so that I can get back to getting those candid moments. Even when I spend a small amount of time with just the two of you for some ‘couple time’ (just 10 – 15 mins is enough time to get lots of different natural and real photos, I don’t want to take you away from your guests for hours) this is still un-posed; I want you to just enjoy being with each other – you’ve just got married! – and I’ll capture you naturally, together.
Real moments; real emotions – that’s what it’s all about for me. When your Dad sees you in your wedding dress for the first time? You can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll want to be capturing that!
My goal is for you to not even notice I’m there; even during the ‘couple time’ (and only if you want that time, of course!) I’m still not posing you, but rather capturing you both naturally interacting. This ‘couple time’ is only a tiny amount of your day – usually 10 mins or so – as I don’t want to take you away from the party! Of course, it can be longer if you wish, though!
Fun!
Weddings are pure joy and excitement, and I absolutely thrive on capturing this. If you look through my portfolio, or through some of my full weddings, then you’ll notice that a common theme is fun and laughter. You may have seen photos on other websites or magazines where the bride and groom have their eyes closed and heads bowed, looking more like they’re at a funeral rather than experiencing one of the happiest days of their lives – needless to say, you won’t be seeing that shot from me! Some of my favourite bits of feedback from couples has been them saying how well I’ve got on with their family and friends – even with my ‘unique’ sense of humour! – and I think this element of truly fitting in, relaxed and unobtrusive, really helps you and your guests feel at ease, and thus enables me to capture so many fun moments.
One of your wedding guests giving a drag-queen a piggy-back on the dancefloor? Yep; love the unpredictable nature of weddings!
I’ve been lucky enough to shoot weddings all over the world – including the beautiful Montenegro – and, wherever the wedding, the joy is always absolutely infectious; I love capturing it all!
Storytelling, not storymaking.
Each moment I capture is one small part of your wedding story, and that’s exactly what it is – YOUR story, not the photographer’s. So I won’t take the rings and place them on a piano. I won’t ask the groom to shake the father of the bride’s hand. I photograph the real elements of your day; the real interactions, the real details as they are, in their actual context. So I’ll capture that handshake as it naturally happens, and I’ll photograph the rings in context – such as if they’re on the side during groom preparations, being double-checked by the best man, or – surely the way that means the most – when they’re placed on your fingers.
Storytelling within a single image – and, once again, totally naturally. Watching, waiting for the moment between the bride and groom; composing the image so we’ve got the context of their wedding guests…all of these things are done on the fly, and are totally unique to your wedding; your moments.
A lot of photographers say they’re ‘documentary’ – but on the actual day they move you into different places, ask you to repeat things, get the make-up artist to freeze as they ‘get the shot’. I don’t do any of these things; it’s my job to creatively capture your day without controlling you or the scene whatsoever. You have enough things to be thinking about on the day; I want you to totally relax and not think of the photography at all!
Unique.
I have to be honest, here: I can’t stand the wedding photography clichés: The bouquet on the floor with the bride and groom out of focus in the background. The rings held up to the camera, with the bride and groom kissing in the background. The bride up front, the groom way back in the distance (you just got married, why do you want to be separated in a photo?). You may have read quite a few times by now on other wedding vendors’ websites that ‘no two weddings are the same’ – and that’s true, so why photograph each wedding the same way? I photograph each and every wedding uniquely, because each wedding is totally different. Every bride and groom is different, people’s reactions are different, the places are different, the details are different – and thus all my photographs are different. No ‘shot list’ to work to, no ‘set poses’ (no posing at all, actually), no recreating past photos – your day is totally unique, so your photos will be so too.
A bit of a different way to make your entrance, don’t you think? Although the act of zipwiring is itself unique, I still aim to capture unique situations in unique ways, hence the composition, and use of light, to really make Rachael ‘pop’ in the frame.
A first dance, an embrace…you don’t always need to see faces to feel the emotion and connection. This is not your ‘typical’ first dance shot!
Creative.
What’s the definition of a creative wedding photographer? Well, I’d say that it’s someone who wants to capture each scene in a non-standard or unique way. Be this down to a creative composition, unusual angle, depth of field, use of light – or whatever means – the end result is a set of images where each frame can stand as a strong, artistic image in its own right. My aim is to create images throughout the entire day that are wall-hangable, not just images of the two of you.
The image above this is also from a First Dance, but see how different they are? That’s always the goal; just as your wedding is totally unique, so too should your images be. Creatively capturing moments; that’s what I love to do.
Yep, even ‘detail’ shots can be taken creatively – such as this example from a marquee wedding recently.
People Focus
One of the main reasons I was drawn to wedding photography is because I love to photograph people – laughter, glances, a tender touch, an encouraging smile; the uniqueness and unpredictability of photographing people is just amazingly exciting for me, and there’s no event like a wedding for having so many different elements of human interaction. And although of course the bride and groom are the most important people at a wedding – and I’ll be spending a lot of my time observing them closely – capturing special, candid and creative images of your family and friends is, to me, just as important. I’ll capture the details of your day as well, but it’s the people that make weddings, and capturing them is where my heart is.
Your best friends singing their hearts out on the dancefloor? I’m there!
Two of your wedding guests ‘feeling the love’? I want to capture it! When you receive your images, I want you to be able to see things and moments that you didn’t even know happened on the day.
Photographer, not salesman.
Photographing weddings is what I love to do, not selling. That’s why I include all your photos, full-size and watermark free, as standard. I don’t limit the number I give you, with the intention of you paying up for more; I don’t only edit a select few, as some other photographer do – I individually edit every photo, and you receive them all. Obviously the exact number varies from wedding to wedding, but you can expect around 800 – 1000+ for 10 hours’ coverage.
Now, I’m not saying this to impress anyone with numbers – as quality is obviously more important that quantity – but I just want you to know that I won’t be limiting you, pushing you to pay more to receive more of your photos – I have absolutely no interest in that. You can make prints, albums or canvases from the files you receive, and though you can also do this through me, I don’t have any interest in pushing this on to you at all; to me, the essence of wedding photography is in the capturing, the images – not the selling.
If you’ve made it all the way down to here…
…then you may wish to find out more about my wedding packages, browse through my gallery, look at my recent ‘Best of 2017’ post, or perhaps enquire about a potential booking. I have lots of recent work on my blog, too, and some featured weddings over here.