The wedding photographer
Over the weekend just gone I had the absolute joy of watching one of my younger sisters get married. As you would expect, it was a day full of emotion, love and celebration and I’m still smiling now when I think about it.
My sister had asked if I would take some photographs. They had paid for a “professional” photographer to come and do the usual formal etc stuff but they wanted me to act as “unofficial” photographer and get more of a record of the day.
To be honest, I didn’t think much about it until the day itself and then on the morning of the wedding I suddenly felt a little bit apprehensive and nervous. I wasn’t the paid photographer but I did feel a weight of expectation. Imagine what it must be like being the paid photographer? There must be such a lot of expectation riding on their shoulders - get it wrong and you’ve potentially lost a priceless opportunity to collect precious memories that the couple would have wanted to look back on in years to come.
On the day I took both my cameras with me - a digital SLR (trusted Canon EOS) and my Canon film camera. But I quickly discovered that there was no way I was going to leave anything to chance and therefore shooting with the DSLR was the only way forward - providing that instant feedback and review mechanism. I cannot imagine what it must have been like back before the days of digital cameras - the pressure of not quite getting it right on film must have been even greater on a wedding photographer.
After a few film camera shots, I was clear it was digital all the way and before I knew it my nervousness disappeared and I was into the flow with camera in hand. Below I’ve shared a few of the photographs that I captured on the day. I’ve obviously not posted anything that is too personal to those involved and, in the interests of privacy, I’ve only shared photos where people can’t be easily identified.
As I wasn’t the official photographer and knew all of the key protagonists, I obviously had the benefit of fitting easily into all the key preparations on the day. The bride and her bridesmaids (my other sisters, my wife, sister-in-law and niece) were all very comfortable with me hanging around them in the morning as they got themselves beautified and, as a result, I was able to capture some images which, I hope, give a great feel of their morning preparations, hair rollers and all!
The bride also wanted me to take some photos of her dress and key trinkets. Macro photography is not something that I have much experience with but I’m really pleased with how some of these have come out - careful placement of the objects on a windowsill helped with lighting the subjects beautifully. I also like the shot of the hanging dress with the bride in the background shot from behind the hanging veil. I also wanted to get a few shots of the venue itself - and love the one of the bridesmaids looking out of the upper window as they were getting ready.
Then there are the informal shots that I took around the reception itself. I knew the pro would be capturing all of the formal family line ups so I focussed on just trying to find those other less scripted moments. My favourite shot here is of the bridal party being photographed outside. There’s an interesting dynamic with the groomsmen all to one side chatting together whilst the bride and her bridesmaids are photographed - all framed by the magnificent setting of the venue and its red brick buildings.
And then we were onto the evening dancing. This was really hard to photograph as you would expect - trying to get sharp images of the merry dancers lit by the disco lights. I took many not so great shots here - not least as dancing and alcohol took its toll on the subjects, but there’s a few that I think capture the feel of the evening nicely which I’ve shared here, and I think the motion blur on the last one does enhance the feeling of movement a bit!
There is plenty of learning for me from this experience as a photographer. Firstly, that I should have a bit more confidence in my own ability - despite my nerves I’m really pleased with some of the shots I’ve taken (not all of which I’ve shared here for obvious reasons). Secondly, you can’t beat the immediate feedback of a digital camera and screen when the stakes are really high. Thirdly, because I knew all of my subjects really well, I was able to photograph them in a way which caught them more naturally; familiarity breeds trust - a great lesson for any documentary photography I might want to do in the future.
My final piece of learning is that I’m not sure I would want to be a wedding photographer. The stakes are too high and I’m not sure I could cope with the pressure. But then again, I found myself from time to time watching the pro and thinking I wouldn’t have done it like that, so you never know what the future holds!
But the most important thing by far was that my sister had the most amazing day, and that she and her new husband were really grateful for the effort I’d put into capturing their special day and absolutely loved the photos I’d taken for them. And at the end of the day, that’s all that really matters to me.
