Introducing Wedding Wednesdays...

I was going through the bazzillion images I shot last "wedding season" and realized I hadn't really posted any of them so for the next few weeks we are going to have "Wedding Wednesdays".

Each week I will post a few wedding shots from 2011 and explain why I like them, how they were shot, and (on occasion) what I might have done differently.

Here are two images from one of the very last weddings, shot along the northern coast of Maine.

Usually when we shoot the bride and groom it's from "afar" (this was shot with a 70-200 2.8 lens), we walk around the grounds (away from everybody else) so the bride and groom can have some private time, just the two of them, to talk, to catch their breath, to "drink each other in". It is likely the only quiet time they have had (or will have) for days. So the long lens gives them some privacy and allows us to capture some candid moments.

There's a bunch a like about this picture, but what I like the most is the look on their faces, something I never would have captured had I been right up on them "clicking away".


Two things to take from this shot:

1. Don't be afraid to shoot into the sun

2. If you want to capture an intimate candid moment, don't be part of it, be as far away as possible

This image is from the same wedding, captured just a few minutes later, we had just walked inside to join the reception and the bride paused for just a moment in front of a window and I knew the time to shoot was right then. No time for camera adjustments, no time for better composition, and just as the shutter closed the bride walked away from the window and into a crowd of people.


And from this image:

1. You can never go wrong with a photograph of the back of a wedding dress, it's the one thing the bride will not see on her wedding day and she'll likely appreciate it when she sees it later

2. Sometimes you don't have time to think, to properly frame, to make camera
adjustments.... JUST FIRE!

(clicking on either image will open them larger and in a new window)