What Photos Will You Want to Look at in 5 Years (or 10, or 20)?
I believe all wedding photographers develop their style based on the photos they most like to make. At least, I hope so. If there are any wedding photographers out there taking photos they dislike making, they’re doing themselves and their couples a major disservice. For me, the documentary approach to wedding photography was something I didn’t know existed when I started in professional photography, and therefore I was under the impression that I didn’t want to shoot weddings. It was only upon attending a seminar with photographer (and now friend and mentor) Kevin Mullins at a Fujifilm conference that a lightbulb went on and I thought “THIS is how weddings should be photographed. If I can do this, I’m all in.”
When I look back at photos from my own life, my favorites are always the ones that weren’t planned, posed or directed in any way. It’s always the funny, crazy, sentimental shots that got captured as if by accident; those are the images I cherish. And so it makes perfect sense that my approach, and my goal with every wedding is to deliver a gallery filled with images that, if it were my wedding, I would want to see again in years to come, and that hopefully my couples will return to again and again as they go from newlyweds to long marrieds.
The photos I’m using in this post are, for the most part, from weddings I shot years ago. I chose them because as I went through my older weddings galleries, these made me smile and remember a moment. Some of them I’ve shared before, and some I haven’t, but they all have the common thread of being photos that never grow old.
I prefer photos that include people over just details on their own, because while there are great detail photographers out there (I imagine they would be skilled commercial product photographers) those photos don’t give me the emotional jolt that photos of the couple, the guests and the wedding party do. And candid images of the people at weddings win out every time over static posed images, no matter how creatively done. I love movement, and tears, and unguarded laughter; these are the moments I strive to capture.
If you’re looking for a wedding photographer, and you’ve read this far, it’s possible you’re nodding your head and thinking about what photos from your life you most enjoy looking at, and they’re probably not the posed ones. (As much as we all get a kick out of looking at those hilarious ‘awkward family photos’, that’s probably not where you want your wedding photos to wind up!) I’ve said this before, but for all that weddings big or small are something of a production, as a couple you shouldn’t feel that your wedding is also a performance. Documentary wedding photography allows you to be you; there is no pressure to look or stand or ‘be’ a certain way. You do you at your wedding, in whatever way makes you happy, and I’ll be there to capture it!
