I’m going to start posting a photo of the week on my blog that will be a photo I like, with a small explanation of why I like it. For the first one I’ve chosen this photograph taken nearly 3 years ago at a wedding at Newick Park in East Sussex.

Katherine and David at Newick Park

I’ve chosen it because a 12×8 print of it is in my portfolio I show prospective clients and it often generates an emotional reaction from those who view it. For me wedding photography has to be more than about just showing what people look like, it has to be showing, and producing, that emotional engagement. That’s the biggest challenge wedding photographers face. Anyone can take a thousand photographs at a wedding and end up with a dozen half-decent shots that illustrate the day, but as a professional you should be able to produce something different and something better. People talk about “capturing the moment” and one client commented they felt I’d had a sixth sense for doing this on their day but there is nothing mysterious about it, it all comes down to having empathy with the couple.

Empathy with the couple allows the photographer to anticipate what is going to happen and when, it allows you to spot and capture reactions, those glances or easy relaxed moments that may be over in 1/125th of a second but which tell a story of a relationship. This is one of my main aims as a wedding photographer: to capture the couple as they are, on the happiest day of their lives, so future generations will look at their wedding album and see their personalities come through the story of their wedding day.

Often at a wedding the key moments occur betweeen the big events and I think that’s a theme I’ll be returning to as I choose a new photo each week. For example, while there is undeniably emotion during the first dance it is often immediately after it that it is most apparent. That is when this photograph was taken. When Katherine and David finished their first dance the guests put away their cameras and all went onto the dancefloor to join in with the next song. At that moment Katherine hugged David in a spontaneous expression of love and happiness and though surrounded by their friends and family on the dancefloor they were an island of their own.

Brides and grooms often write very kind testimonials when they have received their wedding photos and every single one means a huge deal to me when I receive it because I care hugely about providing my clients with quality work. One of the other “stand out” features of Katherine and David’s lovely wedding was that Katherine took the time over two years after her wedding to write to me again, saying the following:

Dear Steve,

Way back in September 2008 you took photos of my wedding in Portslade and at Newick Park,

I know I thanked you at the time but I have to admit not really having anything to compare them with at the time as we hadn’t had any close friends or family get married for a whole 8 years and I didn’t really know what to expect of my wedding photographer. I knew the pictures you took were great but I didn’t really appreciate how good until recently. This year we have attended 3 weddings (with 1 to go!) and I have scrutinised the photos as you can only after your own wedding and it has made me appreciate the quality of your photos and service so much more, your ability to capture the whole day was amazing when you were only one man (both my brother and friends have had 2 photographers attend) and the effort you made staying late for the fireworks and then even longer when David picked up his guitar was something that I hadn’t really appreciated until I realised how much was missed by these other photographers despite their superior numbers and, in most cases, higher cost, and none of them snapped the groom getting ready and I am so pleased you did despite the dash required from one side of Brighton to the other because it really completed the day for me.

Also, one of my best friends has just had to wade through 3000 photos provided by her photographer whereas you just chose the best for us and I thank you for that!

Anyway, thank you once again and I hope all is going well for yourself and your family. One day David and I must have a ‘do’ to employ you again.

Best regards,
Kate
(who has to change the pictures in her wedding frames around regularly because she has so many good ones!)