My favourite part of the wedding day to photograph is the morning of the wedding, when the bride is getting ready and everybody is preparing themselves for the day ahead. For Cáit’s wedding the morning was a very relaxed affair and it was lovely to be able to observe and document the few hours before the ceremony: the girls having their hair and make-up done; the flowers arriving at the house; some Cáit’s family calling to get ready themselves; the car pulling up outside; the clock ticking closer to 2 o’clock.
For that few hours I’m playing a few different roles, both photographically and otherwise. Primarily, I find myself being a documentary photographer, capturing events as they unfold without any influence on what is happening in front of me, trying to stay in the background as much as possible. From time to time, for a photo that I know will be looked for later, I will gently direct some posing – for instance pictures of the bride with her parents, or indeed her parents alone, that will likely make the wedding album.
I’m thinking ahead to the album all the time too and capturing detail shots of the signs about the house that a wedding is happening that day. If there are children who will be present later in the day, I’ll try to engage with them in the morning so that they know who I am later when I’m trying to take more formal photographs of them as part of the larger family group.
Most important of all perhaps, is not what I do with my camera, but what I do without it. Even if I have my camera over my shoulder, or on a window sill next to me, I feel it is important not to be constantly taking pictures, but to be engaging with the bride, the bridesmaids, the bride’s parents, her siblings. I want to feel relaxed around them, and I especially want them to feel relaxed around me.
I will aim to arrive at the house nice and early in the morning – not just an hour before the ceremony – and that allows me time where I am not taking photos, but where I can sit down with a cup of tea to chat, to get to know people, and to get a feel for what they might see as the most important aspects of the day. That will, consciously or subconciously, inform what I photograph later on as I aim to capture images that are meaningful to the bride and her family.
Ultimately, all of us being relaxed in each other’s company means that I start to go unnoticed, and can observe proceedings through my lens and get some fabulously relaxed and natural photographs. This photograph of Cáit’s sister Fiona taking a photograph of the bride with her mother Mary is a good example. All three subjects in my photograph are totally relaxed, and almost oblivious of my presence. If I had arrived just a few minutes earlier they may well have tensed up, or looked at my camera instead of Fiona’s camera, and the moment would have been spoiled.
On a technical note, I absolutely love the light in this shot – the room is bright and airy, and the photo is refreshingly bright. In colour it looks good, but I think (even if I do say so myself!) that as a monochrome conversion it looks absolutely great.
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