Wedding Photography for Guests II

Yesterday I started a 4-part guide to Wedding Photography for Guests, and began with some tips on getting distinctive shots before and during the ceremony, be it in a church, registry office or other venue.  The idea of this guide is to help you create a series of images that show a guest’s perspective of the wedding day – something that, in my experience, the bride and groom always love to see.   In this part we consider what you can do to get great photos after the ceremony, and before dinner starts.

Part 2 – After the ceremony

This part of the day – the run up to dinner, with the formality of the ceremony out of the way – can be a rich feeding ground for any wedding guest to get great photographs that the official photographer often just won’t be able to get.  And to start, we’ll use that to our advantage.

Photograph the things the official photographer isn’t

No matter what camera, lens or ability you have, there’s really not much point spending all your time trying to take photographs that the official photographer is taking.  For one thing, you probably wont post-process them to the same extent as they will, or as well, and even if you do, the bride and groom don’t need two captures of the same scene taken from two slightly different angles.   More significantly though, if you position yourself next to the official photographer during, for instance, the formal photographs after the ceremony, chances are half the people in the group will look at your camera and the other half will look at the official photographer’s camera, meaning that neither of you gets a good photo.

Rather than risk interfering with the official photos in this way, you’re far better off trying to photograph the things that the official photographer isn’t photographing.  This is especially true after the ceremony, where they may be focused on getting formal family shots or even a group shot of the entire wedding party.

At last Friday’s wedding, where I was a guest, we emerged from the church to find rain just beginning to fall – not heavy enough to abort the group shot that the couple obviously wanted, but not light enough to risk delaying it too much longer.  It was the worst type of rain to come out to from the photographer’s point of view – limbo rain, if you like.  She had, sensibly I thought, positioned a step ladder outside the church so that it was pretty obvious to guests that there was to be a group photograph – that kept everyone nearby.  However the rain was a concern, and she ran up to the door a couple of times to check how many more guests were still standing in line to greet the couple after the wedding.  For a couple of minutes therefore she was distracted by the weather and the need to get a group photo as soon as possible.  In that same couple of minutes I, as a guest, knew I should stay close by in case the group photo could happen, and I was able to snap away outside the church while I waited.  The bride’s brother, Conor, was also standing outside and I took a photo of him unawares, and then another quickly when he spotted me (the image you see up top).  You can see the bride and groom in the background, which helps to put a time on the image also.  The official photographer probably got some lovely photos of Conor earlier and later in the day, but at that moment she didn’t get the one I did.  About a minute later, the bride’s niece, a flowergirl on the day, put up an umbrella and shared a joke with Conor, and I took another photo.  The image I took, which I won’t share here just yet, is an absolute cracker of a shot even if I do say so myself – she is holding the umbrella, which matches the ribbon on her dress, and is laughing with her head thrown back in the most natural of poses, and all in beautiful light thanks to the mix of sunshine and clouds overhead.  Of all the photos I took at that wedding it is my absolute favourite, and I can be pretty certain that the official photographer, through no fault of her own, has no photo like it.  I had the luxury of being able to choose what to photograph – she was under serious time pressure with the weather closing in, and had a job to do.  I’ve been in her position before and will be again, but the point is that as a wedding guest, if you photograph your own thing instead of the things everyone else is trying to photograph, you’ll get shots that no one else will get, and your photos will stand out as a result.

Photograph the wedding car

Chances are the official photographer will be photographing the wedding car at some stage – perhaps in the morning before the ceremony – but it’s worth taking a few photos of it outside the church, primarily to help to tell the story of the day with your images.  If this seems like a contradiction to my previous suggestion, let me just recommend that you don’t try to photograph it at the same time as the official photographer is, or that if photographing it puts you in the background of one of the official shots (for instance as the bride and groom get into it), you hold off until later.

When you do photograph it, take a wide photo showing it in the context of its surroundings, and take a few detail shots too – especially if it’s a vintage car, but even if it’s a modern car it will likely have ribbons or other details specific to the wedding day.  And why not include the driver in your photo too – afterall he’s part of the wedding day as well.  For something a little less static look for moments that evolve in the vicinity of the car – for instance here the bridesmaid went to retrieve an umbrella from the front seat.

Photograph the exterior of the hotel

On Friday I was driving, so as we pulled into the hotel I stopped, put down the window of the car and grabbed a quick shot of the entrance to the hotel – again, an element that would help me tell the story of the day in my images.  Even if there’s not a chance to do this, you’ll likely have ample time before the reception to take some photos of the exterior of the hotel itself, and because there’s a wedding on it will be looking its best – even if it’s not a nice day, but especially so if it is.

Keep an eye out for the bride and groom

One of two things will most likely happen during this part of the day with the bride and groom – they’ll be whisked away to a scenic location for some photos with their bridal party, or they’ll arrive early and have some photos taken on the grounds of the hotel.  Either way, at some point they probably will arrive back to their guests for a chance to mingle before dinner.  Keep an eye out for this, because you can get some great natural photos of this moment.  Also, if they are having photos taken at the hotel, keep an eye out for them as they move from one location to another.  As before, don’t interfere with the photos or decide to tag along, but look out for pictures that are to be had from a distance.   At Rathsallagh on Friday, the bridal party walked from a walled garden at one side of the house to an area near stables at the back of the house for another set of photos, but that walk made for an interesting image itself.

Photograph the other key players

The bride and groom will be the most photographed people on the day, but the bridesmaids, groomsmen, best man, parents, flower girls and page boys are also important to the day, and if you see them milling around after they’ve been relieved from official photo duty.  Given that they are probably only just getting to relax, don’t ask them to pose – instead try to take natural shots from a distance.

Along similar lines, photograph the other guests.  They’ll probably be far more conscious of the official photographer than they will be of another guest with a camera, and if you know them well you’ll also have an advantage over the official photographer of knowing who the groups of friends are.  Use this knowledge to get both candid and posed photos of them interacting during the drinks reception.  And if you’re really lucky, you might be able to photograph the key players and the guests at once:

Once again, don’t forget to enjoy the day as a guest too, and try to achieve a balance between taking photographs and just relaxing in the company of the other guests.  By now you and everyone else will probably be eagerly awaiting the call to dinner.   And if you’re not sick of taking photos, there are lots of photo opportunities to come once you get into the reception room.

More on that to come in part 3 of this four part series.