A Wedding Is About Two People Who Love Each Other — So Show It
One of the things I make a real point of explaining to couples at their pre-wedding meeting is how I actually work on the wedding day. In fact, I probably exaggerate the point slightly because I want couples to know exactly what they're booking me for. I'm not going to spend the day constantly posing you, moving your hands around, tilting your head into exactly the right position or repeatedly telling you where to look. That's never been how I photograph weddings, and for the vast majority of couples I meet, the response when I explain it is usually something along the lines of, “Good, that's exactly what we want.”
That doesn't mean I'm going to take you somewhere for photographs, stand you in a field and leave you wondering what on earth you're supposed to do while I hide behind a camera. There's a big difference between not heavily posing somebody and giving them absolutely no help at all. I'll choose locations, look for the best light and backgrounds, talk to you and give you a little direction when you need it. The important bit for me is knowing when to stop directing and allow the two people in front of me to take over, because that's usually when the photographs start becoming about them rather than about me.
A Wedding Is Happening Because You Love Each Other
It sounds almost too obvious to say, but you're getting married because you love each other, so show it. That's really at the heart of how I photograph couples, because I can choose a location and I can help you feel comfortable, but I can't manufacture a connection between you. More importantly, I don't want to manufacture one. The connection is already there; otherwise, you've probably got considerably bigger problems than choosing your wedding photographer.
What I'm looking for is how that connection naturally shows itself. It might be the way you look at each other, a little grin, a proper belly laugh, a kiss, a cuddle or one of you taking the mickey out of the other. Every couple is different, and that's exactly why I don't want every couple I photograph to be put through exactly the same collection of poses. I'd much rather give you the opportunity to relax together and watch what happens between you, because those little reactions are yours rather than something I've rehearsed with hundreds of other couples.
Love usually does most of the work for me. Occasionally alcohol lends a helping hand, but we'll call that creative assistance.
I'm Looking for It During the Ceremony Too
That connection doesn't suddenly become important when we disappear for the couple photographs. I'm looking for it throughout the wedding day, and some of the best examples happen during the ceremony when I've got absolutely no control over what's happening in front of me.
Ceremonies can be nerve-racking. You've got a room full of people looking at you, vows to say, rings to get onto the correct fingers and all the emotion that comes with finally reaching the moment you've spent months or sometimes years planning. The last thing you need at that point is to be worrying about what I'm doing with a camera, which is one of the reasons I want couples to feel comfortable with me long before we reach the wedding day.
While all of that is happening, I'm watching for the little moments between you. Through the nerves there'll often be a glance across at each other, a smile when your eyes meet, a hand squeeze or a laugh because something has been said during the ceremony. Sometimes it's only there for a fraction of a second, but those are the moments I'm looking for because nobody has created them for the photograph. You're not looking at me, you haven't been told to smile and nobody has arranged your hands into the perfect position. For that second, you're simply reacting to the person you're marrying.
That's every bit as important to me as anything we might photograph together later.
Natural Wedding Photography Still Involves Direction
I think this is where the idea of natural wedding photography can sometimes get misunderstood. Photographing people naturally doesn't mean a photographer should never speak, never offer any guidance and simply hope something interesting eventually happens. Most people aren't used to having a professional camera pointed at them, and standing there telling somebody to “act natural” while they're wondering what to do with their arms isn't particularly useful.
I'll talk to you, I'll help you and I'll give you enough direction that you don't feel as though you've simply been abandoned in front of the camera. I might see a location I want to use or move us somewhere because the light is better, and there will be times when I'll suggest something because I know it'll get us started. What I don't want to do is control every expression and every movement that follows, because the more I do that, the more conscious you become of being photographed.
Very often I'll suggest something and then the photograph I really want happens immediately afterwards. One of you reacts to the other, somebody laughs, you move closer together or there's a little glance that I could never have asked you to reproduce convincingly. You've stopped thinking about what I've just said and, for a moment, you've stopped thinking about the camera as well. After photographing weddings for the best part of two decades, I've learned that those few seconds can tell me far more about a couple than any pose I could carefully construct for them.
I Want Your Photographs to Look Like Your Relationship
There are photographers who create beautifully posed and highly directed wedding photographs, and there are couples who absolutely love that style. There's nothing wrong with either, but it's one of the reasons choosing a wedding photographer should be about more than comparing prices or scrolling through a few nice photographs. You need to understand how that photographer works and whether you'll actually enjoy being photographed that way on your wedding day.
It's also why I talk about my approach so much at the pre-wedding meeting. By the time your wedding arrives, I don't want there to be any surprises about how I work. You know I'm going to organise things when they need organising, particularly with family and group photographs, and you know I'm going to help when you need me. You also know that I'm not going to turn your wedding into a photoshoot and spend half the day telling you exactly how to behave with the person you've just married.
Ultimately, I want you to look through your photographs afterwards and recognise yourselves in them. I want the laughs to be your laughs, the expressions to be yours and the connection between you to be something that actually happened rather than something we recreated because I'd seen somebody else do it on Instagram.
A wedding is about two people who love each other, and somewhere amongst the nerves, the ceremony, the guests, the speeches, the drinks and everything else happening around you, that relationship is constantly showing itself in little ways. I can't manufacture that connection between you, but I can make you comfortable enough to let it show, recognise it when it does and be ready with the camera when it happens.
That's where the natural photographs come from.
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