Welcome to another edition of my ‘how I got the shot’ series.
Lesson: look beyond what’s directly in front of you.
This happens a lot to me. Just when you think you’re done with the formal group shots, the couple request one more.
I always say ‘yes’ to these things even though inside I’m thinking ‘Man, I thought we were done with this formal stuff now, I just want to get back to the action’.
Anyway, the guests for this particular photo were taking a sweet age to materialise and I was starting to get major FOMO – what else could be happening that was way more interesting than what was not happening right in front of me
Still, while I was waiting, I kept looking around to see what else was happening close to me. That’s when I noticed the bride’s mother having a hard time taking her shoes off, so I quickly abandoned the group in waiting and went over to ‘investigate’.
I saw that her shoes had left quite an imprint! Testament to the fact that some people choose to suffer in the name of looking good at a wedding!
Here’s the first photo:
While I was shooting I hoped that the scene would develop.
I felt that I need another element in the frame to anchor the observation to the wedding. A short while later the bride walked over and I incorporated the bottom of her dress in the frame. The photo was now complete. All the storytelling elements were now in the photo. I had the quirky moment captured while clearly showing that it was shot in the context of wedding.
Without the bride’s dress in the frame the photo wouldn’t have worked. It would have just been an interesting observation about uncomfortable shoes and the viewer would have no idea that the setting was a wedding.
Here’s the frame that would eventually become my ‘keeper’
Here’s the final photo after editing. I just applied a slight crop to tighten the frame and to rid the red dress of another guest in the bottom corner of the frame.
I was thrilled when this phot won an award with This is Reportage – you can check our some more of my award winning wedding photography here.
If you would like to learn more about how you can make original wedding photos of quirky documentary moments, check out my documentary wedding photography workshop page. And if you want wedding photography mentoring, check out my wedding photography education page.
The photo was taken at Kelham Hall in Nottinghamshire, and it was my second time at this huge wedding venue, having shot there for the first time in 2018- it was only my third wedding then charged £750 when I was just starting out! I’m so happy to say that I’ve been a full-time Nottingham wedding photographer since late 2019.
Cheers, Nathan