This was an image taken as the bride walked from the wedding car to the church for the wedding ceremony. It started to rain just as she arrived, and quickly the umbrellas came out.
Wedding Photographer Dorset. Dan Bold shares a wedding photography technique.
At Wedding Photography Select, we don't just want to show you the best images from the best wedding photographers around the world. We want to tell you a little story behind them as well. The idea, the execution, the result. As this section grows, we want to give you an in depth description of each of the shots taken by some of the very best wedding photographers. We hope it proves to be inspiring and insightful.
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Wedding Photography, for me I suppose, is a search for magic. A game of hide and seek, with the prize, a brief second, framed and bound; the tethering of an instant; an essence of a day, sampled and vial-ed for a loving couple to cherish, to remember and to pass along. Allowing the party to go on, not only late into the night but embalmed...Forever!
When shooting my first weddings I would hunt high and low for magic. I new it existed. I had seen it. I'd seen it in other photographers' work, occasionally, I was lucky enough to have glimpsed it for myself.
A loving, lingering glance, cut short by a clamorous call; a glistening eye, blinked away in macho haste; riotous laughter - I watched as it exploded and then fizzled out, an instant later - a diminuendo, never to be repeated; lost for ever. I watched it walk around a corner or run out of a door; turn its back & never glance back; glide from a clear well of warm lamp light into a cold, chaotic corner, within the wink of an eye.
I frantically searched for these fleeting compositions. I chased my quarry from pillar to post; I trailed the bride like a witless chick, fruitlessly stalking images that would evanesce as quickly as they appeared. I desperately knew what I wanted but not how to ensnare it.
After many years, I am beginning to gain a little confidence behind the lens. The nerve to 'stalk' alongside proceedings, rather than to trail behind. The courage to watch & wait patiently for magic to happen, while a myriad of moments pass by, slip out the door and are lost forever. I must now be brave and ignore these charlatans. They are only there to entice and distract me; they must be foreseen, forgone and forgotten.
Anticipation is instinct. It can't be taught, just learned through reiteration and experience, only then, only gradually and definitely never always, will time slow.
Remain free of diversion and focused on the present, is but my humble advice; concern yourself with a single notion and calmly visualise what may - or may not - be about to transpire. Above all, don't panic! Of course, this isn't easy. Doubt forever looms abundantly.
Should I really be shooting the bride's reaction? Am I making a mistake shooting towards the window? What would other photographers do? I was challenging all my own rules & conceptions; I felt foolish. Was this wise? Should I gain focus one last time? Is the image exposed correctly? How can I improve this composition?…but what if…”
I slowed down, tried to stay calm & concentrate, resolved to take the best photograph I could and to hell with the consequences! I depressed the shutter…
Nothing bad happened. No one died! I took a photograph and was pretty pleased with the result. I then turned around and took a few more, of the bride's delighted reaction to the scene. Nothing was lost, a little magic was captured and next time, I shall be a little braver still.
When shooting my first weddings I would hunt high and low for magic. I new it existed. I had seen it. I'd seen it in other photographers' work, occasionally, I was lucky enough to have glimpsed it for myself.
A loving, lingering glance, cut short by a clamorous call; a glistening eye, blinked away in macho haste; riotous laughter - I watched as it exploded and then fizzled out, an instant later - a diminuendo, never to be repeated; lost for ever. I watched it walk around a corner or run out of a door; turn its back & never glance back; glide from a clear well of warm lamp light into a cold, chaotic corner, within the wink of an eye.
I frantically searched for these fleeting compositions. I chased my quarry from pillar to post; I trailed the bride like a witless chick, fruitlessly stalking images that would evanesce as quickly as they appeared. I desperately knew what I wanted but not how to ensnare it.
After many years, I am beginning to gain a little confidence behind the lens. The nerve to 'stalk' alongside proceedings, rather than to trail behind. The courage to watch & wait patiently for magic to happen, while a myriad of moments pass by, slip out the door and are lost forever. I must now be brave and ignore these charlatans. They are only there to entice and distract me; they must be foreseen, forgone and forgotten.
Anticipation is instinct. It can't be taught, just learned through reiteration and experience, only then, only gradually and definitely never always, will time slow.
Remain free of diversion and focused on the present, is but my humble advice; concern yourself with a single notion and calmly visualise what may - or may not - be about to transpire. Above all, don't panic! Of course, this isn't easy. Doubt forever looms abundantly.
Should I really be shooting the bride's reaction? Am I making a mistake shooting towards the window? What would other photographers do? I was challenging all my own rules & conceptions; I felt foolish. Was this wise? Should I gain focus one last time? Is the image exposed correctly? How can I improve this composition?…but what if…”
I slowed down, tried to stay calm & concentrate, resolved to take the best photograph I could and to hell with the consequences! I depressed the shutter…
Nothing bad happened. No one died! I took a photograph and was pretty pleased with the result. I then turned around and took a few more, of the bride's delighted reaction to the scene. Nothing was lost, a little magic was captured and next time, I shall be a little braver still.
I worked as a cameraman for TV news in Spain for 12 years before becoming a wedding photographer, so I have taken the same photo journalistic approach to my wedding photography. 9
I've been chasing the light with my camera for as long as I can remember. I bought my first camera in junior high school, following a chance encounter with a dark room and a roll o
