Documentary Wedding photographer : For those following me on Instagram you may have seen some of my posts becoming a little more personnel. More insightful. It’s been a soul-searching couple of months with one thing and another going on. However it’s really made me think that I may have been starting to veer off my own creative path. Maybe I‘ve been too worried about what others are doing, achieving and creating rather than focusing on what I’m doing, achieving and creating. I’ve got a little distracted of late. Anyone else feeling like that?
So, I’ve taken time to stop, rewind the clock a little and remind myself of where this photography passion really came from.
I was talking to some good friends over the weekend and it made me think about my favourite images and what made them my favourite. Whilst I love all the ‘pretty’ and all the small details that my couples have carefully picked out, what I love the most are the heartfelt moments between people.
I’ve never really told you much about my family. I bought my camera soon after my father died. He loved photography and I remember finding hundreds of his printed photos when mum and I were going through his things after he passed away. Photos I’d never seen before. Some that he used to inspire his art work {he was a potter and painter by trade}. There were some of my mother as a young woman. I remember these were in black and white. And then there were photos of my brother and I through our years growing up…babies, toddlers, teenagers – they were all there.
I looked at them one by one smiling, crying, laughing. All bringing back memories. I remember now the emotion I felt and how it made me feel closer to my dad. Seeing the world through his eyes. Seeing the love in each photo. The love between each person. The happy faces looking back at me.
It wasn’t about the pretty or the things that surrounded us in the photos. It was about the people inside those photos…how just one photo could speak to me about that wonderful day. How one photo could make my heart leap with joy. Taking me back to that moment in time. Remembering being surrounded by love, happiness and excitement of that day, of that very moment.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love capturing all the small details. And these are important as my couples have chosen them because they are important to them, therefore they are important for me to. For me these are also the scene setters. They give a context to the story.
However, if I had to choose what I love the most. What makes my heart sing when I look at my images and what excites me the most when taking photos at weddings, it’s the people ‘bit’. The photo I know that will be looked at in 10, 20 years and will make you smile, make you shed a happy tear, and make you feel the warmth and love around that moment. All this without having to recreate that moment to recreate that feeling. So, I like to think of myself as a Documentary Wedding photographer and not just a Fine Art Photographer.
I’m not sure if that makes sense or maybe it just sounds like a ramble but perhaps I can explain it better with photos. So, here they are from your Documentary Wedding Photographer; some images may not have the perfect lighting, the perfect focus and all the ‘pretty’. However, they are real moments. Moments that will NEVER be forgotten because they have been captured in time forever.
Grab yourself a cuppa and a biscuit and press play 😉
