Why I love Documentary Wedding Photography

For me, documentary photography is where it all started. I love to capture those spontaneous moments, those moments that just happen and there was no way you could possibly plan for them. This is where my love for photography started and being able to look back on those moments. Those moments then became memories and through my photographs was able to look back on for many years to come. I truly love the images documentary photography produces, the completely relaxed nothing staged pictures. I don’t often big my self up but documentary photography is not as easy as it looks, I think there is an art to capturing the informal spontaneous wedding images. For me, it’s all about capturing people without them even knowing. In some of my packages I provide a same day slide show, I love watching guest reactions when they are watching the slide show and see the pictures I have taken that they have been completely unaware of.

What is the best way to capture a spontaneous wedding image?

There are a couple of different tactics I use to try and get the best spontaneous and candid wedding picture below I have listed some of them.

– Using my super flippy out screen. Cameras have improved over time and one of the best things on them now is a flippy out screen. This means I can get my camera down really low without needing to lay in the grass, or hold it up high to capture your wedding guest hiding at the back of the large group pictures. What it means for the more candid wedding pictures is I can ‘shoot from the hip.’ Basically, I can walk around and hold my camera as if I am not using it. People stop what they are doing when you point a camera at them, by photographing them using this technique a lot of the time they won’t even know what I am doing, which is perfect.

– Using a big zoom lens. This is a really useful piece of equipment in helping me go undetected when capturing candid images of your guests. I’m sure it’s self-explanatory but the zoom means I can stand a long distance from the subject meaning they again won’t realise they are having their picture taken, the result is some stunning candid pictures.

– My final method is almost completely the opposite of the first two. Its to get stuck in with the crowd. You will often find me in the middle of the dance floor at the end of the night, it really is the perfect way to capture those end of the night dancing images.

It’s the story of your wedding day.

The most important part of a wedding photographer job is to tell the story of your day. That’s what I want to do is tell your story, what happened and how it happened. I love nothing more than telling the story of your day through pictures, the ones that show the real people, the real emotion the real day. That special moment the bride has with her Dad as they reach the end of the aisle, the tears shed when its time for the speeches. You wedding day album is the story of your day and the candid pictures play a massive part in your story.

Im not here…

I quite often try and just blend in, be that fly on the wall so that I can be completely unobtrusive with your wedding guests. I take it as such a compliment when I receive reviews after the wedding saying how some time couples would completely forget I was even there. This is perfect for capturing those candid moments. You can take a look at some of those kind words below,

Posed but not?

These are some of my favarate pictures from a wedding day. These might be the formal group shots where I will position you ready for the formal image but then also capture some lathing and joking images before or after the formal posed one. I also use this technique for the couple portrait session. During you couple pictures we might find a nice location, I will position you but then let you interact, let you relax and be your self. These for me produce some of the best images from the day. The couple in a stunning location, positioned but also being them selfs.

I also like the more posed side.

Please keep on reading, don’t run a mile, let me explain. Posed wedding photography is not bad I promise. I still do it in a completely fun relaxed way. I take a more in-depth look at this side of wedding photography in a different blog where I look at posed vs documentary images. Spoiler alert, they both fit into your day just at different times and in different ways. I talk more about this over on the Posed VS Documentary Photography blog click the link to take a look.