For my Wedding Photography portfolio, I’m hoping you will join me on a journey through my style of wedding photography.
Throughout the rest of this page, you will see many of my recent favourite wedding photography images and at times, I’ll take time out to explain the back story or why I particularly love that particular wedding photograph.
There may be some surprises on the way and who knows, maybe a tear or two.
Remember, my wedding photography blog has the most up to date wedding photography posts and that is updated regularly.
Additionally, you can get a good understanding of my unique style of wedding photography by looking at my approach & style page.
Wedding Photography: It’s all about people….being people.
For me, wedding photography is about humanity and simply put, people, being people.
Of course, it’s about the love between the couple, but it’s also much more than that.
Contextually, there is so much happening at a wedding. “Love is all around”, someone said once, and I truly believe that – at least “moments are all around”.
As a wedding photographer, it is my responsibility to capture those moments…I like to call it “curating memories”.
It is not my responsibility to make moments happen, it’s simply my responsibility to photograph them.
I don’t want my clients overriding memory of their wedding spending hours with the photographer.
Rather, I want my client’s overriding memory of their wedding spending all their time with their friends and family.
People, being people…..at weddings. This is something I’m really quite passionate about.
I’m sure we’ve all been to weddings where the photographer has spent hours with the bride and groom to the point that the guests don’t actually get to spend any time with the newlyweds.
My take on wedding photography is very different from the “traditional” style.
I like to think that my clients actually hire me for my eye, for my observation technique to a certain extent, rather than as a “camera operator”.
Of course, it helps to understand aperture and all the technical elements.
Back in 2012 I was the first official Fujifilm X-Photographer in the Wedding Photography arean and have spent time all over the world giving talks and workshops on the documentary style of wedding photography.
My job, really, is to observe and preserve
My job as a wedding photographer is to observe the events unfolding.
I won’t turn up to your wedding dressed like a ninja with step ladders and six cameras around my neck.
Rather, I’ll turn up looking just like all your other guests, and behave like them too.
While you look through the images on this page, and indeed the rest of my website, you’ll get a sense of what I look for when I’m shooting a wedding.
It’s impossible to completely define the way I shoot, but if I had to explain what I look for constantly it would come down to:
Human interaction
Humour
Love
I like to think that images can be made in split seconds.
By that, I don’t mean “staged”, I mean a situation where a relatively normal moment is unfolding can be made into a very powerful image just by the shift of the eyes, or a little touch of the fingertips, a knowing wink or a smile.
Those little elements all come together to make a compelling wedding photograph.
And often, nobody else even knows these events have occurred.
I find Bridal Prep photography helps complete the overall picture of the day and whilst not every bride will want it, it can yield some beautiful pictures that will capture memories from this time of the day.
You’ll see on my notes about Documentary Wedding Photography why I think every story should have a start, middle and an end but of course, some brides don’t necessarily relish being photographed during the preparation stage of the day, and that’s fine (I’d say about 30% of my brides choose not to) – the story, through pictures, just starts a little later in the day.
The images above show a different kind of Bridal prep photography.
They are not staged or prompted at all. At no point have I, as the photographer, had any input in these images.
I like to shoot around the wedding ceremony, making the ceremony the central part of its own mini-story within the story of the day itself.
Once again, I have no intervention here and I like to start shooting the story as guests arrive, as grooms look on nervously, as kids misbehave, as the bride walks down the aisle and back up again with her new husband and then, the hustle and bustle of the hugs and the congratulations that naturally occur immediately after the wedding.
This following image is a huge favourite of mine. Perhaps, even, my favourite image I’ve shot at a wedding over the last few years.
Why? It’s not technically perfect, that’s for sure. However, for me, it just really emphasises what documentary wedding photography is all about.
There is a huge amount of happiness, emotion, love, tenderness…..all of that, in this picture.
It’s a bit grainy, but you know what, I’d love a photograph like this of me and my wife when we are at that stage of life.
I’d love to have an image like this of my own parents even.
Throughout this site, you will see some full weddings and extended highlights (I call them Photofilms).
Here is Rickie & Will’s wedding I shot in the Dordogne:
