Photographing Life And Love

A guide to the art of documentary wedding photography – v. 1.0

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at what documentary wedding photography is and the mindset required to do it properly. In Part 2, we considered the more technical side of documentary wedding photography. In the final part of this series, we’ll describe a wedding day shoot from start to finish.

Anatomy of a Wedding Day

Preparation

It sounds like a contradiction – preparation for a documentary photographer. Surely, you’re there to photograph what happens as it happens? No need to plan. No need to prepare. After all,  you can’t plan or prepare for the unknown and unexpected.

Maybe not.

But you can make sure you’re in the best frame of mind to engage with what happens in front of your camera.

That means making sure your gear is in good working order. Batteries charged, cards formatted, lenses clean.

It also means making sure you are in good working order. Well rested, watered and fed. Make sure you get sufficient sleep the night before. Ensure you have something to eat and drink nearby during the day, in the car for instance, or a small energy bar in your suit pocket.

You will also need to check that you know where the venues are and that you allow sufficient travel time.

All of the above you do with one goal – ease of mind. You can’t control what happens on the wedding day, but you need to make sure that you are in the best mental and physical condition you can be so that you can perform at your best.

Preparing for the things that you can control will mean you can focus on the things you cannot. A clear mind allows you to work easily and confidently. It allows you to produce your best photographs.

I have a routine now, something I do religiously before each wedding. It’s so much part of my pre-wedding build-up that if I skip a single step I don’t feel comfortable.

1 – Lay out all the gear for the wedding on a workbench.

2 – Take out all the batteries and put them in chargers overnight.

3 – Clean the camera exteriors and the lenses.

4 – Clean the camera sensors.

5 – Format all of the memory cards. This is a step I take a bit of time over, making sure that all the files on the cards exist on the office network. I find that the best way to do this is to check the first file on the card and the last. If both exist on the office RAID set up, then I’m good to go. I’ll also check one in between, just to make sure.

6 – Prepare each camera. In my case, I have one camera set up with aperture priority and a 24mm lens, and one with shutter priority and a 50mm lens. Odd, I know, but it’s just how I like to work. During the wedding, these lenses usually stay on their respective bodies. Occasionally, I’ll swap one for a 135mm if I have to stand far away from the action – for instance, if I’m limited to photographing from the back of a church.

7 – Prepare my camera bag. I use a light bag to hold the 135mm lens, additional memory cards, two flashguns (for the group shots if I need them), two cleaning cloths and reserve batteries for each camera.

8 – Check the back-up gear bag: one spare camera, batteries, spare wide-angle and short telephoto lenses.

9 – Make duplicates of all of the information sheets I’ll need for the day: timings, locations, names. Sit down with a cup of tea to read over things and check locations on maps.

10 – Make sure the car has petrol, water, oil and so on.

11 – Check that I have a clean, ironed shirt to go with the suit I want to wear. Polish shoes if needs be.

12 – Prepare drinks and energy bars – usually I do this on the morning of the wedding.

13 – Switch my mobile phone to silent. Oh, so important. My phone has rung twice during the wedding ceremony in the past month – once during a soloist’s performance. Imagine if it hadn’t been set to silent. How inconspicuous would I have been then?

14 – The last thing I do is done on the morning of the wedding day, often sitting in the car before I leave. I tell myself that I am going to take some amazing photographs and I get excited about what images I will be looking at in the evening when I get home. It’s a mind exercise that kick starts my brain and gets me in the right mental frame of mind.

The Morning

The morning of a wedding day is special. This is when you will take some of the most profound photographs of the couple. It is the last time that the bride and groom are formally part of the family unit they grew up in . By the end of the day, they will form a freshly minted  family unit. This is often forgotten about in the excitement of the occasion. For the parents, it is generally a huge deal. Quite often, this is when Mum first cries. Their baby girl isn’t so baby anymore and is leaving them. It’s an emotional realization.

You have the privilege of photographing these last moments, so look beyond the usual pictures of the make-up going on, the hair being done. Watch out for interaction between the bride and her parents that reveal their relationship, and how they feel about the day.

I like to spend some time where the groom is getting ready as well. It brings balance to the final album. It creates a nice story arc that starts off with the couple separate and ends with them together.

As this is the first time you’ll meet everyone on the day, initially they will want to chat to you. I tend to go along with it as it sets people at ease. Once they have grown comfortable with me, I become part of the furniture and everyone relaxes, forgetting I’m even there. Usually, this only takes five to 10 minutes.

The morning is also when you will usually encounter the one person who is going to make a big show and fuss about not having their photograph taken. You never know who it is going to be. You don’t (mercifully) always get somebody like this. In my experience, I get them one in every 10 weddings. I’d suggest complying with their wish; otherwise, they will draw attention to you every single time you try to take a photograph, ruining a wonderful moment and picture. That is bad for your mental state.

That’s easy if it’s an uncle, but what if it’s the bride’s mother? I once had the mother of a bride grab my arm firmly when I got to her house, fix me with a steely gaze and insist that she didn’t want to appear in any of the photographs during the day. It wasn’t a very pleasant moment; she was genuinely hostile towards me.

I told her not to worry and conspicuously didn’t take her picture for 10 minutes, quarter of an hour. Then she forgot about me.

Getting Ready

The bride and groom’s preparations make for great pictures. In the case of the bride you have to be a little careful. After all, you don’t want to be taking any photographs that could get you into trouble with the groom later on – if you get my drift.

When the bride goes to put on her dress, it’s best to ask one of the bridesmaids to come and get you once the bride is ready again for public viewing.

It’s important to remember not just to concentrate on details. Sure the shoes are important, but you need to be more alert for fleeting moments rather than repeatable still-lifes.

At the Marriage Venue

Although I like to take some photographs of the groom, his family and his friends earlier in the day to run alongside the photographs of the bride getting ready, often logistics make this difficult or impossible. The venue for the ceremony is often the first time I see the groom.

There’s usually a nervous energy that’s good fun to photograph. There’ll be plenty of joking as well as the groom’s guests arrive.

Two people not to forget if they are present are the groom’s parents, frequently found up at the front of the church, already seated. If you can, keep an eye on any interaction between them and their son in the last minutes that he “belongs to them”.

This is also your last chance to speak to the official conducting the ceremony before it starts. Take the time to introduce yourself and to check what their requests are in terms of your movements and what you can photograph. I tend not to photograph a posed picture after the signing of the register. Nevertheless, most celebrants expect there to be one. I learned the hard way to make sure everything is clear beforehand. One priest whom I forgot to tell politely held up everything for five minutes, waiting for me to make the considerable trek from the rear of a cavernous church to set up the post-register photograph.

The Bride’s Arrival

A big moment in the day. You’ll have to work around the half-dozen guests for whom the whole occasion is nothing more than a personal photoshoot laid on for them. Some guests with cameras have little or no respect for the magnitude of what is happening. It won’t occur to them that the bride is nervous and wants to get on with it. You, though, should know better. So make sure that nothing you do holds up the bride’s entrance and the start of the key part of the day.

Keep an eye on Dad. The walk up that aisle is going to be the longest he will ever make. He is the forgotten man here. All the attention will be on the bride, but each of those steps is likely to be made in leaden boots. Often, amidst all the last-minute fussing at the door, the father is an isolated figure. Temporarily, he is an onlooker only – excluded from one of the biggest moments of his and his daughter’s life.

The Ceremony

I used to get very nervous once the ceremony proper started, sometimes breaking out in a gushing sweat. Quite why eludes me. What could possibly go wrong?

Sure, there was that time I set fire to myself during a ceremony.

And that time the priest berated me from the altar. (We’re chums again now and the couple, bless them, actually apologized to me about the incident, which came about due to lack of communication beforehand).

I think I dropped a camera once as well. Actually, it was twice. At the same wedding.

Which isn’t as bad as knocking over one of the videographer’s tripod-mounted cameras. And swearing, albeit softly, into their mike. Which I may have done too.

None of which is conducive to good documentary wedding photography. Believe me, it’s tough to blend into the background when you’re on fire. People start looking at you rather than what they should be concentrating on.

There are a number of things you can do to be unobtrusive.

Stay standing still as much as you can, only moving when there is natural movement during the ceremony. For instance, when those giving the readings walk up to the altar or during the sign of peace (peculiar to Catholic wedding masses only, I think). In some churches, you won’t be able to move that much anyway. Others are so big, you can move fairly freely and not be a distraction. During some ceremonies, you won’t be allowed to move at all. The Church of Ireland will let you photograph, but will insist on a single location. For these weddings, I stand at the back throughout.

Stand to the side as much as you can, where you’ll be on the edge of the congregation’s vision.

Hide behind columns. Some churches have thick columns that you can use to your advantage.

Wear dark colours. The darker you are, the less likely you are to draw attention to yourself. Make sure you avoid any flashes of red. The human eye will see red, no matter how small, from a distance. There is a reason stop lights and brake lights are red. It’s the first colour we see.

And, erm, you know… don’t stand too close to naked flames.

The Marriage Rite

The marriage rite is the key moment of the day. Nothing should detract from it. Nothing. And that includes you – the photographer.

Too often photographers don’t respect the marriage rite, be it a church or civil service. For them, everything is secondary to the photography. As a consequence, they encroach upon the ceremony. This is terrible. Don’t do it.

I remember shooting a wedding ceremony during which the videographer popped up on his knees right next to the priest during the marriage rite. What do you think the congregation was looking at, him or the couple being married?

Being a documentary photographer is all about blending in and not being noticed, not interfering. You’re there to record, not participate.

This is the only time when you really do need to keep your distance. It’s the only time on a wedding day that my 135mm lens might leave its Shootsac pocket. Typically, I like to shoot the marriage rite from the back of the church, provided I know the couple will face each other during the exchanging of the vows and/or rings. This brings with it the risk that some joker is going to step into the aisle and block your view while they take a picture. If that happens, quickly tell them that they are blocking your view.

Where you stand to document the marriage rite is your choice. But ask yourself this – if you are in the huddle on the altar, do you really think you are inconspicuous? Are you detracting from what the congregation is seeing? And consequently, are you detracting from the most important event of the day?

In case you’re wavering, the answers are No, Yes and Yes.

The Signing of the Register

There will be two instances during the day, possibly three, when the couple will have a paparazzi moment. This is one of them. Having had to sit still for the best part of an hour, practically the entire congregation, in Ireland at least, will rise off their seats and crowd round to take photographs.

This is great. One of the best pictures you can get is of the couple being photographed by three dozen iPhones.

The Recessional & The Receiving Line

If you’re going to have a falling out with the videographer, this is when it’s going to happen. Church aisles typically aren’t the widest spaces and the two of you will usually try to get the dead-centre shot of the couple walking down it. Again, a bit of communication beforehand goes a long way. Typically, I agree with the videographer that I’ll go low and they’ll go high – I crouch down on one knee, giving them a clear shot over my head.

Talk to the videographer as soon as you see them on the day. Regardless of what some photographers say, they are not the enemy. They have a job to do as well.

I have good relationships with some videographers. They try to stay out of my line of sight, and I do my best to stay out of theirs. They’re the kind of people I enjoy talking to in the bar during the dinner if I’ve been booked to stay that late. I also have their trust enough for them to ring me with questions relating to the business, and vice versa. I know it sounds as likely as Canon and Nikon executives quilting a bed spread together over coffee and biscotti, but seriously: not every videographer is your enemy.

There are, of course, exceptions. In the worst cases that I’ve seen, they’ll try to give family and guests lines as they congratulate the couple.

Be aware of the videographer’s line of sight when the bride and groom are being congratulated on the receiving line. After all, you don’t want your big fat head appearing in the video too often.

From a documentary photographer’s point of view, the receiving line is pure gold. Hugs, kisses, backslapping, the odd tear, high-fives, screaming, jumping, the odd dance… it’s one of the parts of the day where you score big quickly and easily.

The Reception

Photographing the reception is all about attitude. I like to get close. This has two key advantages over standing at the fringes with a telephoto lens picking off shots.

Firstly, the best place for me to go unnoticed is right in the mix with the guests, shooting with a standard lens or a wide-angle. By mingling in a busy room with lots of guest, people just accept that you are there in their midst. Standing away from the pack with a long lens not only draws attention to yourself, but is also a little hostile.

Secondly, going in among the crowd gives my photographs an intimacy that appeals to me. Anyone looking at the photograph almost feels themselves pressed up against the other guests listening to the conversation.

That said, at very intimate weddings, the opposite can be the case. I’ve photographed weddings with as few as 40 people, where the reception was in a large patio area. The guests split into small groups, and standing close to a group of two or three people has an impact on their behaviour – you are intruding. It’s almost as if you’re lingering to join in the conversation. That doesn’t work for documentary photography, where you’re supposed to record what happens, not influence it. In those instances, I find a medium telephoto and a few paces back works best for me.

The Wedding Breakfast

The dinner is a milestone in the day for me.

At this point, I’ll have been shooting for anywhere between six to eight hours. I get tired, and start to lose my concentration. That’s fine. 60 per cent of my couples book me to photograph up to this point in the day. My work is done – almost. I like to round off my coverage with the couple entering the room. It’s a great chance to get their reaction to the cheering and clapping. It’s also a nice picture to finish an album on – they are together, having started the day apart.

If I’m staying on to photograph more of the day, the meal is a chance to sit down, have some food away from the wedding and switch off for 45 minutes or so.

I don’t worry too much about missing anything. There will be plenty of opportunity to photograph the guests talking and laughing after dinner. Besides, photographs of people eating aren’t the most flattering.

The Cutting of the Cake

This is another paparazzi moment. People like their cake. And their cake photography. Tables will clear when the cutting of the cake is announced and a throng of popping flashes will form around the couple.

Like the photograph of the signing of the register earlier in the day, this is an opportunity to get a different picture from everyone else. Typically, I like to pop in briefly behind the couple to take a shot of the crowd of cameras facing them. After all, why take the same photograph as everyone else?

As an aside, I will have photographed the cake earlier in the day, typically during the reception. It gives me a break from the pace of the day and I get five minutes to indulge one of my other loves: food photography.

The Speeches

The photographs you take during the speeches are something of a peculiarity. You’ll capture all the emotion yet none of what was said. Well, not exactly none. If someone is roaring laughing, you can pretty much guess that the speaker has told a joke. That or an elderly relative has lost her dentures into her glass of champagne again.

The speeches present the documentary photographer with a problem. With the exception of the speaker, everyone else will be seated at their table. Everyone, that is, apart from you.

You can choose to do one of two things. Stand up or get down low near the speaker, which can produce some very effective photographs. The thing is, you must move as little as possible while the speaker is on their feet, otherwise you will be a horrible distraction. So once you’ve hunched down, you have to stay there for a while, regardless of how painful the position becomes.

We’ve all done it – crouched down to get a shot, then spent increasingly more uncomfortable minutes waiting for the elements to fall into place. It doesn’t get any easier as you get older, I can tell you. I’ve often woken up the day after a wedding with my thigh muscles aching intensely.

My rule is to move no more than once during any given speech. And then move again during the handover to the next speaker if I have to.

It’s important to remember that the father-of-the-bride is going to talk a lot about his daughter, so make sure you get a good position to include them both in the frame. Similarly, father-of-the-groom. Get Dad and son in the frame. Best man speech… you get the idea.

The speeches are a great time to get wonderful facial expressions full of joy and tears.

Or the bride may be inducted into her new tribe by being given a sporting jersey of some description. There may even be a multimedia presentation on a big screen. You’ll have to react quickly to all of these to get the reactions.

It will happen that you miss a fantastic moment because you are out of position, or because it happens so quickly. I was at a wedding photographing the speeches when one of the guests set fire to the menu on his table. It would have made for a spectacular photograph -

had I been the right side of the bride’s father. Ironically, I’d just moved from the perfect vantage point to get a good line of sight to the couple for the next speech.

The documentary photographer’s life is littered with missed opportunities. You have to learn to be zen about this.

The Interlude

Depending on the venue, the lull between the dinner and the dancing will be short or a bit longer as they clear away the tables to make room for the dance floor. Many couples take this time to go round the tables to chat to as many guests as possible and thank them for coming.

People are very merry at this point and you get some beautifully happy moments.

Keep an eye out for the children, who by now will be quite tired, presenting you with another view of a wedding day.

The Dancing

By now, you’ll have been on the go for almost 12 hours – that’s a long day. Particularly as you’ll have been concentrating hard for most of that time. Tiredness is bound to set in. I like to find a quiet spot during the interlude to gather myself for the last push. The dancing is going to present some wonderful photographs so you need to be ready.

We discussed flash versus ambient light in Part 2, but it is relevant here so I’ll touch upon it. I used to use a flashgun during the dances. I’ve learned not to.

Not only is it hugely distracting – the #1 reason you shouldn’t use it as a documentary photographer – it also ruins the light show put on by the band, which will often give you much better results anyway.

It can be difficult to get any kind of accurate colour balance, mind. Certainly, my cameras struggle a little with the colourful lighting in some of the venues around Cork. Pink light in particular causes havoc.

Your Departure

For you, the day is done. Make sure you speak to both the bride and groom. Congratulate them. Thank them for the privilege and honour of photographing their wedding. Give them a quick recap of what happens next and when they will next hear from you – particularly when the proofs will be available. If you get a chance, acknowledge anyone you’ve got to know on the day such as the parents, groomsmen and bridesmaids.

Lastly, make sure you have all your gear.

Obviously, you’re not the sort of person who’d leave anything behind.

Only a fool would.

I should know.

Over to you

Comments on this article are very welcome. In fact, I’ll be upset if you don’t leave a comment. Go ahead, add to the debate, join the conversation.

As the comments come in and a dialogue develops, I’ll no doubt make amendments to this article. I am only one mind. Beyond this blog are billions, many of them with better and deeper insights than I’ve provided here. As these come to light, I shall incorporate them into the text. Small amendments, will be reflected in the version number, which at the beginning is, no shock, v 1.0.

I’d like for that process to run for about six months, after which I’ll turn this into an e-book – one that everyone can have for free by emailing me when the time comes. Together we can produce a text of real significance.

Raise your voice. Disagree. Show support. Share your experiences. Tell us your opinions.

Let’s have some fun.