The Documentary Photographer » Wedding Days

Lapland Wedding Photography Leak

Roger Overall — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:11:48 +0000

I’ve spent so much time looking at the interface of Adobe post-production software in the past two weeks, I’m starting to lose my sanity. The week ahead isn’t going to offer much respite. Lunacy beckons.

I shouldn’t complain. Much of the work that I’m doing now is laying the foundations for income in the near future. Once the post-production is complete, there will be products to sell.

In the case of my Lapland wedding images, there is an eager audience of wedding guests waiting to order prints.

Here are a few more samples photographs by way of an advance leak of a big blow-out post I’ll do next week sometime.

This is quite a complicated image. One to dwell on. There is a lot going on, yet it is tranquil at the same time. © Roger Overall 2011

Granddaughter and grandmother © Roger Overall 2011

Can. You. Imagine. What. This. Would. Have. Looked. Like. If. It. Had. Snowed? © Roger Overall 2011

If you’d like to learn more about documentary wedding photography, why not book a place on one of my seminars?

Lapland Wedding – Day 4: The 3200

Roger Overall — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:28:06 +0000

Yesterday I was in uncharted waters, far outside my comfort zone.

Lapland is a dim place this time of year. It is even dimmer when it’s overcast. And that dimness only lasts for six hours or so. Otherwise it is dark.

Inside, things are only marginally better. Lights are mostly of the low-power tungsten variety. They are intended to glow rather than illuminate.

For an ambient light photographer, that makes things tricky.

I was in a world of 1/20th at f/1.8.

And that at ISO3200 or 6400.

If you’re a photographer, you’ll know that those are numbers to make you go unstable at the knees. If you’re not a photographer, curl up in a ball on the floor and roll around for ten minutes whimpering, “Mummy, Mummy, Mummy.” That’ll give you an idea of the horror those numbers represent.

The angels on my shoulder

A decade ago, I would have had to bite the bullet and photograph the wedding using flash.

I hate flash for documentary work. It produces photographs that bear no resemblance to what things looked like.

This was a dark wedding. The photographs had to show that.

Digital camera technology has progressed dramatically, though. While I can’t say the three cameras I had available to me are entirely comfortable at ISO3200, they did their job. In one instance, beyond what I felt was possible. That’s a post for another day. For now, it is enough to say that as yesterday’s murkiness enveloped me I was in good company.

Here is a quick selection of files that I worked on last night while backing up all of the files on to two separate drives. They are rough cuts and there is an imbalance in the coverage of the day. I’ll post a more complete set when I get back to Ireland. For now, these will give you a flavour of the day.

There weren

The groom and his son getting their ties on © Roger Overall 2011

The two stars of the day. That

Talk about practical. A torch mounted in a lipstick applicator to help overcome the murkiness in the cabin © Roger Overall 2011

When this happened, my mind just went,

Natural grace and poise. I couldn

When luck meets the prepared, special things happen. I

Flash would have ruined this © Roger Overall 2011

The final act of the day was the release of about 30 of these lanterns © Roger Overall 2011

Mirror Image

Roger Overall — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 19:18:38 +0000

Here’s a confession. Motorized machines don’t really interest me. When men huddle together to talk about cars at parties, I’m lost. I watch Top Gear and can distinguish correctly the front end of a car from the back at least nine times out of ten, but that’s as far as it goes.*

Motorcycles leave me even colder. This is good news, as it means my mid-life crisis is unlikely to morph into a desire to dress up like a Rolling Stones roadie and straddle a chrome-encrusted noise factory so low slung that my rear end is barely four inches off the tarmac.

Not all men are so lucky. Earlier this year a crowd of bike enthusiasts gathered outside the Brehon hotel in Killarney for some kind of bikefest. Regrettably, it coincided with the reception of the wedding I was photographing. My eyes are still hurting at the sight of so much middle-aged blubber oozing out from under tight T-shirts and over the waists of even tighter leather slacks. And everyone walking about as if they’d scalp you if you glanced at them the wrong way. That’s a hard look to pull off when you are so clearly a purchasing clerk, or an accountant, or an insurance broker, or whatever office-imprisoned dullard in real life. Do honest-to-God warriors of the road really have Gold Member credit cards and rooms in four-star hotels?

As for the noise – it was like being punched in the ear. What is the point of riding something so loud it makes the flower girls cry?

The only redeeming feature of the bikes parked outside the hotel (if you discount the release of dopamine and adrenalin from laughing so much at the sight of a ‘Goldwing’, surely the most comedic bicycle ever built) was the fact that the occasional mirror allowed me to produce an interesting take on the wedding reception.**

This photograph was harder to take than it looks as I had to contort my body to get the right angle. In the end, I had to crop a little of the mirror (and myself) out of the frame. (c) Roger Overall 2011

*That said, I did enjoy touring the surrounds of Arles in July in a classic Porsche 911. Though this was likely more to do with the friendly and engaging company, the endless talk about photography, and the availability of good food and wine at the end of each ride than with the car itself.

**Don’t even think about suggesting what a great photograph it would have made to get the bride and groom to go on a bike.

Airborne Flower Girl

Roger Overall — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:49:10 +0000

My reflection on this year’s main wedding season continues with this photograph taken just before the bride and groom were announced into the dining room at a wedding celebration in Co Waterford.

Airborne Flower Girl (c) Roger Overall 2011

Tight Fit

Roger Overall — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:16:52 +0000

While weddings take place year round, they do tend to be clustered between the months of April to September – a period that I would consider ‘the season’. This year, the wedding season ended a little earlier than normal for me. Last Friday, in fact. It was a bit of a landmark, as it was likely the last full wedding season I’ll photograph. I will be taking wedding assignments next year, but I won’t be booking a full season. From 2013 onwards, I will photograph only a very limited number of weddings each year. I’m thinking possibly five or six.

In the meantime, there is this year’s season to reflect on. To mark it, I’ll be posting a wedding picture a day for all of this week.

Here’s today’s offering:

Page Boy And Hat (c) Roger Overall 2011

Three In A Row – Day 3

Roger Overall — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:52:59 +0000

There were two subplots to today’s wedding story. The first involved an injury to the groom, sustained in the run-up to the day; the second concerned the weather, which was horrid. The air was filled with particles of water that were swept around by the wind all day. You wouldn’t call it rain. Rain tends to fall downwards. This stuff just hung there and swirled about. It even seemed to go upwards at one point. The really peculiar thing was that the sun was there, just beyond the droplets. It had enough presence to be bright, but not enough to disperse the water and punch through.

That’s what today’s photograph is all about. It’s a scene-setter. Nothing dramatic, but it will in the years to come help the couple recall the odd weather of the day.

Summer in Ireland (c) Roger Overall 2011

Not Food Friday

Roger Overall — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:44:47 +0000

This week’s Food Friday post is in the works, but I’ve been overrun by a tender process for a big commercial job. I’m also working my way through last weekend’s wedding before I head off on Sunday to Rencontres d’Arles. In the meantime, here’s a photograph from a recent wedding. Seems fitting after yesterday’s post.

Anatomy Of A Wedding Day #15 – Anne & Daniel – County Cork & County Kerry, Ireland

Roger Overall — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 08:30:46 +0000

Here are some wedding photographs by way of a change of pace. People are coming up to me to ask about my sudden obsession with cattle and meat. They are starting to worry that it is unhealthy. I have even been asked whether I’m giving up wedding photography altogether. The answer is “No” – at least, not willingly. The way the market is heading may force me to in the next few years, but that’s another blog post entirely.

In the meantime, as long as couples still give me the privilege of photographing their weddings, I’ll continue to do so. Here is a selection of photographs from a wedding shot in December. I won’t forget it in a hurry. I had to abandon my car in the snow by the side of the road on my way back from the wedding reception. It could go no further on the icy roads. Fortunately, it was only 50 metres from my house. It could have happened 50 miles from home. That really would have been a story.

Anatomy Of A Wedding Day #14 – Triona & JJ – County Cork, Ireland

Roger Overall — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:39:18 +0000

I won’t dwell too much on these photographs that I took at a west Cork wedding late last year. I’ll let them speak for themselves.

One thing I did learn from this wedding is that when the clocks to back in Autumn, it’s wise to change the time on both cameras – not just one. If you don’t, you end up with a monster chronological jigsaw puzzle in post production.

Anatomy Of A Wedding Day #13 – Kristel & Bernard

Roger Overall — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:03:46 +0000

I photographed six weddings between 10th December and 10th January. My busiest Christmas period ever. Exhausting, but very satisfying as well.

One thing I would like to do here is give a big, public thank you to Mike Hutt of Aquarius Photography and Con Scanlon of Anvil Studios, both of whom loaned me cameras last month when my second body had to go for urgent repair.

Mike also loaned me his Canon 50mm f/1.2 lens. This lens generally gets a bad press.

Let me give you a mini-review based on my own experience:

O. M. G.

If I decide to stay with Canon as my main camera system I shall buy one.

Meanwhile, the busy Christmas period means lots of photographs to show and discuss.

I like a reflection, as regular readers already know. I also like to capture my subject in a splash of light. If I can get both: happy days! I set the exposure for the pool of light and waited for the groom to appear. Then it was down to luck. The groom appeared fixing his collar, which adds story to the photograph. Only afterwards did I really notice all the triangles and sharp corners in the frame, which I think really enhance it. I also like the shadow on the wall on the right. It adds a quirkiness. (c) Roger Overall 2010

For the bride and her entourage, wedding day clothes are a big deal. Much less so for the guys. In fact, I went out and bought a new pair of shoes on the morning of my own wedding. So it's not uncommon for the lads to be putting on their suits on the day and only then notice various tags that need attention. Teeth, bread knives, scissors - anything will do, really. In addition, the clock gives us a time check that adds some a chronological anchor. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Women are amazing. They know everything about clothes. Even men's clothes. More impressive still is that this is the bride. To me, this picture tells an awful lot about Kristel. She is calm, authoritative and has the respect of others. The kind of person you go to with a problem you need help with. She is cool when others might feel pressure and accommodating when others might not be (this is the morning of her wedding, don't forget). (c) Roger Overall 2010

What can I say? Flower girls just melt your heart every time. From a documentary photographer's point of view, they are the best invention ever. (c) Roger Overall 2010

A fluke. He looks as if he is holding the door open. Yet if he were, he'd be about eight feet tall, or have arms of similar length. There is something Escheresque about this picture that appeals to me, though at the time I was merely concentrating on his gesture. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Wedding guests often go off into their own little microcosms that are worth keeping an eye on. The father and his child are in a bubble of their own. A lovely moment amidst the bustle. I saw the interaction and decided to stand face-on to them, placing them at the edge of the frame, where your eye comes to rest. Then it was a case of waiting for the right moment. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The most story is often in the smallest gestures. (c) Roger Overall 2010

You don't need to be standing right on top of the bride and groom to tell the best story. By stepping back, you give context and something for your eye to dwell on. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I find getting a good shot on the receiving line is either dead easy or absurdly hard. Ideally, I look for interaction between both the bride and groom and their guests. Sometimes, it just isn't working for me and I can't seem to get it. A cluttered line of sight is most often the problem. Here, though, there was plenty of space in which to move and free up my view. (c) Roger Overall 2010

A light shining above a group of talking people is always a promising situation. Especially if they are enjoying themselves. One of them is bound to throw their head back in laughter, illuminating their face. (c) Roger Overall 2010

It is comparatively rare to see the groom discussing his ring with his friends. For a shot like this, in a crowded room, I like to get close. Often you blend in better by standing nearby, particularly in small spaces with lots of people. Groups talking amongst themselves rarely pay much heed to anything outside their circle. (c) Roger Overall 2010

It's a long day for children. (c) Roger Overall 2010

This is a very special photograph for me. Not only does it show a terrific moment, but it shows two brides whose weddings I've photographed embracing. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The area around seating plans is always a rich hunting ground for documentary photographers. I was able to get an elevated view on some stairs and then simply waited to see what happened. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I spent a lot of the time over the Christmas holiday period shooting at slow speeds at high ISO. Here, I was able to rest the camera on a railing, allowing a slowish shutter speed to get a hint of motion blur. The Canon 5DII autofocus is truly miserable so there was no hope of the camera locking on and holding focus as people walked towards me. Instead, I pre-focused and popped the shutter when someone walked into range. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Taken before the couple went into dinner, three things come together here: the reflection, the groom fiddling with his newly acquired ring and the bride's expression. It often happens on wedding days that the short time before the bride and groom go in to dinner is one of the few chances they have to chat to each other. I often hang back for a few minutes as these moments are usually full of photographs. I don't linger too long though. I don't want to intrude on this precious time together. (c) Roger Overall 2010