Category Archives: Wedding Photography

09/21/11

Mirror Image

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.**

Bride and groom at their reception framed in a motor bike mirror

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.

09/21/11

Stepping Back

This year has been a very important one for me in terms of my style. I’ve found myself stepping back a lot more.

Often, as photographers we tend to concentrate on a detail. We like to isolate particular things, actions or people. In this instance, I could have stepped in and filled the frame with the groom editing his speech. I could have gone even further and just photographed the pen in his hand writing on the paper. That would have been a very limited story, though. By stepping back, and I mean way back and including the environment, the story expands. To me, this says something of the separation of bride and groom on the morning of their wedding.

Groom editing his speech in a room at the Maryborough House Hotel, Cork, on the day of his wedding

Editing (c) Roger Overall 2011

09/19/11

Tight Fit

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 pulling down the hat of a young guest at a wedding in Co. Waterford, Ireland

Page Boy And Hat (c) Roger Overall 2011

 

08/12/11

Three In A Row – Day 3

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.

Ardfield, Co. Cork, Ireland

Summer in Ireland (c) Roger Overall 2011

08/11/11

Three In A Row – Day 2

The picture below is a complicated one. It was shot on day two of my three-day wedding marathon and is so packed with story you’d almost think it was a mess. Yet it does hang together.

What drew me in initially was the reflection. The bride and some friends were posing for a group shot, which on its own makes for an interesting image. One of the group is looking up at the bridesmaid on the stairs (the bride’s sister, in fact), which transforms her from a mere spectator; she’s now connected to the group. The piano player is looking straight ahead. You’d almost think that he’s looking at the reflection of the bride. But of course he can’t be. The reflection only works as it is from my position, much lower down. For the photograph, it works though and ties everything together.

Bride reflected in a piano

(c) Roger Overall 2011

08/10/11

Three In A Row – Day 1

Every wedding season for the past four years, I’ve had one week when I’ve been booked to photograph weddings on three consecutive days. Mentally and physically, that’s a tough ask. At the moment, I’m young enough and fit enough to manage, but it does take preparation and an extra big cup of coffee in the mornings. And the most important thing? Taking the time to check that every single image makes it off the cards and on to the office server before the cards get formatted again.

This year, my three back-to-back weddings are a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I had a verbal booking for the Saturday as well, but that fell through. In a way, I’m relieved. Four weddings in a row is probably one too many.

For the next three days, I’ll post a quick photography from each day.

Yesterday, I was in Adare. I’ve chosen this photograph because of the light, the pattern and the symmetry, and because it proves that photographers and videographers can work together.

To take the photograph, I stood behind filmmaker Maurice O’Carroll of Velvetine Studios, who had taken the low, crouched position. Maurice and I have worked together quite a few times, and we always get into a rhythm quickly on the weddings we cover together. Honestly, it’s a bit like a ballet, the way we move around each other – though I did almost run him over today in my car. He filmed the whole thing. Who knows, he may post the footage one day? Because Maurice was low he wasn’t blocking anyone’s view while he filmed. I took a quick shot from the high position and moved away so the congregation could see.

Lighting candles at a wedding in the Holy Trinity Abbey chuch in Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland

(c) Roger Overall 2011

07/26/11

LOOK OVER HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I’d burst an eardrum, such was the roar from behind me.

Worse was the fact that the photograph I had been waiting 15 minutes for, crouched down and peering through the railings at the stairs across the landing from me, was now gone. Blown away by a boisterous guest. In fairness, he probably thought he was helping. Yet when you’ve seen a potential photograph, stayed motionless for quarter of an hour waiting for the bride to arrive, negotiated with the cloud gods that they won’t pass in front of the sun at the critical moment, only for it all to go wrong at the last instant, you can’t help but howl in anguish and find a quiet corner to cry in be a smidge disappointed.

Anyway, let’s back up and start at the beginning.

Perceived wisdom is that overcast days are better for photography than bright sunny ones. No sharp shadows, all that stuff. It’s not true. Sure, sunny days can be more challenging as you try to cope with the big differences between highlight and shadow areas, but they also give you more exciting light to work with, particularly indoors, where windows can create interesting pockets of light and shadow patterns.

At a recent wedding reception, I watched the page boy come down the stairs leading to the hotel dining room, quickly taking this frame:

(c) Roger Overall 2011

Dinner was about to be called and, looking at this photograph on the back of the camera, I wondered what the scene might look like from across the landing. If it was any good, there would perhaps be the ingredients for an interesting photograph as the bride came up the stairs on her way to the dining room. A quick check and I was happy enough that it was worth a go, if I got down low to shoot between the railings. Not ideal, particularly as it meant sitting at the foot of the door to the toilets. A man with a camera can earn a reputation that way, you know.

For the photograph to work, two things would have to come together at once: light and people, neither of which I could control. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

After the guests had climbed the stairs into the dining room, I got into position. I knew Aoife and Mairtin, the bride and groom, would come up the stairs together with their bridesmaid, best man and the hotel’s wedding co-ordinator. There was nothing I could do about the order they would come up in, and I could only hope that Aoife would be hugging the bannister, providing an unobstructed view of her and her dress. I wanted her almost dead centre in the frame, just before she stepped out of the light.

While I waited, clouds passed in front of the sun, turning the light from interesting to ditch water dull. The photograph would only be a goer if the sun were out. Blessed of all blessings, though, the clouds cleared just as I heard the bridal party cross the hallway beneath me and start to come up the stairs. The light was gorgeous. Inside, I was like a little girl with a puppy. This was going to be great.

I watched the wedding co-ordinator jog up the stairs, several steps ahead of everyone, and then Aoife came into view, leading the pack. Perfect.

I took a quick shot as soon as Mairtin also appeared, just to settle myself:

The first frame, almost there, only one more step up needed. (c) Roger Overall 2011

Aoife need to go up one more step, though, just a bit further, almost ther…

“AOIFE! AOIFE! OVER HERE! LOOK OVER HERE!!!”

I don’t know who was more surprised: Aoife or me. Certainly, I was startled enough to pop off a frame as my body contracted around my camera:

(c) Roger Overall 2011

On reflection, though, I have to admit something. I quite like this frame. It is more interesting than the one I had planned. Life’s funny.

07/18/11

Not Quite Wide Enough

My two favourite focal lengths on my 35mm cameras are 50mm and 24mm. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to choose a single one to live out my days with, I would likely choose the 24mm. At the moment, anyhow. Ask me again next week and you might get a different answer.

I would choose the 24mm because I like to show context in my photographs. Rather than zoom in on a detail, I prefer to step back and show the surrounding story. It also allows me to show multiple worlds in a single frame, something that is much harder with a 50mm lens.

Sometimes, though, 24mm isn’t quite wide enough. For the picture below, I would have loved a little more, pressed up against the corridor wall as I was. Almost a great photograph.

Cork wedding photographer photograph of a bride getting ready

(c) Roger Overall 2011

07/1/11

Not Food Friday

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.

(c) Roger Overall 2011