Archive for the ‘Wedding Photojournalism’ tag
Anatomy Of A Wedding #6
This is an interesting set of images for me personally for several reason. These will become clear as you read the commentary with each photograph.
I've said before that parents are often the forgotten people on their childrens' wedding days. Despite the unfortunate positioning of the clothes line, I love this picture. (c) Roger Overall 2010
There was a strong smell of onions in the air. Hardly surprising when the groom had reversed a car over his father's freshly harvested onion crop. Here they survey the damage. A moment they'll both look back on with great humour in years to come. (c) Roger Overall 2010
A special photograph for so many reasons. It shows a small crisis involving some lost paperwork. It turned up in time, but this captures a little of the anxious moments. This is also a special photograph for a very personal reason. The priest you see here was at my father-in-law's side when he passed away and was of infinite comfort to my wife's family. He is also the man who christened my daughter. (c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
So you already know I'm the emotional sort and that I love my daughter (see previous post), so you imagine that I'm going to struggle a smidge on her wedding day. There is so much story here in the father of the bride's face as he watches the final preparations before he walks his daughter own the aisle. I see pride and I see love. (c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
Anatomy Of A Wedding #5
Another selection of favourites from a recent wedding with commentary.
I have two photographs of this exchange between the bride and the flower girl. This is my favourite. Just. The other was taken side on with a wide angle and shows more of the room. The light on the bride's face is more pleasing to me in this one, taken with a standard lens. There is great story here and you can almost write the dialogue yourself. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Men do love their flowers. I'll be honest, I was concentrating on the page boy. That was where the story was. I was aware that the groom's father had a bunch of flowers as well, but only noticed afterwards that he was examining them - mirroring the little boy's movement. (c) Roger Overall 2010
And he was the well-behaved one. (c) Roger Overall 2010
On an average wedding day, a couple gets to spend surprisingly little time together - or at least time when they can have a private exchange. Holy communion is usually the first chance they get, and often they take it. I always set myself so that I have a clear view of the couple, just in case. I love the echo of the couple's intimacy and the exchange between lads on the front bench. The bride's gesture is also wonderful to me. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Weddings are happy occasions. This says everything. (c) Roger Overall 2010
What caught my eye here initially was the light in the entrance, which lit up the bride. The guest, a very dapper man dressed in black tie, was also waiting for them to come in. He makes this picture. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Something different. I like the almost total blur of the first two people compared with the relative lack of it for the second pair. (c) Roger Overall 2010
A missed opportunity - sort of. I have a series of shots of the couple as they walked down this corridor. This is the best one in terms of the bride's reflection in the glass frames. I've chosen it because the reflection was what I was after. However, there is a picture a few paces earlier where the couple are smiling at each other. Unfortunately, they are too far back to be reflected. You win some, you lose some. This is still pleasing to me because the bride looks so contented. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Anatomy of a Wedding #4
Last week I spent some time working on a new black and white conversion in Lightroom, the software I use to process my image files. In the end, I got close enough to what I wanted to use the conversion on a recent wedding.
This wedding was a bit of a mind bender. The groom has a twin. They are the spitting image of each other – or the “head off each other”, as the saying goes round this way. Once dressed in their suits they were indistinguishable on the day, save for the colour of their ties. I’m not kidding. The bride’s mum congratulated the best man instead of the groom after the ceremony. That’s how alike they are. Fortunately, I’d been warned about their similarity in advance and the groom made sure I had the tie colour code ahead of time.
I’ve photographed identical twins before at a wedding. On that occasion, I didn’t know the bride had a twin sister. It wrecked my head for about 20 minutes when I arrived at the bride’s house. She’d walk out one door in a dressing gown, only to enter again through another a nano-second later wearing a summer frock.
Name tags, that’s what I say.
Three generations of the same family in a single picture. (c) Roger Overall 2010
This is the best man, the groom's twin brother. I love the concentration that comes with tying ribbons to a car. (c) Roger Overall
It's hard sometimes to get a different sort of photograph of the bride getting ready. I like the smile on her face as she talks to the make-up artist and the way the reflection completes a border around the scene. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Your guess is as good as mine. There are some details that add to this photograph, fleshing out the story. The clock, for instance tells us what time it was. The figure of Jesus in the frame tells us about the family's relationship to religion. (c) Roger Overall 2010
The groom... no best man... This is all about the lighting and the verticals. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Usually I'm able to get a photograph of the bride and groom chatting as holy communion goes on behind their backs. Here, though, they are thronged by the congregation, which made it hard to get any picture at all. Thankfully, there was a break in the line and I got this interaction between the bride and some friends. I dulled the areas around her to let her sparkle a bit, drawing the viewer's eye in to her. (c) Roger Overall 2010
A lovely moment - one that lifts the picture above the usual walking down the aisle photograph. (c) Roger Overall 2010
OK, what's wrong here? ... Anyone?... The groom is taking off his wedding ring, sure, but that's not what's wrong. What's wrong is that the bride had slipped it on the wrong finger during the ceremony. Once outside the groom quickly swapped it over to his left hand. This photograph is of itself unremarkable, but it does show the strength of documentary photography. The ring anecdote will add colour to the stories of this wedding for years. And here is a photograph to go with the tale. (c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
One of my most accomplished photographs ever. The bride is waving at her mother as she leaves the church. For me, there is an echo through the ages. The way the mother is reflected in the window makes it almost look as if she is in the car, as she once would have been, maybe even leaving the same church on her wedding day. This photograph will mean the world in the years ahead to both of them. (c) Roger Overall 2010
We get a lot of wind in Ireland. (c) Roger Overall 2010
The father-of-the-bride and the groom - just a terrific interaction full of warmth and sparkle. (c) Roger Overall 2010
I'd been asked to photograph the bride and her circle of closest friends. At one point they all lined up for a bank of guest photographers. This to me, though, is a far more interesting photograph of the group. No, you can't see everyone's face, but you can see the dynamism and fun, which I think are far more important. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Not a classic, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a very arresting image. The hand gesture is dramatic and what makes the whole thing work for me is the lighting on the bridesmaid's right eye. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Anatomy of a Wedding #3
Wednesdays are normally reserved for PictureBoos. But sometimes your blogging schedule and your life run off in different directions.
The Boo will follow shortly. In the meantime, here is a selection of photographs with commentary from the recent wedding in Co. Kerry.
A quick nod to the bride, Caroline, who helped with the logo for The Circle of Confusion with Peter and Roger by making some wonderful suggestions as we discussed her wedding at Cork Airport back in April.
They tell you never put your subject in the centre of the frame. It's boring. Possibly. Here the dullness of the composition is helped by the leading lines of the wine glasses and the gesture by the groom. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Another photograph with the subject in the centre. However, it works because the leading lines in the photograph all lead to the groom - more or less. The railing, the bench and the tiles are the obvious ones. The groups of people either side also help direct your eye to the groom. Lastly the two trees draw your eye in as well because the innermost one is smaller, so you have the sense of a slope from right to left into the centre of the frame. Lastly, I think this photograph works because of the story and the mild humor it contains. (c) Roger Overall 2010
You can't beat emotion in a photograph, especially if it is joy and friendship. The left of the frame is balanced by the reflection of the smiling lady in the window. (c) Roger Overall 2010
There is more going on here than meets the eye. Children are often strangers at weddings. They can't really join in, so there is a separation between them and the adults. This is emphasized here by a whole range of things. Firstly, the crouching under the table, hidden from view. Secondly, by the height difference between the small boy and the adults, which is exaggerated by the low camera angle. Lastly, the boy is boxed in by the table structure and the umbrella pole. He is in his own separate frame.(c) Roger Overall 2010
I just love the expression in this picture. (c) Roger Overall 2010
This is a real favourite of mine. Importantly, it shows the couple and the tenderness between them. It is also a photograph of twos. Two people. Two chairs on the left. Two windows on the left, and two on the right. Two paintings on the wall. There are even two candles on stands in the background (c) Roger Overall 2010
This photograph is all about expressions. They range from joy to gentle smiles, to introspection and, if you look for it, what appears to be shock. (c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
The ability of the artist who made this sculpture is astonishing. It lives. It is listening to the conversation. (c) Roger Overall 2010
I don't remember taking this. That's not uncommon for me. I experience a wedding so intensely sometimes that my mind discards photographs as soon as they are taken to allow it to concentrate fully on the next one. (c) Roger Overall 2010
A lovely interaction between the bride and a guest, made more interesting by the curve of the reflection. (c) Roger Overall 2010
Another favourite. I don't need to tell you why. A superb couple. (c) Roger Overall 2010
A Shift?
I don’t do colour wedding photography. Not much anyway. That’s what I tell everyone. Pigs’ll fly before I shoot lots of colour.
Thing is, is that really true?
Looking at some of my latest work, I have to ask whether I’m experiencing a shift.
Take these photographs from a recent wedding, for instance. It was only after I’d uploaded them on to the blog (originally with the intention of running them without text) that I realized half of them were colour pictures.
Is it a blip? Or the start of a bigger development in my shooting style? Should I even care?
Maybe not. But in light of what I’ve said about colour photography in the past, all I can say is that if you are a pig farmer you’d better go and check your livestock are still on the ground.
(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
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(c) Roger Overall 2010
Did You Ever See A Happier Bride?
Here are some selects from a recent wedding in Glandore, west Co. Cork. Did you ever see a happier bride?
(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
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(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
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(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
Picture Boo – 12th May 2010
I like to show two different worlds in the same photograph. Hit the link or listen to the player to find out more.
(c) Roger Overall 2010
WeddingBoo #4 – Parallel Worlds
The Forgotten Man
Every time I photograph a wedding, I wonder about the bride’s dad.
One day, that will be me; walking my daughter down the aisle.
I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it. I’m quite an emotional person. She may have to escort me down to the front.
Don’t get me started on the speech.
The Forgotten Man. The hardest day in any father's life? (c) Roger Overall 2010
By the way, I can put this on record now: nobody is going to be good enough for her.
First Day Of Term
The first wedding of a new season is always special.
By the time it comes round, my batteries are recharged and I’m keen to get going again. At the same time, there’s always a little anxiety. Will I be able to produce the goods? The classical guys have it easier. They get to call the shots. They are in control. Documentary wedding photographers have to roll with the dice others are throwing. It can be a bit of a roller-coaster ride. You’re never sure what’s going to happen, how the light will be and (most nerve-racking of all) whether you’ll see a photograph before it happens, or react in time to something unexpected.
Therese and Craig’s wedding was a fantastic way to start the 2010 season a few weeks ago. Wonderful couple, warm guests, lots going on. I loved every moment.
(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
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(c) Roger Overall 2010
(c) Roger Overall 2010
No More Children
Children are great at weddings. They really are. They get so bored. That means you never know what they’re likely to do at any given moment. That makes for great photographs.
There’s a problem, though.
It’s too easy.
If you watch a child long enough at a wedding they’ll so something remarkable.
Cute and remarkable is a powerful mix. Tons of documentary wedding photographs rely on this. Lots of mine do.
Worse still, these pictures end up being entered for awards, where they do very well. I should know. Photographs of children (mis)behaving at weddings have been at the heart of much of my award success in the past 12 months. My two winning panels at the 2010 National Photographic Awards featured children almost exclusively.
Nice, but in a wedding category, shouldn’t the focus be on the bride and groom?
Yes, it should.
Don’t think I’ll be handing any awards back, mind. I haven’t won nearly enough to start being dismissive of them.
Instead, I’ve set myself a rule for this year’s entries into the heats for the 2011 National Photographic Awards.
Absolutely, definitely, positively, NO children in any of the photographs whatsoever at all.
Except this one:
(c) Roger Overall 2010