My approach to photographing your wedding day
You’ll get a good sense of my approach to photographing weddings even a quick glance at my 200+ Google Reviews from other wedding couples. But below is some further detail about my approach to wedding photography - which can be described as observational, editorial, naturalistic, documentary, reportage or wedding photojournalism.
I’m a documentary London wedding photographer, not a ‘traditional’ wedding photographer
The most important thing to mention is that I am an observational wedding photographer. That means my photos focus on interactions, moments, and generally telling the story of your wedding day. So there is no special emphasis placed on the ceremony, the group photos or the couple portraits for example.
As such I do not turn your wedding into a photoshoot. So, the more ‘contrived’ aspects of the day (namely, the group photos and couple portraits - see below) are done quickly and efficiently.
Just to further elaborate, I am not what is known as a ’traditional’ wedding photographer. Those photographers will plan and pose photos meticulously throughout the day. That might sound great, but the downside of that approach is that your day would be turned into a photo shoot, it will all take longer, and you’ll also only get a fraction of the photos that an editorial photographer like me can capture.
I’m unobtrusive but I’m not a ninja
Almost every wedding photographer will tell you they are ‘unobtrusive’ and ‘observational’ in their approach. But the reality is a little bit more nuanced than that. To be truly unobtrusive, a photographer would have to stand well back from all the action and use a long telephoto lens throughout the day. And that’s just not how a professional wedding photographer can get good photos.
Especially during the ceremony, to be able to capture all the ‘micro’ moments, a wedding photographer has to get much closer (but not too close). So I would be standing about 12-15 feet away from you during much of the ceremony. And frankly, in some venues the space constraint means I have no choice but to stand even closer (take note if you’re getting married in the Rossetti Room of Old Chelsea Town Hall!)
I’m not a ninja. If I was to skulk behind pillars, out of sight of you and your guests, that’d just make me a creepy dude with a camera. So while I don’t ingratiate myself with your guests, I smile a lot, and I make occasional light banter with anyone who says hi. Apart from that, I’m going to be pretty busy taking pictures - as discreetly as possible.
THERE’LL BE SOME ‘constructed reality’, BUT ONLY A TINY BIT
I would say that 95% of my day (well, I suppose it’s your day really) is spent taking observational, documentary photographs. The other 5% is made up of doing a mix of family and friend group shots, and a portrait session of both of you:
Group shots: You don’t have to do these, but even couples who want to keep it all totally informal tend to relent to family pressure like ‘you really must get a photo with me and your Auntie Mabel’ etc, and before you know it you’ll have a list of 10 group shots. You are the clients so while it is entirely up to you how many group shots we do, I recommend you limit it to about 7-8 groups, which we can then get done in about 15 mins. I would normally suggest we do this straight after the ceremony, before guests head to the drinks reception. But you may have good reason for doing it at a different point in the day, and that's of course up to you.
Portrait session: ‘Portrait’ makes it sound quite formal and posed. But in reality, it just means the three of us wander down the street outside, or find a nice shrub or brick wall to stand you both in front of. A lot of couples tell me they hate having their picture taken, and some are reluctant to do this bit (and you really don’t have to do it, it’s totally up to you). But those same couples then often say ’that was actually quite fun’ (and admittedly, the less effusive might say ’that wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be’). So, if you do want to do this we’d need somewhere between 10-30 minutes, depending on where you want to do the photos, and how much time you want to spend on it. On average, about 15 minutes is enough.
So, these are the only ‘constructed’ parts of the day. The rest of the time, I’m telling the story of your wedding day through lots of observational, natural wedding photojournalism.
Read this blog for further insight into the timeline of an ‘average’ wedding day and how my observational approach fits into this.
Co-creation is important
I am not a wedding coordinator. I won’t direct the day because my role is observational. And again I won’t turn your day into a photo shoot that has to work according to my schedule! Having said this, I will try my best to be helpful, and especially during the group photos and couple portraits I will of course provide appropriate direction.
'Co-creation’ is important. While you are of course paying me to make creative decisions, it’s really important that you speak up on the day about anything you do or don’t want to do (you are the client after all!) So for example, if you don’t want to do a family photograph with the nice brick wall behind you but would prefer the nice shrub, you must tell me, as this can’t get fixed later! I’m not trying to pass the buck here, but I do just need to say that my creative choices won’t necessarily align with your preferences so I want you to feel totally comfortable in telling me what you do and don’t want.
I’m not a stylist
I make no judgments about anyone’s appearance. That might seem like an odd thing to say, but I’ll elaborate on what I mean.
A groom once emailed me after seeing their wedding photos, complaining that I should have told him to unbutton his waistcoat, because he thought the waistcoat made him look ‘like a Michelin man’.
But even if I did notice this at the time (and I didn’t by the way, I thought he looked great), there’s no way that I pointed it out! It would potentially be obnoxious, body-shaming and downright creepy for me to do so.
This is what your groomsmen and bridesmaids are for! And indeed, you’re getting married to each other, so I would hope you could have each other’s back on this day of all days!
That doesn’t mean I totally abrogate any responsibility. If your shirt needs to be tucked in, and things like that, I’ll absolutely let you know!
But do please tell me upfront about anything you’re sensitive about
Despite what I’ve said above, do please feel free to tell me in advance about any aspect of your appearance that you are sensitive about.
So, occasionally, someone might tell me they hate their profile, or that they’re self conscious about their teeth etc. That’s fine. Please don’t feel awkward telling me about this kind of thing at all, as we all have sensitivities. It’s something I’ll be extremely discreet about (so discreet that I won’t even mention it in front of your partner).
If you tell me, I can try to photograph you accordingly, but I am not otherwise going to be making judgments and assumptions about how you would want me to photograph you.
The edit
There will be shots I just won’t capture unless you specifically ask me to - you with your best friend, or your favourite uncle, for example. So either add these essential photos to the group shot list, or grab me on the day and get me to take that photo!
The final edit I provide to couples works out to on average 50 photos per hour. So, 400 pictures for an eight hour wedding, which provides good coverage. You should take a look at the portfolio section of my website to get a sense of what coverage looks like.
If you want a more detailed edit (by which I mean 75 photos per hour) you need to let me know BEFORE the wedding (as I then take a different approach to shooting), which would add a 10% surcharge to your booking.
