“The reportage approach of your work stood out to me. I’m very much not into the plastic, over-indulgent (typical) wedding photo look. Hopefully, the day will be casual, warm and friendly, without being too fussy over “things being perfect”. We just want to have fun with friends and family, and capture that atmosphere organically.”
Recently we’ve been asked by several readers of “Is This Something?” (our documentary wedding photography book) about couple photographs, as there is no mention of newlywed photographs in our book aside from documentary ones taken in situ. They wanted to know if we take couple photographs and, if not, how we communicate that idea to our couples and our general thoughts on the subject. We thought it was an interesting question to ask and thought we would attempt to answer in this, our latest blog post.
The simple answer is that our number one priority is to make our couples happy, and so (whilst a large percentage of our couples want no portraits at all) yes, if a couple specifically ask for one or two posed shots on the day we’re more than happy to oblige and we will treat those shots with no less (or more) reverence than any other photograph we take. But to truly make our couples happy we need to be sure from the outset that we’re all on the same page and for us, on a wedding day, it is the real, perfectly imperfect, unpredictable moments of random spontaneity that we personally feel create the most special memories and the most incredible photographs. So it is those that we prioritise and it is that message that we’re eager to convey to our couples. For that reason we never share wedding portraits with anyone but the couple, no matter how proud we may be of some of the images we capture.
That’s not to say that we don’t enjoy portraits, indeed we own and run a studio entirely dedicated to capturing them (see www.kaleid.me) But, as with all of our photography, when we take a portrait we want it to say something; to reveal a connection. Not just to be pretty but to tell us something about the person (or people) in the frame. That can take time; time away from the guests, time away from connecting with loved ones, time to capture something really quite separate from the wedding itself. If a couple wants a portrait we are all in – let’s get into the studio, let’s spend a day capturing two or three special, meaningful frames. But on a wedding day we know that for every second we take the couple away from their guests, there are a hundred equally powerful photographs unfolding all around us that will never be captured. For many couples that’s ok – the portraits are the way that they want to remember their day and there are so many incredible photographers who specialise in providing exactly what they need. So we want to help those couples to find the right photographer for them – one who is as excited about wedding portraits as we are about unposed moments. One of the things we love about this industry is that every wedding photographer brings to the role their own style, their own unique eye and individual passions – the photographic landscape would be far less interesting if everyone shared exactly the same approach!
By only sharing the documentary images we love we can set those expectations right at the start. With no form of posing or intervention present in our portfolio, we remove the idea that anyone needs to pose for the camera at any stage (even the wedding portraits we do occasionally take are more about placement than actual posing – we’re always looking for the couple to bring a spontaneous element to the frame). In doing so we aim to attract couples that love exactly what we love about weddings and about photography; couples like the lovely Emma and Paul. When these guys contacted us they made it immediately clear that they didn’t want to spend their day performing for the camera, they just wanted to dive in and have fun with their friends and family and live, feel and love every last second of their wedding. In our book we write about capturing “documentary portraits” – keeping a watchful eye for those moments when the couple naturally come together and then working the scene with all the care and attention of a portrait, but without any orchestration of the action. It was these natural moments together that Emma & Paul were excited to see; these frames that they would choose to hang on their walls, and that shared passion and understanding between the couple and ourselves that made this such a joyous event to capture.
Photography is all about expression; about creating photographs that excite not just your couples but also yourself. Our approach is simply to share the photographs that we truly love and believe in, and in doing so we hope to find more couples like Emma & Paul who share that passion too.
Here is a collection of our favourite photographs taken on Emma & Paul’s beautiful wedding day at the lovely Pynes House; nothing posed, nothing staged. All in the moment.
