Behind The Frame: Always Being “On”

As a wedding photographer, we must always be “on.” And by that I mean we must always have our camera in hand and be looking for moments, sometimes before they even happen.  When I create the wedding day schedule there are landmarks to photograph like the reveal, ceremony, cake cutting, etc., but often the moments leading up to those are where the true emotion of the day lies.  This moment was captured right after the bride and finished putting on her dress and was walking out to meet her groom for their first look.  I am often leading the bride or the groom to that moment and I love looking back at them and capturing that moment and all of the anticipation on their faces.  I love this shot in particular because you can see the two bridesmaids behind her helping with the dress and the third on the left of the frame is looking at me, breaking the third wall, which normally I don’t like in a candid photograph, but in this one I love it because her gaze at me is one of excitement, knowing what’s about to come for her friend in the following moments.  It’s a wonderful juxtaposition to the gaze of the bride who is calm and serene leading out to this moment, but you can sense an undertone of nerves and joy in the almost smile breaking on her face.  They are framed perfectly by the glass doors they are exiting, which was not posed, but rather I had scoped out that spot earlier while scouting and knew it would be a wonderful shot as they exited so before I directed them to exit I stood in place a few feet ahead of them so I could lock my focus and then walked backwards in pace with them to get this shot as they exited.  If I had realized after that it was a good spot for a photo and said wait go back, it would have both interrupted the day and this wonderful moment and it would no longer have the raw authenticity of expression on the brides face.