This is the first of a new blog series called ’20 Frames’. In each blog I’ll choose a topic of some sort and share 20 photographs.
Before you discard this post thinking ‘Oh dear, he’s scraping the barrel now…surely he’s not going to post a list of jokes…’ you’ll be pleased to hear that the extent of my comedic prowess remains tucked away firmly inside Christmas crackers and on the back of Penguin bars.
I’m not going to be talking about jokes in the traditional sense, but more the use of humour in our wedding photography. Weddings are days that are jam-packed full of emotion. We’ve witnessed the whole spectrum from tears to laughter, and it’s these extremities that make for the best pictures. When we present our clients with their images we want them to look back and remember those raw feelings. In the most recent ‘What it Means to Me’ posts I’ve mentioned the importance of individual moments. One of my photography idols, Henri Cartier-Bresson, coined the phrase ‘the decisive moment’ to describe a tiny fragment of time after which, if the shutter hasn’t clicked, that particular image will be gone forever. It’s a heartbreaking idea as a photographer, to miss the single opportunity to preserve a memory that will never occur again. This is a concept that very much applies to wedding photography, and although it’s not the only factor in a successful reportage image, it’s pretty damn important.
There comes a point at every wedding where the ceremony has finished, the group shots (if requested) have been done and it’s time to party. Everyone lets their hair down and really starts to celebrate around this time. This is when we start looking for the characters and the moments for our version of ‘one-liners’ – pictures that don’t need an explanation and are quite happy to exist all by themselves immortalising the quirks of your day.
