Layering - Why I Love this Wedding Photo

Wedding in Northamptonshire

I shoot a lot of weddings at private locations such as family homes, farms and fields and while the principles of shooting are the same, the dynamics, especially for detail and establishing shots are not.

For example, in this image below, I wanted to get a photo that was more than just a shot of the house. I wanted to include context and capture the overall vibe of the wedding.

The image below is from Soph and Daniel's amazing Northamptonshire Wedding late last autumn.

As a documentary wedding photographer, I need to tell the story of a day.  I believe true wedding photojournalism is much more than just a series of headshots snapped with a long lens

.I often speak to my photography students about the principles of curating a series of images that tell a concise story.

That story should, of course, include details such as table decorations and venue shots etc.  These are very important to the clients too.

In this image, I have taken a few steps back with a wider lens and waited a while until the image I wanted formed.

The house at the back is the primary feature of course, but the layers of people add context to the image, and finally, the little girl front and centre draw the eye into the photo to hopefully explore it more.

This is one of those images that the more I look at it, the more I see.

I love the baby further up the carpet, for example - practising crawling for perhaps the first time. The clusters of people are interesting too.

For this reason, I love this wedding photo, and I hope you do too.