The wedding shoe shot is one that nearly every wedding photographer under the sun will take. After all, the bride has probably invested quite a bit of time tracking down the perfect pair of shoes and probably paid a fair bit for them, too. So I feel it’s important to include them in the photographic coverage where possible.

With this wedding shoe shot, I could have chosen to photograph the shoes still in their box. But on this occasion that wouldn’t have made for a particularly pleasing photograph. I could have taken the shoes out of their box and positioned them on the dressing table, or underneath the hanging dress, or in front of the bouquet. But I am a documentary wedding photographer and part of my style and approach is that I prefer to record things as they happen, with no input or involvement from me. And so I waited until the bride had the shoes on her feet, then the moment she lifted her dress to take a look I crouched down low and took this image.

This was the final part of the bridal preparations and to see the shoes on the bride’s feet with her wearing her wedding dress, rather than placed in a contrived position somewhere,  makes for a far more compelling storytelling image. At least to me anyway.

The first dance is always a wonderful moment for a wedding photojournalist to capture, as no two are ever the same. Different couples, different venues, different songs. It’s always a lovely moment when the bride and groom are essentially alone for just a minute or two, albeit under the watchful eyes of their onlooking guests. It’s great to see how couples treat this moment differently. Some choose to slow dance in each others arms, staring lovingly at each for the duration of the song. Others will whisper things into each others ears, prompting smiles and laughter which is always a joy to watch. I have even photographed a couple pulling some ‘pulp fiction’ style moves on the dance floor.

The first dance at the wedding I am featuring here really wasn’t really supposed to happen. The couple hadn’t planned a first dance. In fact, they hadn’t planned any dancing at all. But they had hired a fantastically entertaining swing singer and he did his very best to get everyone up on the dance floor, bride and groom included. The room itself was pretty dark, with the main light source coming from the window behind them. I took a couple of shots from the other side of the couple, with my back to the window, and of course the light here on the couple was lovely. But for me it didn’t tell enough of the story. As I have said before, context is very important in my work and so I decided to move around to the other side and work against the backlight that this window presented.

By positioning myself here I was able to tell more of the story of the first dance by including the singer himself. Nice little touches like the guests taking pictures of their own, the drapes of the window and the champagne glasses in the background add extra layering and interest.

Reportage Wedding Photography is a term used by nearly every wedding photographer these days. But what is reportage wedding photography? To some it’s candid shots of guests mingling. To others it’s a series a close up faces, photographed with a long lens through a crowd and then converted to black and white. To me, reportage wedding photography is so much more than that. It is storytelling wedding photography, observed and unobtrusive. Reportage wedding photography should capture the essence of the day. This shot from a recent wedding in London does just that.

Following the ceremony, the bride and groom mentioned they would like to spend 15 minutes or so away from their guests just wandering the local streets of London, enjoying their time together as husband and wife. And they asked me to join them. I could have chosen to pose the couple in all manner of ways while they were walking, but this isn’t what they wanted, and it isn’t really what I do. Instead, I just followed them around, capturing wonderfully real moments; the little looks and smiles to each other, the passers-by who stopped to stare, and the odd little kiss that the couple shared. As they were walking down Exmouth Market, I ran ahead and positioned myself in a discreet and inconspicuous place. When I saw this shot unfolding I quickly took the picture and then moved on. I like the framing here with layers that add to the story and especially the way that both the bride and groom are lost in their own little worlds, for just the briefest of moments. Whatever they were thinking about at this precise moment only they can say but nonetheless, to me, it’s a lovely storytelling image.

Shot on a Canon 5D mk2 with 50mm f/1.2L, Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, 2/3EV, 1/400 sec, f/2.8, 400 ISO.

With my discreet and emotive wedding photography, I always seek to tell the real story of the wedding day. Not just the big moments that everyone sees, or the ones that make the guests laugh, smile and cheer. I like to capture all the tender little moments too. Part of my style as a reportage wedding photographer, or wedding photojournalist if you like, is to capture the real emotions of the day. Not parts of the day that have been set up, orchestrated or contrived. To me this shot does exactly that. It’s a real moment that’s full of emotion. But there was only the briefest of windows to capture it.

During this Humanist London Wedding I found myself working alongside an extremely creative videographer. Trouble was, we both wanted similar shots. Luckily we found a flow during the bridal preparations and by the time the ceremony came we seemed to be working pretty well together. But we still had to be creative with our compositions to avoid capturing each other in our shots. So whilst the couple listened to the readings by the Celebrant, I positioned myself alongside them to avoid including the videographer. It turned out to be a perfect angle to capture a pure and emotive image. If I had shot this image facing the couple it could well have lacked some of the impact and emotion. But from this angle I was able to make the most of the bride’s hand position whilst still retaining a hint of the groom’s expression. This is exactly the type of emotive wedding photography I strive to take for every couple who books me. Because I know that in years to come, this type of image will bring a tear to their eye.

Shot on a Canon 5D mk2 with 135mm f/2L, Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, -1/3EV, 1/160 sec, f/2.8, 1600 ISO.

For many, this is not your typical wedding photograph. It doesn’t contain a bride. Or a groom for that matter. It doesn’t contain details like shoes, flowers, favours or cakes. It doesn’t even show the wedding venue per se. But it does tell an important part of the story of the day. As a documentary wedding photographer, the first thing I do when I arrive at a wedding location is to take a few establishing shots of the venue. This helps get the photography juices flowing as well as adding an important starting point for the photography reportage that follows. This is one such establishing shot. The majority of this wedding day took place in Henley overlooking the river Thames, with the afternoon spent travelling up and down the river itself on The New Orleans Steamer. This view from the front of Phyllis Court Club, taken during the calmness of the early morning, sums up all that is Henley.

Shot on a Canon 5D mk2 with 50mm f/1.2L, Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, +2/3EV, 1/80 sec, f/16, 100 ISO.

As an available light wedding photographer working in a discreet documentary style, I often find myself facing challenging lighting situations. Everything from dark churches to strong directional sunlight can pose problems for an available light wedding photographer if they don’t know how to look for (and work with) natural light. This first dance shot was taken at a recent wedding in Henley. The couple and their guests spent the afternoon heading up and down the river Thames on a beautiful steam boat, bathed in glorious sunshine from start to finish. A great day for the guests but a challenging day for an available light wedding photographer. I could have chosen to use flash and set them up to add a nice bit of fill in flash to lift the shadows caused by the harsh directional sunlight. But I prefer not to use flash. I’m a photojournalistic wedding photographer so I like to stay discreet and unobtrusive, blending in with the guests to capture wonderfully real moments with the subjects unaware I have taken their picture. The minute a flash fires suddenly the guests are alerted to my presence.

Normally I would look for lightly coloured surfaces such as walls or dresses to act as reflectors, bouncing light onto peoples faces. However, on the boat these were few and far between and so instead I spent most of the day shooting into (yes into) the sun and battling with my exposures to achieve a consistent body of work. This way I was able to avoid any harsh contrast on the guests faces and it was then just a case of dodging a little tone back into them where needed.

Whilst I spent the day shooting into the sun, the bride’s father (a keen amateur photographer) spent the day shooting away from the sun with his flashgun positioned appropriately on top of his camera. On more than one occasion we found ourselves in each other’s eye line and so I chose to include him in the corner of this image to help tell that part of the story.

Shot on a Canon 5D mk2 with 50mm f/1.2L, Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, 1/1250 sec, f/4, 100 ISO.

Brides and grooms spend months, sometimes even years planning their wedding day, making sure every last detail is perfect. From the style of the place cards to the colour of the icing on Gran’s homemade cupcakes, everything has to be just so.

As a documentary wedding photographer I am there to tell the story of the wedding day, so it’s only right I should include some of these details in the photographs I give to my clients. At a recent wedding the bride and groom arranged for their guests to each wear a sunflower. I took a picture of the basket carrying the sunflowers before they were handed out and it was a nice shot. A shot that I knew the bride and groom would love because it captured something personal to them. But my job as a documentary wedding photographer was to incorporate the sunflowers within the context of the day. As I mingled amongst the guests before the ceremony I observed the groom’s son holding an unclaimed sunflower in his hand. His expression here is just wonderful and I love the way the adults are gathered reassuringly around him, four generations in one picture.

This is very much a storytelling photograph, a documentary wedding photograph, and it’s exactly this type of image that I seek to capture.

Shot on a Canon 5D with 50mm f/1.2L, Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, 1/4000 sec, f/1.6, 3200 ISO.

As a documentary wedding photographer I’m there to tell the story of the wedding day through pictures. As such, context is very important in my work. I look for angles, viewpoints and anything interesting within a scene that I can use to make a picture more relevant, and I will often see the shot I want to capture before anything has actually happened, then wait for a moment to unfold before I take my picture.

Take this shot of the Bride having her hair prepared at a local hair salon. I actually saw this shot before the Bride even arrived. I was there a good 15 minutes before the Bride, so I had time to look around the salon for anything that would help me tell the story of this part of the day. I spotted this seat nearest to the window and knew that the bottles stood to the right would add context and make an interesting picture. It was also the best lit seat in the Salon, with wonderful diffused side lighting from the large salon window.

And so with the shot already in my mind, it was simply a case of returning to that spot when the right moment presented itself, placing the Bride on a third for a neat and balanced composition.

Shot on a Canon 5D with 85mm f/1.8, Manual Exposure Mode, 1/160 sec, f/2, 400 ISO.

Some of my best creative reportage wedding photography has been of children. Little people doing what they do best, just being them. They have an innocence that we lose as adults, and so make great subjects at weddings. While photographing the ceremony of Ashleigh and Will, I spotted the Bridesmaid and two Flower Girls stood to the side all in row. I took a photograph with my wide angle lens, combining the 3 girls with some of the guests and of course the couple themselves. It looked pretty good, but I wanted to be a bit more creative to isolate the girls from their surroundings and make the scene a little more intimate, so I looked for a different viewpoint. I grabbed my 135mm lens. I could have cropped in tight and shot the 3 girls heads, but the Bridesmaid was considerably taller than the two Flower Girls, which didn’t make for a clean composition. Instead I chose to focus on their feet. So I dropped to my knees, framed up and waited. The young girl on the right raised her foot and I quickly took my shot. I like this more than when her foot was flat as it not only adds interest to the scene, but also highlights her restlessness during the ceremony. It’s a true storytelling reportage wedding photograph, one that could have gone unnoticed had I decided to be less creative.

Shot on a Canon 5D with 135mm f/2L, Aperture Priority Exposure Mode, 1/800 sec, f/2.2, 100 ISO.

Documentary Wedding Photography is all about capturing the real moments of a couples wedding day, telling the real story of the day through a series of pictures, without setting anything up. This often means responding ‘on-the-fly’ often with no time to prepare for the scene unfolding in front of you. You need to react quickly. Take this shot from a wedding I photographed in Somerset. As the couple made their way down the huge sweeping staircase, their friends and family were patiently waiting armed with handful upon handful of confetti. There were definitely the makings of a great wedding photograph. But I had just moments to capture it. I took a few shots with my wide angle lens but as the couple continued down the stairs, the arms of guests were everywhere. I quickly pulled my second camera to my eye, which had my trusty 50mm lens attached at the time. I shot 3 frames with this tighter crop and this was my most successful.

Shot on a Canon 5D with 50mm f/1.2L, Manual Exposure Mode, 1/100 sec, f4, 1000 ISO.