I don’t set any pictures up. As a documentary wedding photographer it’s my job to photograph the day in a candid manner. This is what is expected of me. I keep it flowing and therefore natural. This also includes any portraits with the couple. It seems that it is also OK to pretend to be a documentary wedding photographer and to take time, waste time, in setting up poses for the couple. It must be so boring. I don’t need to and don’t want to, and you should not expect it to be the case where it must be set up. A pose isn’t a moment.
This isn’t coming from me. I don’t particularly look at other wedding photographers, never really have. This is information that’s come to me through clients who have been looking around and the observations they have made where it clearly looks as if most of the pictures have been set up, and apparently sit down conversations confirmed this. When I say I’m going to photograph your wedding in a candid manner that is what I am going to do. It is exactly what I do. I believe there can be no other way.
Any discussion I have with clients will also tend to be candid. In return they open up and will be candid with me. And I prefer to have a lengthy discussion. It helps both of us to gain a better understanding of what the day may hold. As swell as informing me of what they have seen in a world saturated with wedding photography. When I say that there will be no pretending to create natural pictures then there will be no pretending to create natural images. It will be natural and real. A proper photojournalistic wedding approach is what I offer.
Setting up candid pictures sounds oxymoronic but it does go on. With me, they will either be naturally caught or not at all. This always puts couples at ease. Let’s face it, most people dislike the concept of being shaped and posed on their wedding day. Sure, many go with it and then just complain that it was the case. I hear it at so many weddings when I am working.
As I have said previously, the number of proper documentary wedding photographers in this country I can count on one hand and that is no exaggeration. Many pretend. I can’t get my head around that. Yet some couples are happy enough to go this way. Half real and half faked. Half baked. Neither here nor there. That’s fine, are they really documentary wedding photographers? Anybody coming across my work and doing the research to inform themselves will come away with one thought, that what I do is unambiguous, it is direct, it is to the point. it is complete candid photography and natural approach. It is genuine.
