A moment captured from Vicky and Rob’s wedding

Every so often I’m going to talk about a shot I took and why I love it, what inspired me to take it and why I feel it forms an important record for the couples who’s wedding it was captured at. Sometimes I’ll talk about  reportage wedding photography, sometimes it might be a portrait and sometimes maybe one of the more creative shots.

This time I’d like to show shot from Vicky and Rob’s wedding. These guys got married in June and had their wedding at Rodbaston Hall in Staffordshire, the marriage ceremony itself was held at St Michaels and All Angels Church in Penkridge, and this photograph was captured during the signing of the register. If you would like to see the full blog post for their Robaston wedding please click here.

So what do I love about this shot, well its not often photographers are allowed to capture the actual signing of the register, usually the minister will request we shoot a mock signing when the official signing is complete. But on this occasion the vicar was happy for me to take a live shot and, due to the fact I use very quiet cameras, I was able to take a few shots completely undetected. For me this is massively important, I want to document and capture real moments and real emotion, and nothing kills that more than a unnecessarily large camera with a very loud shutter.

The lighting is a big deal in this photograph, coming from the window to the right the light is just beautiful. Then as we look into the scene we see so much going on, the groom is signing the register as the vicar carefully oversee’s, then as we move across the frame we see the real area of interest; the bride and her two flower girls full of emotion and enjoying the moment. If you look carefully there is a bridesmaid/witness in the background, not witnessing the signing but distracted by the wonderful moment between the bride and flower girls. Then at the far left of the frame we can see the family members proudly looking on.

This type of photography is massively important to me, its a real moment that I was able to capture discreetly and without distraction.

Heres another shot from the same scene, a wonderful moment between a grandparent and grandchildren as the bride watches from the background.