Celebrating World Photography Day
Today- Friday 19th August 2022 – is World Photography Day, an annual, worldwide celebration of the art, craft, science and history of photography.
Obviously as a wedding photographer this date is right up my street, and I couldn’t miss the opportunity to share some of my very favourite photographs with you.
It was so hard to narrow it down to just one favourite (so hard that I actually didn’t- I only managed to narrow it down to three!) The problem is that when you’re a wedding photographer you witness so many amazing moments on the most special day of people’s lives. There’s so much emotion and happy memories attached to so many of the images I’ve shot that It’s really difficult to choose favourites!
However, there are some that do stand out in my mind, perhaps because of the unique circumstances in which I managed to capture the moment, or because I just love the composition of the shot.
A bit about me as a wedding photographer
To explain why I finally decided on the two images I chose for #WorldPhotographyDay, it helps to understand a little bit about my style as a wedding photographer.
I specialise in natural, relaxed wedding photography, and my style could be referred to as ‘documentary style’ or ‘reportage’ wedding photography- basically, ‘reporting’ on your wedding day through images. My background is as a press photographer, which gave me years of experience in photographing events as they happened, and being ready in the moment to capture unique, emotive, and one-off images. I like to bring these skills and experiences to my wedding photography.
Throughout my career as a wedding photographer, something I’ve learned is that unexpected, impromptu moments can sometimes result in the most humorous, unique, and stand-out wedding photographs. Being a documentary style photographer is all about being there in the right place at the right time and capturing the moment. And this explains why I love these first two images so much…
My first two images for World Photography Day 2022…
I captured this image when I was the wedding photographer for Kim and Peter who were married at St Hildeburghs parish church in Hoylake, Cheshire.
This photo is of a flower girl telling the bridesmaids to be quiet as the ceremony was about to start. I love this photo because not only is it adorable(!), but it’s just so natural and was a split-second moment of the day that I was lucky enough to capture.
I gained a silver award from the Guild of Photographers for this image, and it was in the final for the Image of the Year award too. It also holds pride of place in a large frame in my little cabin at home and everyone always comments on how natural it is.
My second chosen image shows exactly what can happen when you’re there in the right moment with your camera!
This is the moment that I snapped the moment that a ring-bearing owl swooped down on a terrified best man after it flew down the altar towards the groom. This was a totally one-off image that could never be recreated again even if I tried a million times! It was a hilarious shot which even made international news! It’s these moments that you just can’t buy and being a documentary style wedding photographer means I get to be there to capture them first hand.
My third image for World Photography Day 2022…
Whilst my background is in documentary-style wedding photography, of course I am always more than happy to create posed photos too. I love to spend time with couples to create unique posed photographs that they’ll look back on and love for years to come. In fact, I recently won Creative Wedding Photographer of the Year The Welsh Wedding Awards 2022 thanks to some of the unique posed shots I’ve created for brides and grooms.
This all explains why I love this third image so much…
This shot is all thanks to my new favourite purchase: I bought a drone during lockdown last year as something to learn whilst I was stuck at home. It’s honestly the best thing ever- I love using it and it’s brought a whole new dimension to my wedding photography.
I used the drone to capture this standout image from Katie and Dan’s wedding at Iscoyd Park. This lovely couple got married in May this year, so I was fully up to speed on using the drone by then and couldn’t wait to capture some images with it at Iscoyd Park.
Drones don’t work at every wedding- it really depends on the venue. Iscoyd Park is a beautiful venue on the North Wales and Chester border and I knew there were some great spaces for images like this one. Plus- even better- Katie had the most incredible dress which really shows in this shot, and it’s what makes it so eye-catching.
I love that both of these images show the different sides of the wedding photography that I love to create and I’m really pleased to be sharing them this #WorldPhotographyDay.
