Brides are quite possibly the portraitist’s dream.
When you shoot a wedding, it’s all about capturing moments in time: memories, details, cross-sections of day where a million tiny (and some not-so-tiny) things happen almost all at once. As a photographer you’ve got to be on top of the situation; you’ve got to get good shots, and you only get one chance. This is the rush of wedding photography: you’re part portrait photographer, part event coordinator and part photojournalist. It’s great fun, but there’s also something to be said for taking things a bit more…slowly.
Bridal portraiture really has one simple aim: make the bride look, and therefore feel, like a million bucks. Brides are beautiful people, and your job as a photographer is to capture that: a beautiful person on their most beautiful day.
Instead of trying to be in three places at once like you will be on the big day, you take your time. You explore the many angles, textures and nuances of the person. You might even lie on the ground.
You’ve got the time and freedom to experiment, to play.
Brides are happy people, and effective bridal portraiture is happy work.
A lot of times you end up finding joy in the simple moments; in the details.
If weddings show photography at its most frenetic and exciting, then bridal portraiture is the art of subtlety and softness; of slowing down and capturing a not-so-everyday, once-in-a-lifetime kind of beauty.
I love your blog. Thanks for sharing!
So glad you enjoy it, Tressa!
I think I like your words just as much as if not more than the photos. 🙂 Well said. I have an upcoming ceremony to shoot and I’m approaching this one with a new attitude than I have the others. I’m soooo excited!
These are absolutely stunning Mikey!