Canon 5DMKIII | Canon 35mm f1.4
ISO 200 | f4.5 | 1/1000
Own Preset
A few years ago, I saw a well known traditional wedding photographer advertising his workshops and saying that under no circumstances would the class involve taking a couple into a field and cutting off their heads. It amused me so much at the time and still does. Yes, he kind of summed up what alternative wedding photography can be but at the same time he revealed that he just didn’t get it. But luckily enough couples do and the genre is still going strong, as is traditional wedding photography. There is plenty of room in the market for all of us.
What makes this image from Lisa Jane our winner this week is that she is still pushing boundaries in the alternative wedding photography world. By cropping like this, the focus is on their hand gesture and the moving forward of their bodies. As we are not privy to their facial expressions, we might assume that they are joyous. Images like this invite the viewer to draw their own conclusions, to complete the narrative themselves. As wedding photographers, you don’t have to put all the information in every image. By choosing to focus on the bodies, Lisa is highlighting the love and strength in that hand clasp and of course how utterly gorgeous those matching suits are. I know there will have been frames with faces included. Alternative wedding photography is not about limiting what you give, it’s about also giving alternatives.
Read below for Lisa’s Story Behind The Shot …
What Lisa says ...
“What can I say about these two. |By the time we went out for portraits, I have seen these get married twice. The first was a legal ceremony, and the second was a beautiful ceremony, conducted by their friends, full of their history, personality and all of the love. There were songs, readings and so much joy and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. They kick started their married life in the most perfect way for them. Their venue, Barns at Lodge Farm is a beautiful space surrounded by silos, corrugated iron buildings and fields. We had done a lot of portraits around the building as I knew that was what they loved but the sun was shining on the fields and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.