The ring exchange along with the first kiss and signing the marriage certificates is the pinnacle of the wedding ceremony. On a Saturday late afternoon, in the Crystal Ballroom at King Edward Hotel, the bride and groom tie the knot.
This photograph captures the moment when the groom puts the ring on the brides hand. The instant is so important that I usually take a few frames: wide angle, a medium and a tight shot. When this important part of the wedding ceremony takes place, I shot my second photographer to join me in the middle of the aisle so that we have a perfect angle to capture the moment.
In the past, there have been situations where one of my cameras failed and I was forced to asked the couple, after the ceremony, to redo the ring exchange. As such, I learned that this declaration of love has to be treated with the utmost care. Even though the result is a series of frames that might be redundant, it is better to have more pictures than miss it altogether.
To document the ring exchange I used a 50 mm f2 lens mounted on my Fuji XT2 camera. More recently, I upgraded my equipment to the legendary XT3 camera but that is another story we will discuss in a separate article.
According to the gestalt principles, showing only a part of the human body increases the tension and forces the viewer to imagine the rest of the story. That increases the beauty of the photograph and its production value. Many clients mentioned that they were impressed by my ability to focus on such important detail and that images like this made them hire me to document their special day.
Location: 37 King St E, Toronto, ON M5C 1E9.
