As a documentary wedding photographer I love when my subjects (the couple, the guests, members of the bridal party) open up and give me a wide range of emotions. I waited for these moments as I knew they would become spreads on this album of the beautiful wedding a King Edward Hotel.
In this picture, we can see the bride's mother crying tears of joy the moment her daughter got officially married. The mother is positioned on the left side of the frame facing the right hand side of the image. Perfectly balanced is the bride's sister and the maid of honour on the special day. She is also wiping her tears and holding the bride's bouquet in her left hand.
A long time ago, at the beginning of my journey into wedding photography, I used mainly zoom lenses to help me react faster to the events happening in front of my camera. However, during a workshop with Jerry Ghionis I had an epiphany. Jerry is one of the best wedding photographers in the world and he talked about the value of anticipating the moments and share his insights and techniques. One of them was using prime lenses. They have a few advantages over the zoom lenses. First, they are lighter so the professional photographer can move faster to capture the moments. Second, they allow more light onto the sensor, which increases the quality of the images. Nowadays the cameras perform amazingly in low light situations but there is always a fair amount of grain present when photographing in dark churches or ballrooms. Thus, the prime lens can make the difference between a usable and unusable photograph. Finally and most important, the prime lens is to punish the lazy photographer as he will need to be placed in the perfect position to capture the images. Too far in the image is way too wide. To close in the image is missing important elements that help telling the story. Switching from this zoom lenses to primes was the most important breakthrough I achieved in improving my craft.
Location: 37 King St E, Toronto, ON M5C 1E9.
