Approaching a wedding in a documentary fashion is actually quite difficult. As I'm not directing people to pose or to do certain things, I have to be able to react and anticipate moments as they happen. There's no "OK, can you look at Mom and laugh now?". I'm there to document it as how it truly unfolded. Why would I approach things this way? To me, there's something absolutely magical about creating beautiful photographs of real and authentic moments. It's telling your story as the way it happened and not how I as a photographer directed it to be. Candid, photojournalistic and unposed moments are where my photography passion lies.
If it isn't already apparent in my blog posts, I truly enjoy photographing at Brix and Mortar in Yaletown. It's a nice and small and intimate space with a unique ceremony space but the people there are also really cool.
As per usual, I'll let the photographs and the little bits of commentary do the narrating of this wedding. Just a quick note: That amazing red British car was an awesome sight to see.
I really enjoy photographing at Brix and Mortar and around the Yaletown area. So when John Bello called me up to be his second shooter, I was very much inclined to join the party.
Regardless of whether I'm a primary photographer or second photographer, I always go into a wedding with the same determination to create true and authentic moments and beautiful photographs that the couple will remember.
Thanks again to John Bello for giving me the opportunity to second shoot!
Instead of just showing beautiful photos, I wanted to talk about some of the stories behind my documentary photographs that really struck a chord with me this year. Some photographs were fantastic little moments that were tiny, “in-between” parts of a wedding day. Others were great big moments involving green goop…
As a documentary wedding photographer, I approach a wedding with the mindset of a photojournalist and am on the lookout for amazing “candid” moments to build a story of an entire wedding day, giving brides and grooms and authentic retelling of their day. However, as I soon learned, we as wedding photographers usually have to wear many hats on a wedding day!
So I found out pretty quickly that my little Honda Fit car is able to fit a bride and two bridesmaids... and with room to spare. You see, the bride was about a 15-20 minute walk away from her venue but the day was hot and I didn't want the bride Dayna to sweat like crazy just before her ceremony at Brix! (We were at David Lam Park and it was warm that day). That's when it dawned on me: "Why don't *I* drive the bride up? I'm parking there anyway!" So there I was, with a client clad in her bridal gown and with her bridesmaids were in my car as we scooted up a few blocks in my little Honda Fit to Brix & Mortar. I've photographed in a lot of weddings and this was definitely an amazing first.
