Why I Love Wedding Photography
Being a wedding photographer is a really strange way to earn a living. Usually, you spend a whole long long day with a couple during one of the most momentous occasions in their lives and essentially follow them around carefully documenting all their emotions. And, actually, it’s quite astonishing.
John Dolan, the undisputed master of his own perfectly imperfect wedding photography style (he shot the Biden wedding at the Whitehouse - he’s a big deal) says in his book: “Midwife. Funeral Director. Wedding Photographer. You meet them once on a delicate day. They quickly slip into the inner circle of family to perform their role during this rite of passage, and then they are gone.”
This is a nice lyrical way of saying that wedding photographers have an unprecedented level of trust gifted to them by two families, and in return, we create a kind of time capsule filled with once-in-a-lifetime memories.
Before specialising in weddings, I photographed everything from boxes of oranges to wrestling, to AirBnB flats and while I did enjoy it (the oranges not so much), there always seemed to be a piece missing. Even when working on amazing stories like ageing population, food donations during the pandemic, or drag culture, I felt like there was a gap between creating the work, and the end result.
With wedding photography, in my opinion, that gap is closed and the process is much more circular. When a wedding photographer is hired by a couple, they want him or her to create something incredible for them and their own personal enjoyment, and to preserve their emotions and connections with their families and friends. In many ways wedding photographers get to give the couple the ultimate wedding gift.
Changing Perceptions of Wedding Photography
The Curse of the Wedding Photographer in Popular Culture
There is a lingering misconception that wedding photography is just a stepping stone for aspiring photographers. There are plenty of photographers who proudly say: “oh, I used to shoot weddings,” the implication being that they have now somehow graduated to ‘real’ photography and left that nonsense behind. I’m quite proud to be part of the generation that’s redefining this strange narrative. Wedding photography isn’t just about clicking the button and taking nice pictures — it’s about preserving two families’ memories that will hopefully last at least until the next generation is making their own.
Wedding photographers also seem to get a bad rap in films and TV. In general, photographers on screen tend to be split into hard-as-nails, lone-wolf photojournalists, addicted to danger and ready to do anything for ‘the shot;’ including getting shot, hacked to pieces, or blown up (check out Under Fire, Salvador, or Bang Bang Club), or detached, ego-driven, possibly drunk lunatics blinding people with flashes, flirting with bridesmaids, or taking endless photos of something irrelevant (think of any wedding photographer character you’ve ever seen in a film).
This pop-culture idea of wedding photographers does seem to have made an impact on our general impression of wedding photographers. In fact, master wedding photographer, Roberto Valenzuela describes his experience meeting new people as going from firm nice-to-meet-you handshake to immediate ‘limp noodle’ when he tells people he’s a wedding photographer.
Real-Life Wedding Photography Baddies
Sadly, there is also a tsunami of ‘my photographer ruined my wedding’ posts all over the internet and social media. These range from supposed professionals to people trying to make some fast cash at the weekend. The first group usually somehow managed to persuade a couple to pay them several thousand and then either disappeared off the face of the earth or eventually handed over an eye-wateringly terrible collection of photos sometimes not even from that couple’s wedding. The second group is more often than not the ‘budget’ Craigslist/Facebook/Gumtree crowd and fills a dangerous gap at the very bottom of the market and usually are simply unable to provide the services they claim to offer.
Wedding photography is a tough ecosystem for clients and professionals because it is not regulated at all. Anyone with any type of camera and access to some wedding photos can effectively set up shop as a wedding photographer and hunt down clients. On the surface, it seems like a great way to make some extra cash at the weekend, and there are plenty of photographers who shoot weddings and all sorts of other things, and their photography is beautiful. However, in my opinion, there is also a huge number of photographers who fail to grasp the importance of wedding photography to the couples getting married. And this can lead to disaster.
Why Wedding Photography Is So Incredible
The Visual vs. The Emotional
Photography is basically a frozen, preserved visual representation of a particular scene or moment. If you do it right, however, a photograph can also contain emotions behind the visuals. Even a photo of something as mundane as a letterbox or a damp newspaper can make you feel something.
For instance, some moments in my own life are vivid emotionally, but blurry visually. That’s where photographs come in: they bridge the gap, solidify memories, and preserve them. It’s this strange connection between photography and memory that pushes me to take wedding photography so seriously. After all, what could be more important than preserving the memories of the wedding day in a set of beautiful, emotional images?
The Honour of Capturing Memories
Although this sounds a bit like hyperbole, it isn’t. Being trusted to photograph a wedding really is a privilege. A couple entrusts their wedding photographer with preserving the memories of one of the most important days of their lives.
Wedding photography is a mad 10-hour gauntlet of combining technical expertise with emotional sensitivity. It isn’t just about getting the shot — it’s about telling a story, capturing unrepeatable moments, and creating images that reflect the love of the day.
The Privilege of Witnessing Memories
The other side of the coin, if you like, of being hired to make a wedding photography collection, is the strange honour of being allowed to hang out with two families on one of the most emotional days of their lives. In effect, you, the couple, let a random stranger into your lives and stalk you around throughout the concentrated emotional rollercoaster that all wedding days end up being.
The Technical Challenge
Weddings push you to your limits as a photographer. They demand mastery over nearly every photographic discipline — portraits, still life, sports, music, architecture, etc.
Lighting is constantly changing, especially in countries with unpredictable weather (looking at you, UK). One moment you could be shooting in a dimly-lit church, the next, moments of blinding sun through clouds. Wedding photographers have to know their gear inside out and be able to adapt to changes as they happen for the whole day.
Take the British classic intermittent rain, for instance. Can’t turn it off, but you can work with it. In my opinion, photographs of a wedding day in the rain are no less special than those in bright sunshine, and trying to make it look like the weather was amazing even though it wasn’t would be a disservice to your wedding day memories.
The Beauty of the Unexpected
What makes weddings truly special is their unpredictability. People, not just the couple, experience a whirlwind of emotions all within a single day. The in-between moments between the big key events of the day are where the magic happens.
Capturing these fleeting instances requires patience, awareness, and a deep understanding of people’s behaviour. Whether it’s the flower girl yawning, a groom fidgeting nervously, or a guest wiping away a tear, these genuine moments help tell the full story of the day.
Every Wedding Is Unique
No two weddings are the same. Even if I shoot the same venue multiple times, the lighting, weather, and people are always different. The constant variation is great and keeps me engaged in obsessively documenting everything that goes on around me.
Some photographers shy away from the pressure of weddings, which is understandable, but I find it exhilarating. Every phase of the day offers new opportunities to take the best photo of you and your family. Each family has a different history and different stories to tell on your wedding day, and I’ll be there to make sure they’re all there in photos.
Inspiration from Everywhere
During the wedding day, there are ample opportunities to take photos in almost every scenario you can imagine. There’s food, flowers, fashion, funky dancing — and those are just the ones that begin with F. Wedding photographers can get inspiration from everywhere: culinary magazines, fashion photographers, documentaries, street photographers, paintings, book and album covers…the list is endless. For me, and I suspect most wedding photographers, creating images on a wedding day is like going to a warehouse filled with stuff related to your nerdiest hobby — could be road bikes, comics, or camping — you just want to stay there forever, and play with all the cool things.
The Emotional Connection
What sets wedding photography apart is the emotional connection with our clients. Weddings are a rare moment of openness and vulnerability, where couples publicly declare their love out loud in front of an audience. Capturing these raw, unfiltered emotions is amazing.
Unlike a lot of other types of photography, where objectives and feedback are often clinical and based on parameters such as budget, wedding photography allows for deeply personal responses. When a couple says they cried when they saw their photos, or they couldn’t stop looking through the images, that’s a win for me.
The (not-so-bad) Group Shots
This is an open secret among wedding photographers — group shots are a bit of a nightmare. Herding guests into an orchestrated static dance is quite stressful, and can take a while. But they are also a big opportunity. Often groups of guests create interactions that might never have happened organically at this point in the day, so there are loads of little moments inside the big moment that tell their own stories.
With the right approach, group photos can be efficient and fun. A simple list, a big voice (usually that cousin), and an easily accessible space can help make group photos a doddle, and not keep anyone from the canapés and beer. And the seconds before and after the actual photograph moment are usually just as valuable as the moment itself.
Your Vision, Your Style
The beauty of wedding photography from a wedding photographer’s point of view is that we can approach it our way. Couples hire us usually based on our portfolio, vision, and personality, so we don’t have to compromise. Whether you lean towards fine art, documentary, or something in between, weddings give us the freedom to express our creativity while capturing one of life’s most meaningful celebrations.
Wedding Photography Wins
At its core, wedding photography is about connections — between the couple, their loved ones, and the photographer who captures it all. The love, joy, and vulnerable authenticity of a wedding day are pretty much unparallelled, and having the chance to preserve those memories for a couple is something I hope I never take for granted.
I think a lot of photographers want to witness human beings doing things that human beings do and there is no better way to do that than documenting a wedding.
