As with most of my weddings it all started with an e-mail. Jen and Jed were organising their own destination wedding in Aquitaine, the venue, a lovely complex of 3 rural gites with swimming pool was booked. The celebrant was booked for the service and they just needed a wedding photographer to tick all the boxes on their list. I knew we were all going to get along famously when we shared a glass of wine over a video conference call to chat through the final details of the celebrations and their 30 guests!

Before we begin this story it has to be said that, although not guaranteed, summer in France normally brings blue skies, wonderful light and hot weather. So it was with some apprehension that I set off for the drive to the wedding under leaden grey skies and not an insignificant amount of rainfall!

Nothing was going to spoil Jen and Jeds wedding though and the weather, although a bit wet to start with, soon turned to sunshine later on and picking fresh flowers in the rain for the bouquets became part of the memories of the day. I can honestly say that there are some weddings where the emotions of the day bring a little lump to my throat. This was one of those weddings. With Jen and Jed so evidently very much in love there were times when I was getting a little bit choked up! That’s probably the last thing my clients want to see, a weeping photographer

Anyway what better way to tell the story than in photographs. I have selected a few snaps from the day in the slideshow below. Click on the icon bottom right hand corner to view on full screen and enjoy.

Photojournalism, reportage, candid and documentary styles of photography. All buzz words to describe a similar genre of photography but what does it really mean?

I love photography and I love my work, I can’t wait to get back from my weddings and see what is in the camera. The apprehension, the excitement of watching the days events unfold before my eyes captured in split second moments. Amazing. Never ceases to enthral me, never ceases to motivate me for the next wedding. So, I am writing this half way through processing last weekends wedding and as I sit here with a smile on my face reliving the days events it becomes more clear to me about what exactly photojournalism is. Well at least what it is for me

First of all a wedding day is not just about this documentary style of photography. It could be, but it is just that there are other elements that are important as well that cannot be ignored. It is nice to have group photos to ensure that everyone who was there celebrating the day is captured on film for future family generations to see. It is nice to have the bride and groom photos, together, their day, their way, their photos of them captured as they are on their special day. It is nice to have beautiful images of the detail of the day, the table layouts, the food, the decorations, the personalised bits and pieces that make it unique. But the thing that really, really brings it all to life for me are the fly on the wall, photojournalistic, reportage, candid, documentary, unguarded, natural, the as it really happened moments. Not easy to capture but oh so rewarding when they are. You see people as they really are at that split moment in time, no camera smiles, no inhibitions just the natural emotion of the moment.

Some pictures you can look into the picture and see things that only the bride and groom, the family will know are there. Little items, people maybe, the place, the food, a table ornament, something special to them that in 10, 15 years time will bring a flood of happy memories back to the couple. That’s what this style of photography is about to me. To record the day as it actually happens and pick out those moments, those events, those goose bump emotions as they naturally happen. Weddings really are a one off day and I feel so lucky to be able to be there, share the moment, take the pictures and capture what happens in a realistic and hopefully somewhat artistic manner for all those times in the future when the wedding album is brought out to be flicked through and to take a stroll down memory lane and maybe raise a laugh or shed a tear but definitely raise a smile………. and remember it as it really was.

A little example. A little snap. Quite sweet, I think. But the little girl was a grandchild to one of the dancing ladies, she spent the whole evening dancing, copying, twirling, following, smiling. It was a memory of the day, a special moment that maybe without the nudge of a photograph would be lost in the memory. For me it was a beautiful moment, the happiness of the little girl lost in the dance, copying her grandma, wanting to dance like her. Magic. Moment. Right there. Snap, they never realised I was there, photojournalism, in the can, captured, forever.