The Beautiful Wedding

Crowds are simultaneously the most frustrating and the absolute best place to shoot. The good news is that you can move through the room and shoot almost inconspicuously. People are engaged in conversation and will be oblivious to you. They are also moving and constantly interacting, which creates an array of moments for you to capture. By simultaneously distracting themselves and creating photo opportunities, they’re doing half the job for you!

In a crowd at a wedding, expressive and sentimental moments are sure to occur. I often get bumped into, then hear the subject say, “Oh! I didn’t see you there.” That’s exactly what I want. That shows me that I’m working unobtrusively, with no posing or participation by the subject. My presence is not changing their behavior.

Equipment: Canon EOS-1D Mark III with EF 50mm f/1.4L IS USM lens. Exposure: f/2 at

second and ISO 500.

The bad news? People walk into your shot. And you’ll get stepped on. This makes it important to learn to navigate around people and keep one eye on who’s coming toward you.

Learning to Wait

Sometimes our subjects are extremely expressive. Right from the start, you know it’s going to be a great wedding shoot. Other times our subjects are more reserved. When this is the case, I make it my business to stay near them throughout the day, waiting for them to open up. Often, I only get one or two chances at it—and they may not open up until the reception. That means I spend seven hours waiting and half a second capturing the fleeting laughter. That’s just the way it works. But it makes it more gratifying when I finally get the shot. When the family sees the image, they’ll often tell me something like “I can’t believe you got my dad smiling. He never smiles in pictures!”

Refrain from simply shooting to record who attended the event. Nothing is as boring as a portrait of someone with no expression whatsoever.