So my photo for today is of the beautiful Elyse who got married at Himley Hall in Staffordshire. This has got to be one of my all time favourite photographs of a bride. The story behind this image is Elyse, and her partner Ade, were hanging around waiting to be called in for their wedding breakfast whilst all the guests were being seated. I noticed this lovely leather sofa next to the window and so I asked Elyse to strike a few poses, “look out of the window, back to me, curl your fingers etc” got six stunning photographs in about 30 seconds and then I hit her with the immortal line from the film Brief Encounter, one of the characters has an eyelash stuck in her eye and someone offers her the advice of “try pulling your eyelid down as far as it will go and then blowing your nose”. You could see Elyse trying to work it out and then she just burst out laughing, click!
This photo demonstrates really well how I work on a wedding day. Firstly, at a wedding there’s a few times when you’re hanging around with not a lot going on, waiting to see the registrar, waiting for a brides maid for a group shot, waiting to be called in for the wedding breakfast etc. I don’t think to myself “well there’s not a lot going on here so I won’t take any photographs”, no, I make things happen, I move you to the nice light, I grab a quick shot of you and your mom, I ask you to stand by that beautiful piece of artwork. In fact much of my best wedding photography has been taken in this “downtime”. I don’t drag you away for an hour to get stunning images, I take them in the environment you are already in. The second thing it demonstrates is that many couples say they don’t like forced poses, although most couples do need some direction to make them look their best, so I semi pose you and then I interact with you or encourage you to interact with each other to get that natural spontaneous look, which is how I get wonderful images like this of Elyse or these.
I’m really proud of this shot of Elyse as it was favourited on Flickr by Ryan Brenizer, one of the Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World (American Photo Magazine).
by Damian Burcher
This photo is so beautiful. So good to see genuine emotion in a bridal. Killer work.
what a wonderful moment! and a beautiful image too - the window light over the folds of her dress is just lovely!
I love this one - for exactly the same reasons you outlined in your post! A beautiful bride and genuine emotion are a combination that’s hard to beat.
It’s a beauty! Great moment Damian.
Such a sweet photograph. Great work Damian!
Sometimes moments happen, sometimes as a photographer you can create them, beautiful capture.
Gorgeous bro! I’m a big fan of Ryan too so I know how boosted you must have been when that happened
Lovely!
Great memories what a great day thank you mate I will Always tell my friends about your work
Super photograph. Well done.