The Ashes Exclusive Barn Venue Wedding

I love this photograph from a recent wedding at The Ashes. This was Gem and Stu just last weekend. The moment which they first met at the end of the aisle. When I document weddings I look carefully to try and find images that are more than just “stuff happening”. I look for moments that tell a story about whats happening. I find eye contact to be a great storytelling element in a photograph, as well as touch and expression.

Here we have three fantastic points of eye contact and three great expressions that really beam out of this photograph and help the viewer understand exactly what this means to the people in it. We have the eye contact between the bride and the groom combined with natural and beautiful smiles that tell us how happy they both are to be in this moment right here, about to be married. Gem has a winning smile there is no doubt about it. The kind of smile that will light up a room.

Then we have the third person. Dad. Dad is watching his daughters reaction to seeing her future husband and his expression says it all. Pride. But theres more, I look to that left hand over his daughters. That’s protection right there. The kind of protection only a Father can feel over a daughter. He is about to give away the most precious thing he has to give, but not until he has to. Right now he is holding on tight.

I could have zoomed in and captured just Gemma, would have been a lovely photograph of her smile. I could have zoomed in and just captured Dads pride, or perhaps the touch of his hand – I have those photographs also. But the photograph as it is with all those elements together is what tells us as the viewer so much more about these people and what they were thinking right at that moment.

These are the kinds of photographs that really matter – the ones that mean the most in years to come. Sunsets, beautiful skies, reflections in lakes are all lovely photographs – but it is this moment right here that matters most.

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