Not just a laugh

After the stress of yesterday's wet wedding, and with a long drive across the country between the two venues (thankfully broken up by an overnight stop at my parents' house) I really hoped that today's wedding would be a bit easier, for the sake of my blood pressure!

Thankfully today was much more straightforward: a venue I love and know well, lovely fun people and plenty of time for photos. And despite a torrential downpour as we were about to start the portraits, even the weather was kind in the end.

I chose this photo not because it's anything special photographically (I'd move that bottle for a start!), but because of what it represents. The groom's father is really very ill, and I had been trying all day to get a photo of him smiling, but I hadn't had much luck. I knew from his little one-liners during the family photos that he had a fantastic dry sense of humour, so I really wanted to capture that. He spent almost all of the speeches with his head in his hands, so I wasn't hopeful, but then this happened - his son said something funny and he looked up, very briefly, and laughed. It all lasted about the time it took me to focus and snap a single frame.

For me this image sums up exactly what my job is about, and I'd choose it over a beautiful posed portrait or 100 'detail' shots any day. I hope that photos like this will mean a lot to the family in the months and years to come.






PS: because I know that my buddy and second shooter Colin reads this blip... don't think I haven't noticed you standing there in the background, having a little chuckle to yourself instead of getting shots of the guests laughing like I told you to! ;-)