These are two of my favourite pages in the album (which, I understand is something that I say a lot, and it’s a claim I lay to many pages, but I have so many favourites I can’t pick just one!)
Perhaps the thing I love about this double page spread is the contrast that exists either side of the centre of the page – On the left side we can see a montage of images from the girl’s getting ready, whilst on the right it’s the turn of the boys to take centre stage.
One key detail of the left page is that, whilst all of the images were taken during the time of day that’s known as ‘bridal preparation’ or just ‘prep,’ none of the photos are really of people having their hair or makeup done at all. Instead, I have very much chosen to focus on the people and their experience of the morning, rather than taking thousands of images of people having their makeup applied for example.
The page on the right shows the instant that the groom arrived with his groomsmen. It’s important to note that none of the images on either of these two pages features a single staged or posed photo. This part of the day was captured in a candid, documentary style in the entirety.
Most, if not all of the images over these two pages were taken with my 85mm f/1.4 portrait lens at apertures between the widest of f/1.4 and f/2. This lens is incredibly sharp and is the lens I rely on in order to really capture those magical photos when it matters the most. Not only does the lens focus well in low light and give me a focal length that I really enjoy working with, but the very wide aperture also means that the background can be rendered as out of focus as I would like. The majority of the time I tend to shoot this lens 'wide-open' at f/1.4 which gives you the smoothest and most out of focus background that's possible with this lens.
