Wood Norton Wedding Album2
Wedding Photography by Lee Webb

Wood Norton Wedding Photography

Groom pre-wedding photos

There is a common misconception that weddings are all about the bride. For a start, it's 2020 and same-sex weddings have been the norm for some time...

That aside, yes, more photos are taken of the bride on the wedding day than are of the groom: As a wedding photographer I would typically spend between five and six hours with the bride on the morning of her wedding, whilst I might spend a maximum of 15 minutes with the groom. Likewise, when I'm waiting for the bride to arrive at the church, the groom is usually already inside, sweating it out, and looking nervous. It's just the way weddings tend to work. With all that being said, I still find it really important to get a few good images of the groom - it's his big day too!

In the first photo on this, the second page of the Wood Norton Weddings demonstration album, we can see the wedding rings in the hand of the best man. It's a fairly standard photo that I take at most weddings.

In the middle image, we see a more formal image of the groom. When I'm photographing anyone, you'll likely hear me say 'stand however feels natural' as I think that's really important. Look at things from the groom's perspective for a second, now I'm going to generalise, but this is more specific to the groom in this image. Richard owns a garage, he's not used to wearing a suit, he's not been married before, he's not had a professional photographer pointing his camera at him before, and he's probably nervous about the fact he's getting married in 20 minutes. The LAST thing he needs is me making him stand in some ridiculous pose that makes him look more awkward than he's already feeling. Instead, I tend to choose a nice place to stand based on the light and the background, and ask the groom to stand however feels most natural. Hands in pockets are okay - I want him to look relaxed in the photos, and a smile always helps. At the Wood Norton, you're really spoiled for choice when it comes to the outside space for photos. I chose to keep it simple here, standing the groom against a slightly darker background so that his face would stand out in the images. The green also provides a nice contrast to the blue of his suit.

The final image, on the right side of the page was an image that I knew the groom would love. I have, and always will do things differently to other wedding photographers. Not to be awkward, but to do the things right that I think they are doing wrong. One thing I do a lot, is spending time getting to know my clients. As soon as a new business lead comes in, I answer straight away and I'm really keen to go and meet the couple/client. It's important to have a good working relationship as I'm going to be there for the most important day in these people's lives. Getting to know my clients in the way that I do means that I can really get to the heart of what they're after. As I mentioned earlier, Richard (pictured) owns a garage and works as a mechanic there. He's successful, and to treat himself one year he purchased a Rolex Submariner - which he never wore. I only knew this because in our first meeting we sat chatting for hours, and watches came up (I'm a big fan of watches myself.) Having never had chance to wear his watch (he can't wear it to work for fear of destroying it inside a car engine) I knew that he would really appreciate an image like this - a cracking wedding photo, a classic photo almost, of the groom doing up or adjusting his cufflink (some people look a lot cooler than others doing this) but I made sure to focus on his watch. You can clearly see what's happening in the rest of the image, but the focus is purely on the thing that meant so much to him.

Location: The Wood Norton.

Keywords: Photographer-directed image (149), Wood Norton Weddings (129).