a thousand words - Jenna Thomas

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. The idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.

Searching the internet is like beach-combing really! You spend hours gazing before you find a twinkly gem. And everyone's gems are different. I recently came across Jenna Thomas's photography and loved the emotion in her photos. (I also featured some of her images in my Everyday love... and stripes post) She's from north Carolina and loves costumes, word games and surprises! Here she is to tell us about one of her favourite wedding photographs -

"Photography is nothing - it's life that interests me. "

Henri Cartier-Bresson began to change modern photography with his profound art and his bold philosophy in the late 1920's. His words didn't find me until about 10 years ago but I have been moved since my first encounter.

The variety in philosophies amongst wedding photographers is vast - and beautiful in my opinion. When I first began photographing professionally, I was on a journey to define my philosophy. After years of searching I have realized that the journey is my philosophy. It's an ever-changing theory shaped by experiences.

More than anything, I have learned that the images that speak volumes are never the images that I "set up." There is definitely a time and place for that, but the photos that deliver emotion are the ones that just happen.

Henri says it best:

"There are those who take photographs arranged beforehand and those who go out to discover the image and seize it. For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant which - in visual terms - questions and decides simultaneously. In order to "give a meaning" to the world, one has to feel oneself involved in what he frames through the viewfinder."

To me, that is this image.

Jenna, I love how you describe being in the picture and totally get Henri's idea about a camera being his sketchbook. People are generally not 'precious' about sketchbooks either - the pages are made up of random, special observations. I'll remember that idea; it's great. Thanks for being part of this series. 

 

You can see more of Jenna's photography on her website Red White and Green. This feature is part of a series called 'a thousand words'.

Photo credit:
Jenna Thomas from Red White and Green.

a thousands words - Brancoprata

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.

Thank you Twitter for introducing me to the work of of Sophia and André from Brancoprata! (I just found out that branco means white and prata means silver in Portuguese... lovely!) I enjoy getting glimpses into their dreamy Portuguese weddings. André is a photographer and Sophia styles weddings. Great combo! Here's André to describe one of his favourite images -

"I really love this photo because I think it captures the couple's personalities. Paolo, an Italian groom, that married Ana, a Portuguese bride, was so passionate and caring the entire wedding that I think it reflects this couple from perfection.

When I was doing their portraits, Paolo wrapped himself in Ana's veil, and kissed her. I almost didn't pick that up because I was crossing the road and I had to shoot in the middle of a road with some traffic.
 
Let´s just say that was worth every bone that I fortunately didn't break! I love to keep things simple and natural instead of poses that don't reflect their personalities."

Thanks for being part of this series André. Well done on capturing this moment while manoeuvring through traffic! Check out the Brancopatra website and blog for lots of inspiration. And Have a look at the rest of the photos in the series too! Do you have a favourite?

a thousand words - Gia Canali

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.

This month, I'm so excited to introduce Gia Canali. Gia is based in San Francisco and Los Angeles but loves to travel far and wide for weddings. Her precious moment in time features a perfectly timed double rainbow! I think you'll enjoy hearing her story ~

"This image is from the very end of one of my very favorite wedding ceremonies I've ever gotten to witness.  We were up on a cliff top near the Continental Divide in Colorado, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.  A summertime storm had rolled in that afternoon, and it had drizzled on and off throughout the day.  But it really started to pour during the middle of the ceremony, and then--suddenly-- just as the couple began their vows, the rain cleared and the sun came out, surprising us all with a dazzling double rainbow.   The second rainbow doesn't really show much in this photograph, but the exhilaration and joy of that moment absolutely does show through.  

The "kiss" shot from their ceremony is beautiful, but this photograph, which is jubilant and full of the couple's energy, will always be my favorite."

Thanks for being part of this series Gia. I love the laughter soundtrack that I can hear in my head when I look at it - pure happy emotion on a cliff top, with a double rainbow. Who could ask for more?! I hope you come to shoot a wedding in Ireland one of these days.

Check out Gia's website and blog as well as my previous feature on her 'Vintage processes' fine art prints. This photography guest post is part of a series which are archived on the blog.

As always, I welcome your comments below. Feel free to drop me an email if you have suggestions for future features.

a thousand words - James Moes

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.

Today we're off to Seattle to meet James Moes, whose work I so admire. James trained in fine art and graphic design before settling on Photography. In his words, "While comfortably sitting on the fringes of the wedding industry, James is proud to be a photographer of love & marriage; beauty & dreams; curiosity & stillness."

This portrait of Todd & Claire and their dogs deserves a long gaze. Below James tells us why he loves this image.

Nothing clever. Nothing cute. But everything in its right place. The bride and groom and their beloved dogs, at the entrance to a cave nearby the family cabin (where the celebrations took place), with light softly coming in from the west. A perfectly restful first family portrait.

The longer I shoot weddings, the more I appreciate a classic portrait. One that even hearkens back to early large format photographic portraits where the subjects would have to stand still for a slow shutter speed.

Yes, I still I treasure the in-between moments, the surprises, the subtle exchanges, some good lens flare, and a thrilling dance party. And yes, I still will take some more experimental portraits (as I did with Todd & Claire on their wedding day: in a canoe on the lake, with fireworks & the resulting smoke) … but the image I keep coming back to is this. A classic wedding portrait. No shame in that.

James, this image reminds me of an old oil painting, which reveals its layers of emotion and detail the longer you look at it. It is both tranquil and animated at the same time. I love it. Thanks for being a part of this series.

For more information, visit James' website. I'm deliberately not linking to the full wedding as I like how this image stands alone. You'll find the full album on the website though!

This is part of a series which is archived on the blog. Please leave your comments below - I'd love to hear them.

a thousand words - Brosnan Photographic

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.


This month, we're back in Ireland, chatting with Christina Brosnan. Christina is originally from Chicago but now lives in Ireland with her Irish husband. I love her feminine style and eye for beautiful details. I was excited to see Christina's chosen image. The suspense was worth the wait - what a spontaneous moment!

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"I chose this image of one of my recent couples because it's a very organic moment. Often my best images happen when a couple is very relaxed in front of the camera. When I told Eimear and Cathal to go in for a kiss, Eimear grabbed Cathal without realising they were hidden behind the bouquet. But it created for a perfect little moment and a great photo. I feel as if they're having a sneaky little kiss. The way they're leaning shows they weren't afraid to really go for it!

I approach every wedding with the same technique. I keep a couple interacting to help produce those natural moments. I prefer to see movement than stiff posed statues. For me the time I spend with a couple is my favourite part of the wedding day. My style is more about capturing the intimacy between a couple than putting them against a pretty landscape. All you need is a little bit of good daylight and a fabulous couple and you can create magic!"

Thanks for chatting with us Christina and adding another dimension to this treasured image - For all existing and new fans, check out Christina's portfolio on her blog and website.

This photographer interview is part of a series which you can read in full. Come on; tell me about the photographer you have chosen or admire!

a thousand words - Velare Imaginarium

If you've been following the "a thousand words series", you will have enjoyed reading about photographers talking about one of their favourite images. Most have said how difficult it is to choose just one! For the month of December, I'm doing something a little bit different but still totally relevant to the theme.

Thank you Twitter for introducing me to the the work of Velare Imaginarium - Every time I watch one of their beautiful wedding films, I'm just carried away to special place. And I realised yesterday that the dreamy slow motion reminds me of one of my favourite experiences ever - a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia. Slowing things down, makes us see the emotions so much more clearly; a caress or a sweeping expression on a guest's face. There's much more to these films than the pace though; Steve and Tim are able to capture the essence of a day of immense love, movement and words in under five minutes. So for the month of December, please welcome Velarium to the 'A thousand Words' series.


sam // steve from Velare Imaginarium on Vimeo.

This beautiful film tells its own story but I'm so grateful to Tim for telling us a little bit about the creative and technical skills that go into creating a film like this. (This company combines the skills of two talented creatives - Steve Stanton is an International photographer and Tim Twinem is the principle cinematogrpaher.

"This beautiful, mountain wedding at Della Terra, in Estes Park, Colorado had SO many contributing elements making this such a unique and special day. First and foremost, the deep love that Sam and Steve have for each other melted into every detail of their day. Between the two of them and their tight-knit family and friends, every time my camera was rolling, a moment of great importance and great love was taking place. Another contributing element was the beautiful nature surround Della Terra, from the scenery to the wildlife, filled this Fall day with a surreal, fairy tale feel that infected every guest and magnified the love and ceremony taking place.

One of the thing I definitely struggle with the most when it comes to approaching a couple's highlight video, is music selection. For me, the inspiration starts with the music. A bad music choice will leave me banging my head against the wall through an entire edit, and inevitably leads me to scrap what I have so far, and start my process from the top again: finding the right music. Looking through my footage of Sam and Steve's day, I just felt the emotions contained in Josh Ritter's song "The Curse", matched the romance and love captured in the footage. I know, "The Curse" sounds like a funny song choice for a wedding video, but I couldn't walk away from how perfect the emotional match was.

Lastly, in my list of 'contributing elements', was Sam and Steve's willingness to quickly jump away from their guests at the reception, and let me shoot some shots of them with one light in the dark woods. As a cinematographer, I understand that video can sometimes take a back seat to photos throughout the course of a wedding day. I find so much value in getting a couple to do something specifically geared towards video, even if it's only for 10 minutes. Being able to put a couple in a beautiful place, with specific elements for video (movement, lighting, audio), dramatically adds to the story I can communicate with the footage I've captured, and, in my opinion, adds a lot of value to a wedding video!"

Thanks guys - you have a lifetime fan here, eagerly anticipating your next films!

Read my other post about another Velare Imaginarium film or see a portfolio of work on their website. This feature is part of a series called 'a thousand words'.

a thousand words - Lisa O'Dwyer

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.

This month, we're chatting with Lisa from Lisa O'Dwyer Photography. Lisa is originally from Pennsylvania, has travelled and lived all around the world and now lives in Ireland with her husband and children. Here is one of her favourite bridal images that she took at a recent wedding.

"The reason I like this photo is because I think it captures the couple's personalities and the relationship they have together perfectly. They are a fun people and I like how the groom is teasing the bride by tickling her and then going to play at chomping down on her cheek. I like how they interact with each other and play together. I can't recreate this pose and lighting for another couple. I feel that this photo is unique to the couple that has been captured.

The sun was low in the sky and so we got the lovely backlit "California" style lighting. I LOVE to get this kind of lighting in portraits. It's simply magical and worth waiting for.

The way I approach creating the couple's portraits is to find some great light and background, then to let them interact naturally with each other while I snap away. If they start to get stiff or awkward at getting their photo taken, I joke around and generally embarrass myself to get a laugh. I find that being a Yank is to my advantage because people like to laugh at my accent and the weird stuff I come up with. I direct them a bit because I find people generally need this for me to get artistic portraits. I've found that when I have had my own picture taken, I've needed the direction too. I want the photographer to have an artistic vision of what they want and to help me get into that vision by giving me some direction.

For the photographs I create, I want them to look artistically composed, but natural, with a couple who feels beautiful and looks like they're having fun and enjoying this moment in their lives. Time passes by so quickly and it's so important to document our lives with artistic photography that is natural and emotive. I think it's the exact opposite of studio-based photography which is contrived, artificially lighted, and stylised."

This is a beautiful image Lisa. Thanks for telling us more about how you interact with your subjects too - Now I want to see a video of you in action!

Make sure to check out Lisa's website and blog to see her varied portfolio and read about the other featured photographers in the series.

a thousand words - Belathée Photography

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.


This month, let's welcome Annabel and Dorothée from Belathée Photography who are based in New York and Seattle and also work internationally. Take it away girls...

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"As you'll probably hear from many photographers, it's really hard to pick just a few of your absolute favorites... there is usually a connection to most of the photographs we take, they are like little flashes in our memory.

This photograph of our bride Nicky however just has something a little bit more magic about it and we can't even really put it in words. In a studio it's much easier to control the perfect lighting and composition, when photographing a fluid event like a wedding however, those factors are not in our control and we just rely on our experience and intuition to capture the perfect moment.

A hotel lobby isn't always the most magical place for shooting but in this case the chandelier and room lighting worked out in our favor and allowed for this moment to be captured.

On her way to a little ceremony in Gramercy Park (in NYC) a guest spotted Nicky and called for her attention, allowing for that candid moment of her turning back around.

The concierge and the leaving guest make it obvious that she is in a public setting although it's hard to believe at first. We love that, otherwise it would seem " too perfect".

Even 30 seconds later her reality was a completely different one but for this split second she was in the " 1000 words setting" we are so grateful for.

We hope you enjoy this photograph as much as we do.

Annabel and Dorothée"

I'm a big fan of Belathée and love their fine art photography. Check out their website and blog for more gorgeous imagery. You can also read about other featured photographers in the 'thousand words' series.

a thousand words - We are the Mastersons

Great photographs tell a story by capturing a moment in time. In this series, I am asking some of my favourite wedding photographers to describe one of their cherished photographs. My inspiration is the book Photography Speaks: 150 Photographers On Their Art. This book features a number of iconic photographers who share some personal reflections about one of their photographs. Although I don't yet own a copy of the book, the idea captured my imagination and is the inspiration for a new series of guest blog posts with photographers.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to Brian and Trish from We are the Mastersons with a beautiful image that they have chosen to speak about -

"Having to choose a favourite image from our photographs has turned out to be a lot more awkward than we had expected. It feels like we have a huge family of children, and suddenly we have to pick out which one is our favourite. The system we’ve used is completely random and thoroughly unfair, and by tomorrow we will probably have changed our decision. But for today, here it is.

Each year we get the chance to work with great couples and we’ve been incredibly lucky to shoot weddings for graphic designers, artists, other photographers, or for people who just love photography as much as we do. Working with visual people and having them trust us has given us the freedom to develop our own style. In the last couple of years I think that you can look at an image and know that it's one of ours. So much of our work happens before the wedding day in just talking to people, asking questions and listening. Listening is the most important thing that we do. The more that we listen, the more we know and understand a couple, what they like and what makes them laugh, and the better the images of the day will be.

Somebody once mentioned how our photographs reminded them of the classic cinema of the early 70's and I think that's true, not just in the colours but the way that they feel. With our photography, we try to make images that are both strong enough to stand on their own, but that will also work alongside the other shots from the day. It’s like watching a classic film and trying to select twenty individual frames that tell the story. Because at its best, that’s what wedding photography is – it’s storytelling. When you start studying photography, you concentrate on making each image the best that it can be. And then with experience, you begin to stand back and see not just individual images, but how each one fits into the day as a whole.

Being a photographer at a wedding is like having a film played out in front of you. And as with films, there is a pace and a rhythm to a wedding day that we try to capture in our photographs. That’s why we love designing the albums as we get to the chance to recreate the rhythm of the wedding in the way that we lay out the photos – moments of quiet followed by moments of excitement.

It’s surprising where you get inspiration from. We tend not to look at too many wedding blogs and I think that has helped us to find our own style. We get influenced by what we see. Watching the wide open spaces of the films of Terrence Malick, or the tightly cropped individuality of Wes Anderson; or feeling the stillness of a Wim Wenders photograph and in the paintings of Edward Hopper. It all has an impact on what we do.

I think that is why we chose this photograph as our favourite. Time on a wedding day moves pretty fast. It’s filled with the hustle and bustle of meeting friends and sharing stories; hours of laughter and minutes of tears; and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you’ll miss it. When I look back on the photographs of a wedding, I’m drawn to the shots that capture the ‘space between’ – those moments of complete stillness for the couple, where they don’t need to go anywhere or do anything. They just have to be. Raymond Carver described it as “the difficulty of being simple” and that’s what our photographs try to achieve – when the bridal party and the speeches and the flowers fade into the background and all that’s left is two people, side by side, in love.

Those are the moments that make any relationship special and that’s why I love this photograph."

Brian and Trish are an Irish husband and wife photography duo. Be sure to check out the 'We are the Mastersons' website and blog - their images speak for themselves.