In my ‘Picture This’ series I focus on an individual image, or series of images, and explain why I like it.

Documentary wedding photography

I’m a big fan of informal group shots at weddings. They can tell a story, or several stories, all at once. They can often be funny and compositionally intriguing.

Of course, the formal pictures have their place too, and are often the ones that end up on mantelpieces. But there can be something magical about an unplanned gathering of people especially if they’re not really aware of each other and the photographer frames the scene thoughtfully. I feel that this is where documentary wedding photography can be at its best, capturing something that a film never could.

English Wine Centre wedding

This one was taken last summer during Karen and Peter’s wedding at The English Wine Centre near Alfriston in East Sussex. I like it because I’m not sure exactly what’s going on or if its various parts are connected. The wedding was about halfway through so I’d had a few hours to get a feel for who was who and when something interesting might happen. Documentary wedding photography is as much about looking and interacting as it is about taking a picture.

This is a picture that makes me smile – and makes me think. Take any one of these people away and the picture loses something, but together they force the viewer to look all round the frame. The great American street photographer Gary Winogrand was a master of these types of pictures, as was Tony Ray Jones, whose work was laced with a particularly British sense of humour.

Have a look at more of my latest documentary wedding photography, including Karen & Peter’s wedding. There are dozens of pictures from recent weddings.

And if you like my approach to wedding photography I’d love you to get in touch.