ISO 2500, 50mm, f/2.2, 1/100sec
As Dad twirled Rachel around, I photographed this moment, knowing that it would pop if I got it right. I love shooting with our fixed 50mm lens, especially with a wide open aperture. Shooting this way means we don’t need to need a flash, so we keep a lot of the atmosphere from the room and emotion in the shot.
I love this photo because there is such a strong feeling of happiness and celebration (there were some great speeches that had just finished and the partying was just starting). A lot of the photographs that I love are special moments like these between family. Karl and I always focus on the important family members of our couples during the celebrations at the reception. This is when everyone has had a chance to let their hair down and enjoy the moment. This is when we can get timeless images of the most important people in our couples’ lives.
To the right of Rachel and her Dad, you can see the groom, Mitchell, dancing with Rachel’s mum. Again, this is very deliberate framing. With another choice in lense, this image would not have been captured this way and Mitch could have been cropped entirely out of the photo. It’s always deliberate – the lense, the lighting, the settings (all which create the mood of the image and it’s output) – all with a pre-determined vision of what the photo should look like. I think this is what often differentiates the professional photographer from the camera enthusiast.
