Wedding photography is all about people and emotions and celebrations, about moments in time that the subjects in the photographs will look back and and remember vividly. Many of these moments are between the bride and groom, of course. However, there are other important family connections that we as wedding photographers pay close attention to, with the objective of capturing those beautiful moments that come and go in a blink of an eye.
At this particular wedding at the lovely Maunsel House in Somerset, whilst the bride and groom where signing the register, I turned my attention to the seated wedding guests to see what might be happening. I was fortunate enough at this particular wedding to spy and capture many beautiful moments happening during that short space of time... but this one was my particular favourite. I watched as the father of the bride and his other daughter, a bridesmaid, caught each other's eye; the daughter noticing, as did I, how emotional he was feeling. At that moment, she leant over to offer her love and support to him.
I love this image, as it says so much for the love between a father and daughter on a day that is so momentous in the lives of their family. You don't have to know either of the people in the photograph to emotionally connect with how they are both feeling at that moment. Images like this cut straight through to our own experience of life, our own connections with our parents, and moments like this where we too have felt love for our family. That's the beauty of documentary wedding photography. It captures far more than the marriage of two people. It reaches out to capture the humanity in every person the camera lens falls upon.
