I have SO MUCH LOVE for this image, photographed at Orchardleigh House last year. I mean, a ridiculous amount of love. My favourite wedding photographs are always those which freeze a specific moment in time in a true documentary way, a moment so fleeting that there was really a tremendous amount of luck that I didn't blink and miss it.
This wedding photograph, featuring the pageboy who was the bride's son, was particularly exciting for me as he was very shy of the camera and difficult to get anywhere near. This moment, captured after the wedding, is a little piece of pure joy. He had been delighting in tangling himself up in his mother's bridal veil whilst she talked to her guests, and here, we see the moment that her father whisks the veil away from the little mischievous one - as she stretches out a maternal hand to him, always conscious of his presence even though she is engaged in another conversation.
If this photograph had been shot wider, we could have seen the faces of the bride and her father, too - but more distractions would have also been in shot, and I wanted this little moment to be all about the little boy. He is caught up in his own enjoyment and doesn't want to engage with granddad or mum. Playing with the veil is MUCH more fun. The hands of his family coming into shot, showing the care that surrounds him, are all we need. He is in his own world, yet we know he is loved and cared for. We also know that this wedding day was one he'll remember for the excitement, fun and delights that surrounded him, as his mother and father bound themselves to each other in marriage. What a moment, as a wedding photographer, to be there to document events!