As part of my regular feature on images that I particularly love, this week I want to share with you a photograph from Robert and Sophia’s wonderful day.
The wedding of this lovely couple took place at the exclusive Lansdowne Club in Mayfair, with the famous Berkeley Square our location for some lovely outdoor photographs in the late summer sunshine.
However, as beautiful these images are it is this preparation shot of the bride that I share with you on this occasion…
This image – taken just minutes before the ceremony commenced – captures Sophia’s family helping to make final adjustments to her beautiful wedding dress. Always looking to ‘push the envelope’ with my photography, I selected an ultra wide 20mm prime lens and positioned myself on the floor, shooting almost vertically to create this dramatic perspective. I’m particularly fond of the way in which the image leads the eye from the bottom left corner into the heart of the frame, then sweeps counter-clockwise as her sister’s arms naturally frame the focus on her face as she buttons Sophia’s dress; the eye then cascades down the dress to her father’s hands and back to where we began. There is such a lovely kinetic energy to the image that I see something a little different in it each time I look at it, noting the way that, on the right side of the image for example, Sophia’s mother is mirroring the shape of her daughter as she attends to Sophia’s bracelet: I relive the excitable energy of this magical moment each time I revisit it.
This was shot was taken almost fully wide open, resulting in the image gently dropping out of focus the higher your eye travels, thus retaining the focus on the most interesting aspects of the image. Shooting in such a way also mean that that I could make the very most of the available window light, negating the need for a flash and therefore avoiding any unsightly shadows or ‘hot-spots’
Nikon D750 / Nikon 20mm 1.8 @ f2 / 200s / ISO 400
