Last weekend I had the huge honour of photographing the marriage of the extraordinary Immodesty Blaize to her impossibly charming husband, Gregory, underneath cloudless Monte Carlo skies.  As you can imagine there are some spectacular images — and I will feature those in due course, when I blog the full set — but today I want to focus on this particular image because it feels like one of the most romantic photos I’ve taken.  I’m very proud of this shot of Immodesty and Gregory in the back of the car on the way to the registry office in the morning.  It has everything that I’d hoped to capture going into this wedding. Despite the fact that this could be a still from an Italian movie 50 years ago, there’s no sense of performance here.  It’s a powerfully honest image of a heightened emotion.  You can almost feel Immodesty’s pre-wedding nerves vibrating from the photo — that fixed gaze trying to steady the carousel of emotions inside.  And then naturally and quietly you have Gregory’s tenderly reassuring kiss on his fiancée’s arm.  Sometimes wedding photographers might pose the couple in the back of the car for a photo, but none of this was done for the camera.  This took place in a moving car and I had been sitting in the front seat watch the curving hilltop roads of Monaco glide by.  But for some reason I just happened to glance back, see what was going on and was able to quickly spin round, shooting with the camera pointing back over my shoulder.  This was their moment.  I was just lucky enough to catch it.

Technical details for the photography wonks:

Camera: Canon 5D MKIII

Lens: Canon 24-70mm II

Aperture: f2.8

Shutter speed: 1/250

ISO: 640

http://www.immodestyblaize.com/