So this is going to be the first entry in a regular series of posts about particular images, what they mean to me and why I took them.  This first post is about the wedding tableau.

What I love about pictures like this is the way the camera is able to truly freeze a moment in time.  Everyone here is caught in their own world.  A pregnant bridesmaid in the foreground, grandfather with granddaughter behind her, the flowergirls and page boy just beyond them, and the mother-of-the-bride tying everything together in her striking red dress.  In photography you’re advised that subjects should not be overlapping.  This isn’t easy in a room filled with people but hopefully what I’ve achieved here is a sense of personal space the figures are all occupying.  They may be in their own worlds here but they are also very much all component parts of the same event, family and friends coming together to celebrate a wedding.  And all this is exactly why I always shoot with a wide-angled lens at a wedding: to take in the scene as a whole.  Almost any of these pieces could have been photos in their own right had I chosen to go in close.  But composed in this way the photo takes on a larger life.  One that hopefully bears repeated viewing.

Technical details for the photography wonks:

Camera: Canon 5D MKIII

Lens: Canon 35mm f1.4

Aperture: 5.6

Shutter speed: 1/125

ISO: 2,500