Wedding Photography: The Best Wedding Photos Get Taken When The Camera’s Connected To The Heart

Anyone with a camera nowadays can take a wedding picture. It’s simple. Point a camera at a wedding… and take a picture. Your guests will do that with their snapshots.

Ah, but… it’s another thing to capture what your wedding feels like.
Yet those are the moments which give your wedding deeper meaning and significance.
Those are the unscripted moments of your life. And those moments will have the most profound meaning for you.

But how would a wedding photographer know when it’s that kind of moment? You could snap a shutter every five seconds – and still miss the most profound moment in-between.
And end up with nothing more than mere snapshots… if you don’t know just when it’s the right moment.

The answer is the photographer needs empathy for the people around him or her.
You need to know what it feels like to be the bride. To be the groom. To be the dad, mom, grandparents.

You need to instinctively feel these are your life’s most meaningful moments you’re capturing, not just some disconnected third party who happened to hire you.
Let me tell you, without that, the photographer’s merely a “picture taker.” Same as the guests.

Here’s an example of what I mean.

This father of the bride was toasting his daughter and her groom. He pulled out a little piece of paper from his pocket. Carefully unfolded it. Put on his reading glasses and started to recite his prepared words.
A few thoughtfully selected but poignant, words. The last line of it was, “I hope you’re as happy as I’ve been with your mother for the last 35 years.” A very sweet sentiment.

He couldn’t finish the sentence.
He started to choke up.
He was crying.

Struggling to work his way through the rest of the words. Indeed, through the rest of that sentiment.

Have you ever loved someone so much yet needed to say “You’ve been a huge part of my life for so many years… but now it’s the moment I have to say goodbye”?

It feels like this: “And something inside began to hurt” – from the movie, “Father Of The Bride”

He was feeling the brunt of those few words – because she meant so much to him.
What happened next is the bride’s mom immediately came to his side and silently touched his arm in support letting him know she was standing by him.
The best man stepped up from behind placing a hand upon his shoulder to steady and comfort him.
The bride was smiling at her father. And crying at the same time.
And there I was photographing every moment of it.
Because I felt it too. Those moments spoke to me.