Wedding photos

[George K]

One of the nurses I used to work with got married recently.

She posted a bunch of pics on FaceyPage. Some of them are pretty hackneyed, but some are pretty cool.

I think this was in Ireland.

Just thought I'd share.

Curious as to what y'all think. Tacky? Cool? Heartwamring?

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K said in Wedding photos:

Curious as to what y'all think. Tacky? Cool? Heartwamring?

Most people see a lot of photos on social media, but don't really have much exposure to photography on a daily basis. So, they have kinda crude sensibilities about this sort of thing. That's not a dig—I'm not a musician, so the finer timbre of, say, a top-of-the-line acoustic would be lost on me for similar reasons.

So, yes, hackneyed, cliché and very "meh." But also very nice, so what does it matter what I think.

There's a guy in San Diego who takes absolutely stunning wedding/engagement photos in my opinion. But his thing is, he completely refuses to do stage direction. No posed shit, nothing contrived. He's just there, for 10 or so hours hanging out with them. So he waits, and catches moments that really make the couple's personalities and relationship dynamic shine through.

I love stuff like that, but some people just want the hand closeups with the rings. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

[George K]

@Aqua-Letifer there's no question these are staged photos. The ones that I didn't link to are even more staged.

So, yeah, they're hackneyed and cliche' as you say.

But they struck me as being just a little more creative than the usual wedding pics I'm used to seeing.

Your reference to a guy who stages nothing, poses nothing, might be a better memory for the couple.

If it were my wedding, I'd hire your guy rather than the one who took these pics. The ones I posted are not bad, IMO, but I'd like something a bit more spontaneous.

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K said in Wedding photos:

Your reference to a guy who stages nothing, poses nothing, might be a better memory for the couple.

I would argue that that's true. It's a greater risk—not all photographers are skilled enough to do this, especially among wedding photographers. But if you're able to capture moments that express something real about the character of a person, the photograph becomes a much stronger memory device.

Good portrait photographers do this all the time, by the way. Clients always start out by putting on their "public image" because a complete stranger is shoving a camera in their face. But "façade" portraits are never as good as genuine ones. You can go the Annie Leibovitz route and get subjects out of their comfort zone, or go the Eddie Adams route and make them feel at home with you, but either way what you're doing is getting past the façade, which always makes for better portraits.

[Copper]

At first the chapel in the pictures reminded me of the chapel on Innisfallen Island in Lough Leane in Kerry

Now, I think it is Dunlewey Church, located in Poisoned Glen, County Donegal, Ireland

[Klaus]

They look better than our wedding photos.

[jon-nyc]

@George-K said in Wedding photos:

Curious as to what y'all think.

I’d hit it.

Oh, wait, you mean the photos???