Picture of the month – Nervous hands

A favorite from March 2013.

I love this for numerous reasons. Primarily, I shoot to tell the story of the day and part of this is to find details without setting up a shot. This includes, no directing or promoting by the photographer. My philosophy (yes, quite shocking for folks who know me but I do have one)  is I don’t believe a picture can be improved by interfering, as then the image is not a moment but a moment that the photographer has controlled.

It is a challenge for me to find those moments with a human element. Why? For one. it’s more interesting as it links the bride, groom or whoever to the event in an emotional way (thanks to Fer Juaristi who taught me this) and two, to bring composition, structure and geometry to those shots. If I spend enormous amounts of energy setting up a shot, then I will miss moments happening around me and then I feel like I’m not doing service to my couple, who’ve spent enormous sums of money for me to capture what they see in my portfolio.

Back to the shot below. Hands can be a detail shot and so can the ring. Hands alone tell a powerful story and in this case I captured these as Lauren was finishing up getting dressed with her lovely mom behind her but out of shot. For those who want to know the techie stuff, it was captured on a D4 with a simple 35mm f1.4 Nikon lens in low light with some tungsten coming from far right of the bride.  For me it takes on its own endearing qualities and timelessness. You can see the rest of my favorites from Lauren and Alex’s wedding here (this wasn’t included but I found this as I was culling and editing yesterday) and for now, remain my favorite shot of 2013.