Sandrine et Didier se sont mariés à la mairie de Quimper et ont ensuite célébré leur mariage avec famille et amis au Domaine des Rhododendrons à Elliant, dans le Finistère en Bretagne.
Ce fut un très joli mariage. La maman de Sandrine a eu l’honneur et la chance de conduire la cérémonie de mariage de sa fille et nous a fait partager un discours très émouvant qui nous a beaucoup touché.
Les amis de Sandrine et Didier leurs ont preparés de nombreuses surprises tout au long de la journée et l’une des plus insolites fut l’arivée au domaine en parapente de Marc, le témoin de Didier.

Pour moi les invités contribuent énormément à l’ambience d’un mariage, celui-ci n’en manquait vraiment pas: tout le monde a passé une excellente journée.

Voici quelques unes de mes photos préférées de la journée…

Sandrine and Didier married at La Mairie Quimper before heading to Domaine des Rhododendrons near Elliant in Brittany for their wedding reception. This wedding was so lovely – Sandrine’s Mum (who was also the celebrant) made a very touching personal speech during the ceremony. A La Domaine their friend Marc came in from the sky on a paraglider and everyone had great fun all day. To me it’s the people that make a great wedding and this one was just fantastic.

Here are some of my favourite photographs from the day.

Laura and Colin married each other at the beautiful Cunningham Memorial Presbyterian Church in Cullybackey before heading up the road to Galgorm Manor for their wedding reception. The weather was pretty changeable but thankfully the rain managed to keep away and we ended up with a lovely wedding day.

Laura sent me this lovely email after seeing her pictures on return from honeymoon:

Hi Dylan,
The photographs are amazing! So pleased with them. I have watched the slideshow at least a dozen times and still get emotional! The photos bring back so many wonderful memories of the day and I wasn’t even aware you were there. Thanks so much.
Best wishes,
Laura

Last week Jo and Andy brought me down to Dublin with them for a little portrait session. Here are some photographs as we walked through Trinity College and Dublin’s city streets.

When Joanne booked me as the photographer for her wedding we discovered that we were both massive Pearl Jam fans and that we were both in the crowd at the Point Theatre, Dublin, way back in October 1996 as Pearl Jam took to the stage with ‘Release’. Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to their wedding in October this year. :)

Incidentally, as we were walking through Trinity a wedding party emerged from the church. As I noticed the photographer, we waited to observe him in action.

So, the bridal party gathered at the top of the steps and everyone starts to greet the bride and groom and offer their congratulations. There are hugs, kisses, laughs; tears even. A little flowergirl is running around. The bride and groom look so happy!

My eye automatically starts to see all these little moments and fabulous picture opportunities. My brain starts to whirr! I can feel my natural instincts kicking in before I have to remind myself to keep distance (after all, I’m not the hired gun at this gig!).

So what does the traditional “wedding photographer” do while all this is going on?

Nothing. He simply stands there and misses it all! Camera in hand, waiting for the ‘group shot’, he takes not one single photograph. He doesn’t move. All those moments have gone forever!

As we left I couldn’t help thinking about all that we’d just seen and the shame that none of it was captured or preserved on film for the couple and their family.

Personally, I’m really glad I don’t follow wedding photography as a “style” – after all, who would want their wedding album just to look like everybody elses with the same poses and the same photographs (just different actors)? I think for Jo and Andy it was a real eye opener into the different photographic approaches that are taken at a wedding.

The feeling I was left with reminded me of Cartier Bresson talking about how he felt shooting on the streets of Marseille.
“I was determined to ‘trap’ life – to preserve life in the act of living. Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.”

“I think photographs should be provocative and not tell you what you already know. It takes no great powers or magic to reproduce somebody’s face in a photograph. The magic is in seeing people in new ways.” Duane Michals

When I hold a camera in my hands (especially at a wedding), I’m often reminded by the shooting philosophies of Henri Cartier Bresson.

“Photography is not like painting” he told the Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

There were some really lovely moments at Julia and Nick’s wedding last Saturday. Here are some of my personal favourites.

This wedding was a real treat for me. My clients Catherine and Niall, are two of the most delightful people I have ever met. Niall’s speech later in the day at Ballygally Castle was one of the most emotional I’ve heard all year. And Catherine’s three bridesmaids really shared every moment with the bride.

The weather was beautiful – warm and sunny – perfect for relaxing on the lawns of Ballygally Castle. Here are just a few of my favourite images as I continue the editing.

WEDDING TIP #1 – WEDDING VIDEOGRAPHY
As a photographer, clients often ask what I think about them hiring a wedding videographer to film their day. I have mixed opinions on the subject. I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best in the business (and I will be happy to pass along their contact info to any of my future brides). I have also worked with some of the most obnoxious, obtrusive, annoying, and unprofessional videographers too (I will also be happy to provide the names of those to avoid as well).

Right now, I’d say about a quarter of the weddings I shoot have a videographer. I really don’t have a problem with them as long as they are professional and respectful of what is going on during the day. Too often, I am hired as a wedding photojournalist, to document the day as it unfolds and fly-on-the-wall-like as possible, only to find that the client has hired a video crew, that is in your face all day long with a big ol’ rolling tripod and bright light that lights up the place like Blackpool illuminations, posing everything and turning your day into a bad reality show.

When my sister got married, I told her for the price of an average videographer, she could buy a top of the line digital video camera, and give it to our uncle. The quality of those cameras is amazing and our Uncle Davy did a great job. They took the raw footage and edited it on their iMac and made a cool little DVD. Of course, that is no replacement for a high end videographer who would do an amazing job, but in my humble opinion it is a better option than hiring a budget videographer.

So, if you are one of my future brides and you are thinking of having a video please contact me if you’d like the names of a like minded videographer who will do a fabulous job. Or at least contact me and I will let you know who to avoid at all costs.