Unobtrusive. It’s a popular word used by many wedding photographers at the moment – but what does it actually mean? I prefer the dictionary definition:

un·ob·tru·sive
adjective / 

Not conspicuous or attracting attention

A photographer can’t truthfully claim to be unobtrusive if a sizeable proportion of their images have people looking straight into the camera. That’s called ‘attracting attention’. And it’s the easiest thing in the world to prompt someone to look at the camera.

For me, the imagination lies in catching moments without the subjects being aware.

So next time you see the words “relaxed, unobtrusive” – have a look at the photographs in question and see for yourself if the second part of that is really true.

For last weekends wedding I was in the Mount Falcon Hotel in Ballina to photograph Joanne and Colm’s County Mayo wedding.

It seems a growing trend for couples to take their friends and family away for the wedding weekend. Sometimes I find it’s outside Ireland (as with my Barcelona and Cyprus weddings last year) and other times it’s within Ireland itself.

The common element between all destination weddings is that the atmosphere is just really lovely. Everyone is in ‘holiday mode’ and that is just fantastic to be a part of. Thankfully the weather also held out and we were all treated to some beautiful Mayo sunshine.

My day started at Mount Falcon itself with the bridal preparations and it was lovely to meet Noelle again whose wedding I’ll be photographing next year.

The three best moments for me during the day were:
- seconds before leaving for the church and as Noelle was fixing the veil, when Joanne and her Mum had an emotional moment,
- in the church when Colm said “I Joanne, take you Colm…” and the whole place erupted,
- and when during the speeches, Joanne kissed the little bicycle figure and said “my wee Colm…”

As ever, here are just some of my favourite photographs from the day:

Here’s a favourite moment from one of my recent weddings. Mary (pictured centre) and the bride Joanne were very close as Joanne grew up. This was the moment when Joanne thanked her in front of everyone during the speeches and presented her with a big bouquet of flowers. I just loved her emotional reaction as she brought her hands up to her face!

I’m back in the studio today after a very busy couple of weeks with the Easter break and being away in County Mayo shooting a lovely wedding in Ballina – images from which I’ll be posting later this week.

Before that, I photographed Louisa and Raymond’s wedding day at the ever fabulous Larchfield Estate.

When I arrived at Louisa’s parents house her little nephew was playing the piano in the front room and that just set the scene for a lovely day for me.

His three brothers were also in the house and they all managed to catch a glimpse of the bride in her dress before she left for Larchfield. The first challenge for me was to try and get a picture with all four of them in the frame (but not larking about). That moment came together in the second image below. The rest of the day was very relaxed with lots of lovely personal moments for the family.

Here’s a few of my favourites from the day:

I build up a series of visual impressions as I go through a wedding and during the day I always have several images imprinted in my instant memory as I go along. Two photographs (below) had really stood out for me during my wedding last week.

Later in the day, once everything had quietened down a little, I asked the bride Louisa what was her favourite moment from the day. So naturally, I was delighted when she told me it was the same moment – when she turned into the aisle and saw her groom!

After my London wedding I was back in Belfast, Northern Ireland for Nicola and Richard’s wedding at the beautiful Saint Peter’s Church on the Antrim Road beneath the slopes of Cave Hill (with reception at the Galgorm Resort & Spa). I’d been looking forward to this wedding all year for a number of reasons.

First, I knew I was going to get to photograph two of my favourite flowergirls from 2008. Back in August of that year I photographed Nicola’s brother’s wedding to Catherine. One of those pictures remains as one of my all time favourites.

On arriving at Nicola’s parents house this time, the two of them were getting ready in the front room and they really took a shine to me, calling me the photographer who made the “famous picture”! :D

I have to say that the two of them just seemed to have left off from when I last saw them three years ago! Even mirroring the same picture/moment when Nicola’s bridal car arrived outside (see the 2nd picture below).

I’d also been looking forward to this wedding because of the church. In the mid 1990′s I used to drive past Saint Peter’s almost every night on my way home from my then girlfriends house. I’d always wondered what it looked like on the inside because from the outside it had always caught my eye.

It didn’t disappoint and was such a pleasure to photograph in – with great colour and light!

Tthe other factor in play at this wedding was the people. I knew the family and friends would be fantastic and that the day would hold a lot of special emotions for everyone involved and that, for me, is the most important thing on a wedding day.

So having just finished the post production on the images I’ve pulled out a few of my personal favourites. Here they are!

I just had a look at the stats for the website for the first time and it seems that since the new site was launched last year I’ve had nearly a quarter of a million page views!! I’ve no idea how if this is good or bad compared to others but it sounds like a lot!

To be honest, I just concentrate on putting great images up and I know from the feedback I get from clients and other photographers that many of you enjoy reading my thoughts here on this blog too.

The blog stats are of the same order – apparently, I receive around 200-300 page views per day. Most of my visitors come from the UK and Ireland with the rest coming from the USA, Canada and elsewhere in Europe (mostly France). I’d say that mirrors where most of my clients are from (or currently live).

This week I’ve been very busy shooting a beautiful Tuesday wedding here in Northern Ireland, catching up with last weeks post production and on making plans for a new studio space. I also managed to catch the fantastic Steve McCurry exhibition at the Gallery of Photography in Dublin – highly recommended if you are in Dublin over the next few days – catch it before it finishes on Apr 24th!