I spent much of August in France and for most of September I have been shooting some fantastic weddings here in Ireland. As it’s been a while since I posted some wedding photographs I thought I’d just share with you some of my favourites from my last five weddings.

As always, none of these moments were prompted, arranged, setup or fictionalised by the photographer. All the elements contained within are real – I was merely passing by…

Here we go!

“I think about photographs as being full, or empty. You picture something in a frame and it’s got lots of accounting going on in it–stones and buildings and trees and air–but that’s not what fills up a frame. You fill up the frame with feelings, energy, discovery, and risk, and leave room enough for someone else to get in there.” – Joel Meyerowitz

Here’s a few of my personal favourites from Tori and Steven’s wedding.

Someone asked me recently if I thought that my photographs were in some way a form of self-portrait. Which I thought was funny because the boy in this picture is also called Dylan! :D

What a pleasure it was for me to cover this one having photographed Kathryn’s sister’s wedding at Larchfield Estate back in September. It was wonderful to see so many friendly faces once again.

Although people and relationships are the focus of my photojournalistic approach to wedding photography, I consider light, colour and form to be equal ingredients. So with the guests enjoying the beautiful summer weather during the reception it was fantastic to have the challenge of taking pictures in the strong directional light at the front of the Museum.

It was great to be able to document this important part of the day rather than going off into Botanic Gardens for some posed pictures. With Kathryn and Brian deciding to forego posed photos altogether, my role, as ever, was to seek out the real gestures, expressions, glances, whispers, and colour and form that make a wedding day so special.

These are my favourite photographs from the day.

One of the great things about shooting wedding photographs for a living is the people you meet. And sometimes you discover that you may have actually met them before in a previous life! As it turns out Ricky and I traced the same path through primary school, grammar school and university. We grew up together just streets apart. Yet, as he was four years my junior our paths didn’t actually cross until Laura and Ricky booked me for their wedding.

So it was a real pleasure for me to photograph the wedding for them. As I looked around the room later in the day I saw some familiar faces. Their ceremony took place at St Comgalls in Antrim followed by a reception at the Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, County Down.

Here’s a few of my personal favourites:

I love photographing weddings at Belfast Castle. My sister married here in 2007 and the earliest photograph we have of my Mum is from a wedding here in the early 1960′s where she was a little flowergirl – so it’s a place that holds great memories for me.

Tara and Mark had their wedding ceremony at the Castle and then relaxed in the gardens with guests before heading down to La Mon Country Club for the evening reception.

Tara sent me a lovely email after seeing her pictures online:
“Hi Dylan

Thanks for your email and link to the gallery.

Mark and I absolutley LOVE the photos, they are even better than we imagined, thank you so much!

We sat down together to look through the slideshow and the photos brought back so many memories from moments we had forgotten (or missed on the day!), every time we look at the photos of the speeches we remember what was being said and laugh all over again.
You really captured the story of our day, we cant thank you enough.
Many thanks again,
Tara & Mark”

Here’s just a few of my own favourites from the first part of their day:

It was another fabulous marquee wedding in Northern Ireland for me a few weeks back as I photographed Joanne and David’s wedding.

I always like photographing weddings where the location has a strong personal connection to the family. Joanne and David married less than a mile away from where Joanne grew up at Grange Chapel near Cranfield whilst the reception was held at David’s family home near Aghagallon in County Antrim. Both venues provided stunning backdrops for the days events.

Here are just a few of my favourite images from the day.

Here’s an image that just jumped off the screen for me earlier this morning as I was editing Joanne and David’s wedding pictures from a couple of weeks back.

Following on from my post earlier in the week – here’s a few more of my favourites from Laura and Ben’s day:

I’m inspired by a lot of the great 20th century street photographers. I’ve never really been a fan of ‘wedding photography’ per se. Along with Garry Winogrand probably my favourite New York photographer over the years has been Joel Meyerowitz, who once remarked that:

“…Photography is a response that has to do with the momentary recognition of things. Suddenly you’re alive. A minute later there was nothing there. I just watched it evaporate. You look one moment and there’s everything, next moment it’s gone. Photography is very philosophical.”