The week before Christmas saw me shooting at Holy Trinity Church at Glencraig in Holywood and then back up to Clandeboye Estate where I’d photographed Simon and Claire’s wedding for Claire and Ben’s magical wedding.

With the ceremony taking place at 3.30pm there was hardly any natural light for me to work with. The weather was wet and cold so the whole wedding was shot entirely indoors. Inside the church the atmosphere was wonderful – almost in darkness except for some storm lanterns and candlelight. Clandeboye was also beautiful and is a truly fabulous winter wedding venue.

With such difficult lighting conditions I shot most of the day at f1.4 ISO 6400 and shutter speeds of between 1/30th and 1/100th of a second – which for me, really is the top of the mountain technically. I refuse to use flash as its presence would totally destroy the atmosphere – as well as being too intrusive for the way I work.

With it being so ‘photographically’ dark I managed to retain a lot of the atmosphere and capture some really lovely moments and scenes.

Here are a few of my many favourites from the day:

Today is my last day in the studio before I break up for Christmas. I do have three more weddings to shoot here in Ireland before the year is out, but after that I will be able to put my feet up and relax over the holiday season. Fingers crossed that we don’t get any more snow overnight, as it has been pretty cold of late!!

I will be back in the studio on 5th January, and won’t have access to email or phone until then.

I would like to wish all the readers of this blog a fantastic Christmas and New Year. I’ll be posting some images from my Christmas weddings in the New Year. In the meantime, please enjoy a little slideshow of my favourite moments from my 2009 weddings.

I thought I’d post some images from Sarah and Tom’s fabulous 28th November wedding just before our new baby arrives.

American fine art photographer Joel Meyerowitz has spoken about the opportunities a photographer has when working with chance, time and speed. Like Joel, for me, my photographs are all about instantaneity.

I consider I have a machine that chips away at time – a thousandth of a second here, a 250th of a second there. These moments come and go in the blink of an eye.

Although it was a crisp bright day for Sarah and Tom’s wedding, the natural indoor light was pretty low and faded early, as is customary at this time of year. The atmosphere was amazing though with low light, candles and the intimacy of the venues all playing their part in a really lovely winter wedding.

Again, in order to keep the integrity of the pictures, no flash was used throughout the day – just great glass, speed of thought and fluid reactions to everything happening.

Here are some of my personal favourites as I continue with the editing:

Lauren and Jamie had me photograph their wedding up at Ballyeaston and Ballygally Castle, County Antrim last Saturday. They were in such good spirits all day. Lauren looked simply stunning as did her three bridesmaids. The great sense of nervous excitement at the house in the morning must have been lovely for Lauren’s Mum and Dad, Sandra and Trevor to witness and be part of and I’m sure Trevor must have been a very proud man then leading her up the aisle.

Weddings bring together all of the friends and family in one place and it was such a pleasure for me to also be part of their big day. The evening speeches were amongst the funniest I’ve heard all year.

Here are some of my favourite photographs from the day:

The last of my October weddings saw me up at the beautiful old All Saints church in Loughguile and Lissanoure, County Antrim for Georgina and Simon’s wedding.

Georgie and Simon were just lovely to work with. Lots of their friends and family travelled over from Britain for the wedding and I’d like to thank everyone for such good good fun. Particularly the Rev John Bach for officiating such a beautiful ceremony. The evening jigs were amazing!

Throughout the day the autumnal light was very low and pretty much to be expected for this time of year in Northern Ireland. However, this is the sort of environment I thrive in – I just love shooting autumn and winter weddings. Many photographers resort to the vulgarity and intrusiveness of flash – but, if you use the available light correctly, the pictures can be wonderful.

Here are some of my personal favourites:

This wedding was so beautiful. Roberta and Graeme got married at the Old Inn in Crawfordsburn, County Down. The Old Inn is one of those venues that just suits small intimate weddings. Bo & G had just 20 guests (including me!) and so it was a very intimate affair! I have to say that I just love shooting indoors at this time of year. I love the warm colours and the cosy atmosphere of winter weddings.

As a soon-to-be parent, this wedding really hit home to me the importance of family. It was lovely to see their daughter Dara helping Mum get ready before the service. Their son Eoin was a real livewire too. I’m glad Graeme’s family made it over from Aberdeen – especially with his Father being ill. It was so touching to be part of this wedding.

Here are some of my personal favourites:

Yesterday I received a lovely email from Roberta after she had seen her photographs:
“Dylan,
Love it love it love it
Graeme is travelling to the Caspian sea right now so won’t see the photos till tomorrow.
Haven’t time right now to say all I want to but a big thank you for starters.
Will be in touch.
Bo
(Roberta)”

To me, good reportage wedding photography means following the story and in a sense, retelling that story through pictures (certainly not in directing it).

Weddings hold a deep sense of mystery to me. When I turn up at a wedding I have no preconceived ideas about how things should look or what might happen. Out of respect for the wedding, I don’t believe the photographer should impose himself on things at all. I’d rather record the day in such a way as to create images that are authentic and that can be enjoyed for generations to come.

I find that photographs that come from real moments are inherently more powerful and authentic than anything that is stage-managed.

There should be nothing random about a so-called ‘candids’. Wedding photojournalism is about really poignant moments that can mean a lot to the people in those photographs. Nor is it defined by an absence of formal photos or portraits.

There are some real wedding photojournalism myths around.
At a wedding last week I was asked about the photograph I posted recently on my blog of the little girl cooling down her tea. The question was along the lines of ‘what was the relationship of that little girl to the bride and groom?’ and ‘was it just a lucky shot?’ Well, she was their flowergirl. So I obviously knew that she was pretty important to the bride and groom. If you keep a close eye on things, get in the right positions and are quick then the rest just falls into place. Part of the equation of a great photograph is anticipation.

One of my most treasured photographs is of my own Mum when she was about the same age at a wedding at the very same venue (Belfast Castle). The picture was probably considered to be somewhat of a throwaway print back in the 1960’s because it was shot on the fringes of a large group formal. My Mum’s not looking at the camera and it’s not a ‘formal’ portrait, but, to me, that little photograph means the world.

I’m quite perceptive as to what happens around me and I learn quickly on a day who the important characters are. At each wedding, I will focus on telling the story through the bridal party and the main characters.

I don’t take photos of absolutely everyone though – to do that is simply unrealistic and would involve lining absolutely everyone up for what would essentially be endless simple record shots. These days, guests with their digital cameras are more than capable of getting ‘record’ shots of people. I believe a photographers skills are worth much more than that.

Where the skill lies these days, is in anticipating and reacting to what’s happening around you. Your ability to relate to people and create images out of the life that’s around you. Also, a photographer is usally hired for their eye – their ability to see a picture, if you like.

Another myth is that somehow wedding photojournalists don’t ‘do’ group shots. That’s just not true.

Years ago, when wedding photographers shot with medium format film, consider that there were just ten shots on a roll of 120 film. Wedding photography was all about the photographer having control over people and how those people were presented to the camera. Mysteriously, with some wedding photographers, this obsession continues on to this day.

Of course, the other side is that there are also a lot of photographers who think that it’s ok simply to turn up with a digital camera and ‘machine-gun’ a wedding and then supply the client with a thousand ‘candid’ images that haven’t really got any coherent thinking behind them.

That, to me, isn’t story telling – that’s just random shooting and hoping for the best.

Good photography is carefully considered and it takes years of practice.

Making pictures is what I love doing. You put a camera in my hands and I’m happy to find great pictures everywhere.