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.”

This was one of those moments.

I love this image because like all great wide-angle photographs the eye can go into the picture at any point and find something (or someone) interesting; from the girl at the back whistling, to the man in the corner laughing to the little girl sitting drawing pictures in the other corner (oblivous to all of the commotion).

When Laura and Ben asked me to photograph their wedding I was thrilled because they really wanted unposed photographs showing the people of their wedding just ‘doing their thing’. They didn’t want to do any posing and like all of my clients they simply wanted to enjoy their day and leave the pictures up to me.

At a wedding, I’m interested in showing lots of different things that happen around the bride and groom. I’m really drawn to photographing people and it’s often a gesture, an expression or an amusing situation that I keep an eye out for.

Photographically, if I can get two or three things going on within the frame at the time of the ‘decisive moment’ then I’m a very happy man. The first image below, where the groom is pointing the way to the marquee reception, is a case in point.

Here’s a few of my early favourites… :D

The image above is another example. As the woman in the middle places her hand on her chest, the lady to her left (with the hat) places her hand on the baby’s head. These are the funny real-life coincidences that if the eye can see the camera can register in a thousandth of a second.

After the ceremony Laura and Ben hosted a fabulous marquee reception in a wonderful lakeside setting in the middle of the beautiful County Down countryside. I’ll be posting some more of my favourites from that later this week.

I’m fortunate to live in Ireland and to have developed a passion for photographing horses. There’s something incredibly peaceful about taking portraits of these beautiful animals. Here’s a few more taken with my Hasselblad XPan – this time from up in the Glens of Antrim.

On returning from France I had the pleasure of photographing Jennifer and Jonathan’s wedding at First Presbyterian Ballymena with reception at Galgorm Resort and Spa.

As a documentary wedding photographer, when I cover a wedding day I set out to tell the story of the day without directing anyone. Save for a couple of family shots, for the majority of the day I direct myself instead. I see my role as being there to record the news, not make it – almost to be like a guest with a camera (albeit a pretty expensive one)!

One of the challenges and indeed pleasures of taking a documentary approach is that you get to discover the story (and sub-stories) running through the wedding day with all of the different characters within the group of friends and family.

Now, I don’t know why, and it could be that with Father’s day having just passed (and with it also being Jennifer’s Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary just the other day) that when it came to selecting the images for this particular blog post I really loved the pictures showing Jennifer’s Dad.
One day I’m sure my own daughter will be all grown up and will be marrying someone perhaps in 20 or 30 years time. I’m sure it’ll be pretty emotional!

Speaking of directing – Jennifer’s Grandfather also had an important role on the day as he directed his choir which sang both in the church and also a little later in the church hall. He certainly looked pleased as punch when he managed to grab a kiss with Jenny on their way out of the church!

I have to say that it was such a pleasure for me to cover this wedding and all of the guests that I spoke with during my blending in during ‘guest with camera’ mode made me feel very welcome.

Here’s just a few of my favourite photographs from the day:

Jennifer sent me a lovely email after seeing her pictures for the first time:
Dylan,
The photographs are amazing!!! We love them. We must have watched the
slideshow
a zillion times!! thank you so much! I can’t even pick a favourite!

Thanks,
Jennifer

I laughed out loud when I walked past and saw this a couple of weeks ago and it still makes me smile now.

I’ll admit to initially being baffled as to the real purpose of the chainsaw.

All will be revealed here next week! :D

Apologies for not posting last week. With three weddings in the space of eight days and over 600 miles clocked up in the car, the second half of June feels like it could rival the months of September and December as my busiest time of the year.

Just before my run of recent weddings I was in France shooting the horses of Les Haras in Hennebont where I had some great access to the private area not normally seen by members of the public. Here’s a couple of images just scanned in from the negatives – taken on my Hasselblad Xpan panoramic camera with Ilford HP5 black and white film.

I’ve also been working on a project featuring Irish horses – I’ll try and post some more of those images later this week.

Before heading to France a couple of weeks back I had the pleasure of photographing Pauline and Paul’s wedding day at the Ulster Folk Museum in Cultra, North Down.

I have to say that I really enjoyed photographing the people at this wedding. The warmth and love on the day was fantastic to be a part of. Lots of quirky little details also, like the little ‘Up’ poster that everyone had to fingerprint and sign on their way into the Ballycultra tea Rooms for the dinner. The whole location was a wonderful backdrop to the (non-directed) action.

Thankfully the weather held out too and we had wall to wall sunshine. :D

Here’s a few photographs that show what happened: