Wedding photography, especially the photojournalistic style, involves quick decision-making and the ability to think outside the box. Case-in-point: the depiction of the waiting bride in the photograph below. It was just moments before the groom was to be escorted down the aisle by his mother and I wanted a photo of the waiting bride as she stood tight awaiting her turn, which would come last, as the bride is typically the last person to walk the aisle. (Sidenote: there is a fledgeling trend of couples walking down the aisle arm-to-arm, but this is an exception and not the rule.) Unfortunately, the entire bridal party was blocking my line of sight towards her, and I could not photograph her directly. In the spirit of not wanting to interfere and intrude upon the moment, I decided against gently pushing through the little crowd to approach the waiting bride. As I was contemplating a workaround to the problem at hand, a solution presented itself: I discovered that the bride’s reflection would sometimes appear in the glass door as she shifted around and talked to her friends. This solved the dilemma and allowed me to deliver this unique image to the couple. The image is undoubtedly flawed from a technical perspective because the waiting bride’s reflection is rendered through a double-paned glass door. Furthermore, it would have been more contrasty had the stucco wall beyond the glass was several shades darker. But perfection is never guaranteed in wedding photojournalism, which aims to tell stories and portray moments in time, which I believe this image does marvellously. A sharper and more contrasty photograph would have been more technically proficient—and there are probably photographers for whom technical execution is synonymous with artistic merit—but at what cost? What potential conversation or moment of self-reflection could I have spoiled by marching over? I’ll never know, but I’m glad I did not.
(P.S. Always remember the rule of reflections: if you can see them, they can see you.)