Anticipating The Moment

There are key moments during a wedding when you can anticipate where the bride and groom are going to be and what they will be doing and the first dance is one of those moments. So is capturing one of those little moments that you know is going to happen, photojournalism or is it posed?

I don’t pose the first dance shot, but I do like to stack the odds in my favour. I speak to the DJ and find out if he is going to do something ‘funky’ or unexpected, like use his laser lights to cover the couple in little green and red dots! Most young couples don’t really know how to do a slow dance and they end up rotating around a single point with their heads buried in each others shoulders doing some sort of embarrassed shuffle. I simply ask them to keep their heads up for the first 30 seconds and not to turn their back to me for too long. I also make sure that my assistant knows where to be, how I want the video light and is ready to watch for my hand signals so that they change position at the right time. Or maybe I should chat to the guests and bang my flash on top of the camera, set everything to automatic, take loads of shots and see how they turn out?