Pictures we love that might not make your wedding album

There are many parts to the photography process. There is the looking, the seeing, the composing, and the taking of the image. Then there is the editing and processing. I love the editing as much as anything else. I almost always find myself stopping on pictures where the subject is in-between places—either mentally in-between, or physically in-between. He or she is going somewhere in his or her thoughts, but we don’t quite know where. Or the person is halfway to a smile or halfway out of one. Her eyes might be closed or focused elsewhere or she is brushing the hair out of her face. Sometimes I like a part of the image to be blurred or caught in motion. A little quirky, sometimes chaotic and sometimes still, because there is life in the chaos, and beauty where it aligns. 

Many of the wedding photos that I see on social media are so perfect… the people are perfect, the clothes are perfect, the scenery is perfect. They look like styled photo shoots, not even like real couples. Note: I’m all for beauty, all for the perfect shot, all for amazing scenery and beautiful attire and happy couples in love. But where an image gets more interesting to me is where I see the people in it. Where I see the realness. Where there is humanity, individuality, thought, and feeling—feeling that is candid and not fabricated for the sake of a photo shoot. If you’re actually ON a photoshoot, how do you achieve realness? Usually it’s those moments in-between. When you forget the photographer is there, and you are one with yourself, with your friends, or with each other.