A fairly common mistake of many Toronto wedding photographers is to focus solely on the bride. While the bride gets most of the time with the photographer during her preparation the groom and groomsmen are neglected. On this special day at King Edward Hotel I suggested a different approach. We started photographing the groom preparation first, then we documented the bride's getting ready before heading to the wedding ceremony.
Also, during the photo shoot following the ceremony I made sure I took plenty of photos of the groom and his groomsmen. Because most professional photographers focus on the brides and the bridesmaids, treating the boys very well results in referrals. It is not uncommon for me to receive emails from the grooms looking to book a photographer. Of course the bride is an important decision maker, but often grooms are very passionate about wedding photography so they are glad to meet with me.
In this particular photograph, I wanted to create an artistic portrait of the groom so I placed the bride in the foreground and I shot from a very low angle. That achieves a few things. First the bride is no longer the centre of attention because only the bouquet and her dress can be seen. Second, the low angle gives the groom a hero look. Photographing someone from a very low angle makes them look more important more powerful, taller, manlier then shooting from a eye level.
If there is anything I learned in my career as wedding photographer is that it is really important to be original. In many aspects photography has become a commodity as everybody carries a camera in their pocket and long gone are the days when the profession of wedding photography demanded respect. Nowadays everybody is a photographer and often a really good one.
Location: 37 King St E, Toronto, ON M5C 1E9.
