Contact Sheet: Light + Shadow

Right, so I think it’s time to rekindle the contact sheet series, seeing as I’ve got a decent amount of time on my hands now, and what better one to continue with than this one from John + Rachel’s Royal Hospital Chelsea wedding last year. It’s an image I was going to talk about anyway, but I guess I’ve got extra impetus seeing as it won a This Is Reportage award on Monday! It’s obviously quite striking, and I’ve been asked about it a few times; namely how did I see it, or anticipate for it, so let’s break it down.

First things first - the light. How lovely is it?? It’s the kind I like to work with when I’m doing my street photography, so I instantly thought it was worth setting myself up to see if I could get a nice picture of John and Rachel as they scootered past, whilst on our way to the venue.

As you can see, it was a bit of a fail. Actually, complete fail!! Firstly they were scootering next to each other, so Rachel was out the picture, and to make it even worse John turned his head at the precise moment I needed him to look straight on! I had two options: stop everything and ask them to go back and do it again, or just let it lie. Seeing as I never get involved, I was prepared to suck it up, when I saw one of the groomsmen approach with his bunch of balloons. My excitement levels shot up a level as I imagined what the image would look like, but since I’d already started to head off, I had to quickly readjust, shoot, and hope for the best. Which should explain why the shot is at an angle, and the exposure is just slightly off….I then just waited for the rest of the wedding party to walk past to see if there were any more gems hidden amongst them.

With an image like this it’s really all about taking a bit of a gamble and seeing if it comes off. The initial idea didn’t work at all - to get what I was imagining I probably would’ve had to set it up, and ask them to scooter past individually. Nothing wrong with that by the way! But it’s just not my style. Also, for me, the final shot becomes so much more satisfying, seeing as it came completely organically, and just shows to get killer images you have make your own luck sometimes.