Moments Like This...

A private moment between the bride and groom during their last dance of the evening.

It's grabbing a fleeting, almost hidden moment that really gives me satisfaction. Whether it's someone stealing out for a cigarette or a look and a laugh exchanged on the dance floor while no one else is watching. Of course it requires me to watch people more than watching where the cake is headed, but it's a small sacrifice to make in the name of that perfect shot.

Thankfully there are often many such moments at an event, all happening throughout the room as people reflect on what the day means for the newlyweds, themselves, or just as they revel in the celebration of life and love.

There's always one in every crowd, trying to get the bridge and groom to kiss again.I think that it's part of the value of having a photographer on hand. Where everyone else is busy living in those little moments and participating, the photographer is there to find them and capture them to let them tell the story of one very special day. It's not the same kind of clinical dispassion that you need for writing in the paper, but just the distance of a stranger invited in for a look at a very personal part of someone's life.

Really the best thing isn't just findng those moments and capturing them. It's sharing them with the Bride and Groom as well as the other wedding guests and getting those little notes that say how much they loved that stolen moment. Not that I'm fishing for compliments or anything, but you know you've done a good job when people make a real emotional connection with the images that you create because of the intimacy or the humor.

There are also sometimes quirks in the details, like these two loverbirds rather than a little bride and groom.