After Dark, Finding light
Written by George on December 3rd, 2008One of my small pleasures in life is my, all too often brief, perusal of the New York Times with my morning coffee. Despite the daily gloom and doom, there are usually some outstanding examples of great photography from all over the world to be found within its pages. I especially enjoy many of the images from the Lens series. Lens is a photography series focusing on
This morning I took the time to view a short show After Dark, Finding Light http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/12/02/nyregion/03lens-agins/index.html by Michelle V. Agins who describes some of the challenges of finding images after dark. It’s an interesting story and like all presentations it does leave one “asking for more”.
She shot without adding any artificial light and was encouraged to “find the light” even if it meant going “inch by inch around the subject”.
As a wedding photographer, I am also often “finding light after dark” usually in churches and reception venues where there is little light to be found. The easy way may be to use flash and I do sometimes. However, I do enjoy and thrive upon the challenge of capturing images in tough situations; it makes me think more about what I’m shooting and how I’m working as well as permitting me to shoot without having subjects be too aware of me.
This first sequence is a few frames I shot recently at Capitale in
Then, just as the NY Times photographer described I moved inch by inch around the subject, actually what I did in this instance was adjust my framing and focal point over several frames.
In addition to close-up shots of people, which I love shooting, (here’s a father listening to one of the speeches at his daughter’s wedding)
I am also a great advocate of stepping back. One of my most frequent observations when I’m asked to review another photographer’s wedding work is that there isn’t a sense of place. To me this is a very important aspect of documentary wedding photography. Actually that’s crucial for any type of documentary photography, not just weddings.
There’s also the question of respect, whether it be respect for the rules of a church, a speech or a prayer I don’t wish to be a distraction or detract from these moments in any way.
So having said my piece for today I’ll leave you with a few more images captured at various weddings in New York, Philadelphia and a couple of other places.
























































