Wedding Anticipation

Why I love this wedding picture

Getting Ready

Kelli had been getting ready & was the picture of calm. Underneath though I could feel she was getting excited. When she was ready we were still about ten minutes off the time for her to go through to the Farbridge ceremony room. So Kelli spent some time chatting to her bridesmaids. When the time came to go, she turned towards the door ready to head out.

Gorgeous light poured in as the door was opened & caught Kelli’s wonderful expression full of joy & anticipation! Using the light is half of being a great Sussex wedding photographer, while the other half is being in the right place at the right time. This of course is anticipation as well. So while Kelli was anticipating her moment to marry Drew, I was anticipating Kelli’s movements to catch her & everyone else in the best possible positions to be photographed.

This was one of those times when the light, the position and the bride’s reaction all came together in one great photograph. I love her expression and I love the light spilling on to her face as she moves towards the door. There were many beautiful photos from Kelli & Drew’s lovely Sussex wedding at Farbridge. But out of several favourites, this has to be my top one.

How I Shot It

It’s very common in wedding photography to be in difficult lighting situations. You can be in bright daylight & then a few minutes later in a tungsten lit room. You have to be ready for these situations, otherwise you won’t get great shots. Another reason to hire a top wedding photographer!

In this situation, the light in the room was quite low, so I was on a high ISO. However, I knew that when the light fell on Kelli, it would be very bright & my exposure would be well off. I checked the exposure outside through the window and then knocked a couple of stops off the exposure to compensate for how far Kelli was into the room. When the door was opened, my exposure was close enough for me to just spin the shutter wheel to get the exact exposure.

What Camera I shot it on

I shot it on the wonderful Canon 5D MKIII, my current camera of choice, with a 24-70 f2.8 MKII lens.