FROM HERE by the ALGARVE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER 

Because of photos of the start of the wedding ceremony in front of Cub Nau in Ferragudo, Algarve

• Pode ler este artigo em Português. 

The Language of the Wedding Photographer

Being one of the wedding photographers leads me to not only record but also witness a day in the lives of others. And there are days that are such turning points that they deserve to be clearly marked. There are moments in our lives that have the power to change us. We change habits, we change places, and we change appearance or attitude.

Although, at times, this change may be slow over time, the decision to change is always, using the language of the wedding photographer, a moment. That decision that happens right there, in a flash, can change us forever.

Like a Scene in a Film Edit

But most of our changes are part of a continuous flow that, like a scene transition in a film edit, slowly shifts so that, sometime later, we look back and no longer even recognize who we were back then.

That’s called living. As if on a journey, the scenery sometimes changes very slowly and, at other times, abruptly—either because it changed like that or simply because we were going too fast. You might ask, What does this have to do with weddings and the photographer?

Those Two Moments on the Wedding Day

The moment when the couple vows to each other during their wedding ceremony may seem like it won’t change anything essential. But it does. It changes how they will refer to each other—it becomes my husband and my wife—it changes how they’ll officially be responsible for certain institutional matters like taxes, it changes how others will identify them in both social and formal situations, etc.

Those two moments in which each one, under the witness of the wedding photographer, clearly says “yes” to the other, change all of that. By desire and by love. That’s a beautiful thing.

Point by point:

• A wedding day is a day of change. From the ceremony, that groom and that bride will emerge as husband and wife. If we look at them, nothing seems different—except for a very distinct smile of happiness, different from the one they had when they entered.
• Most life changes are slow, part of a continuous process that shifts little by little. But sometimes, it’s as if we change from one moment to the next.
• The wedding ceremony does that. Just look at photos of the couple when they arrive for the ceremony and when it ends and they are now husband and wife.
• The changes a ceremony brings:
  • The shift in mood after the “Yes, I do”
  • The happiness on their faces
  • The joy of the attendees, the wedding guests
  • The desire to celebrate
  • The official changes:
    • New identity documents
    • The institutional status of husband and wife in all legal matters
    • Taxes
    • How they introduce themselves to others
• All of it happened in a moment, under the witness of the wedding photographer.

You need to know:

• It’s only when I’m editing the wedding photos that I notice the changes brought about by the ceremony. For me, it’s the most intense part of the day to photograph, and many times, I don’t even realize it as it’s happening because my brain is trained to notice fragments that turn into photographs.
• It’s as if I saw it in parts and didn’t realize what happened between them. Like a slideshow of a sequence of images from an event. We only know what we’ve seen, and we can only imagine what’s missing. That’s more or less how my memory of a wedding day works.

It’s not that the wedding photographer wasn’t paying attention to the events of the day. On the contrary, it simply means they were so focused on their task that only that stayed in their memory. I would love for it to be that way at your wedding, too. Let’s schedule a meeting so I can show you what it’s like and, afterward, go with you.