FATHER of the BRIDE
The main reason why I have been less active than usual in last week's thread, is the fact that our son has just married this weekend.
A blissful day, composed entirely of friendship, sunshine, love, gratitude, good food, deep emotions and sorely aching dancing feet.
(Truth be told : I also had one too many beers, having to toast constantly with my son's group of loyal buddies, many of whom we"ve known since elementary school. The stories we heard of what has happened over the years in our house when we were away traveling, were mindboggling. It was a good moment to come clean. But we loved all of those confessions, because deep down we had always known about the misadventures and the messes they had made - but always cleaned up...)
Anyway: the marriage gave me the opportunity to follow the work of the wedding photographer that our daughter in law had chosen.
A very young lady with maturity and skill far beyond her years: discreet, always well positioned, with eye for the light, and very efficient.
I was seriously impressed by Lore Mattens. www.instagram.com/picturesbyloremattens/
It reminded of the (only) time when I shot a full wedding, having been asked by the sister of the bride, an acquaintance of mine who was the wedding planner.
I acccepted that job on the strict condition that I could employ my normal, fly-on-the-wall documentary style and that I would not be asked constantly to "please come over here and make a portrait of uncle charles and aunt camilla" (the clients were not the Windsors). We agreed on that.
Still, it was a gruelling job that I had sorely underestimated (also the amount of selecting and processing afterwards).
Respect for wedding photographers who can do that economically!
I started my day at 6.00 AM in the house of the bride, and ended the next day at 2.00 AM on a boiling dance floor.
(I was not required to stay that long, but I thought it was a big part of the day so what the heck.)
The fact that I was limping around on a foot that had a fractured small bone somewhere in its center (occurred three days before) did not help.
I did the whole wedding in the heaviest mountain boots I own: this was the orthopedist's compromise for a full foot cast.
My then 15 year old daughter was the second photographer. She loved the idea and got some good additional angles.
For the opening dance, I gave her my camera with the fastest lens and she shot some of the best images of that moment.
I heard afterwards that we had provided priceless memories of many moments that the family had not even really be aware of.
It was worth it.
Here is an early shot from that long day : the father of the bride knotting his tie:
Candid portrait at dinner:
With his new son in law:
With his wife:
One of the later, dancing action images of the day (and the last of the whole series)
It is made with my beloved fisheye, in extremely low light and grainy as hell, but they L-O-V-E-D it: