Wedding Photography with a Difference – Getting Involved With the Digital Age

Wedding photography doesn’t have to be boring, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Come to think of it, why book a wedding photographer at all when the bride, groom and all their friends can do it themselves? This is the DIY age, after all, where bands get famous because they broadcast themselves on the Internet and Graffiti artists become superstars. Join the party; retake control of that special day; and end up with a set of wedding photos that are way more than just an album. This is wedding photography for the 21st century – real, raw and full of energy.

Sounds a little rough and ready for what is traditionally a very staid and by the book day? Let’s take a moment to think about the purpose of a wedding. We’re always being told that weddings are a celebration of the love of two people for each other, held in the eyes and hearts of their family and friends, to celebrate and validate that love. So why in the name of all that’s insane do we insist on formalising everything about them, to the point where even the wedding photography is done by someone who has no interest whatsoever in the lives and friendships of the couple in question? Money, that’s why. A wedding is about love and friendship: not about spending thousands on the services of a photographer who simply doesn’t have enough intimate knowledge of either member in the transaction to take a shot that actually shows them for who they are.

So – join the revolution if you dare. Nuts to staid and traditional, which in almost every part are just words meaning “getting fleeced by an overpriced shutter bug because everyone else does”. Let’s tear down the gates of that particular institution and start again – with the cameras, and the knowledge, and the friendship and love, of all the people who actually know us. Let’s have some wedding photography done by the guests, by the family and friends. Let’s see some candid snaps, before and after. Some shots taken on phones, some on digital cameras. Let’s have them all uploaded to a site where they can be shared, enjoyed, added to and commented on. Let’s use the Internet in its best possible sense – to share knowledge and joy. Let’s commemorate a wedding for what everyone says it ought to be, rather than what some guy with a massive camera tells us.

If marriage is about celebrating a love in the sight of friends and family, then why not let those friends and family commemorate that love in the eyes and lenses of their cameras? That’s the kind of wedding photography that the 21st century was born for – and with the Internet, and a little snappy technology, it’s the kind of wedding celebration this country has been waiting for.