- afternoon
- Mountains
- Soft Light
- running
- Rainy
- Overcast
- Outdoor
- off center
- Natural Light
- Laughing
- black & white
- Funny
- Fields
- Dark
- Cloudy
- Close up
- candid moments
- broken rules
- Unposed
The story behind the image
I asked the couple to move ahead, and once they found their spot to start dancing and celebrating the fact that their elopement happened. I threw on some loud, party music on my bluetooth speaker and they were absoltuely having the time of their lives. Until, the bride, noticed something not more than a half a meter away from her.
There lay a rather large, and seemingly fresh pile of “dog business”. To make matters even more risky, the bride was barefoot. It was in mid-dance that she saw this and basically just panicked and ran out towards me laughing her heart out. Her groom, left behind – had no idea what sat right next to him until she shouted it out.
It’s a moment that I am so glad to have captured for them – sure it’s not a “gorgeous intimate couple shot”, but it’s a hilarious memory of that time they almost danced in dog shit on their elopement.
Composition
At this point, my composition was set for the couple dancing where the groom was standing which captured their full bodies, enough leading lines from the valley and framing them within the towering mountain in the background. Lots of little compositional elements at play. However, this all happened so fast and I didn’t really have time to recompose as the bride came bolting toward me.
Fortunately, I adore this composition by having the bride right up in our faces laughing away with the groom just off to the side, still clearly visible, with complete confusion as to what had just happened.
Compositional Rules
Broken RulesOff Center
framing
Close Up
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
By chance, my camera was locking on to the groom’s face as they were dancing and it really wasn’t an issues as the bride was right next to him so they both would naturally be focused. As she ran towards me though, I kept shooting and managed to capture the groom tack sharp while the bride lost it all entirely. If I had to repeat this, I’d do it exactly the same.
Focus Mode
Live View Continuous
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Grooms face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/2500 @ f/1.8 ISO1600 WB-Auto
The way the EXIF is written out follows the common photographic method (with the inclusion of White Balance at the end). Here it is broken down:
Shutter Speed @ Aperture ISO White Balance.
Light & Weather
It literally rained throughout the elopement except for the small little period where we decided to do the couple shoot. Everything was super overcast and cloudy and that made the light super soft, and pretty much easy to work with. Though to be honest, when things are too flat, it loses interest. The sun was somewhere behind the couple and as it was all just so soft, it didn’t really matter where or how I positioned them in relation to the light.
Light Type
Natural Light
Light Quality
Soft
Time of day
Afternoon
Weather
Cloudy
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I created two versions of this image; one in color and this one in black and white. I chose to go with the black & white version though because it removes an element from the story (color) which brings more emphasis on the remaining parts such as the light, the emotion, the composition, and so on. I threw on our new “Wijdefjorden” Black & White presets and used the slightly more contrasty version simply because the sky was so overcast and flat that things felt a little boring without contrast. I tweaked everything slightly to get these highlights & shadows that I was after and finished it off with a bit of grain.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
The only challenge here was the fact that it all happened so quickly. There was no prediction and no time to really do anything besides continuing what I was doing a moment before.
Solutions
I just kept shooting. Simple as that. I didn’t drop the camera, I didn’t change anything – I just kept my finger pressed on the shutter until the bride was right up next to me.
Location
Location Name
Gardena Pass
Location aDDRESS
Gardena Pass, South Tyrol, Italy
Loation Type
Barn
Country
Italy
Moments like these can happen out of nowhere and you can’t be blamed if you missed a shot like this. But if you do have a split second to realize something is about to happen, try your best not to put your camera down and keep shooting. The cost of a digital file is basically 0 and so it hurts none to delete rubbish frames later. However, you could end up with a pretty sick shot and moment for your couple to remember.
