A Wedding to Define the Moment: Tommy and Paige Paul by Kayleigh Taylor

The Gear and Details

Cameras
Canon R5 with 28 to 70mm
35mm Contax with 28mm, 45mm and 90mm lenses

Second Shooters
35mm
50mm
85mm
70 to 200mm

Flash
Godox V1

Drone
DJI Mini 3 Pro

Coverage
5 hours rehearsal dinner
13 hours wedding day

Team
4 photographers total

Photographer: Kayleigh Taylor

Setting the Scene

The biggest challenge for Kayleigh on this wedding was the Vogue deadline. She was shooting almost entirely on film, while the rest of the team handled digital coverage, but she did not want the feature to go live with only digital images. So after finishing the wedding at 1am, she got up at 6am to drive the film to a good, quick lab in NYC, edited from the airport floor after missing her flight, and waited for scans so the final gallery could still feel true to her work.

Getting Ready

The venue also functions as a museum, and this was the first time a wedding had been given this level of access across the grounds. That meant rooms that are normally gated off suddenly became available, but with clear restrictions around not touching furniture or moving elements. The challenge was to work with what was already there and still make the frames feel intentional and true to the setting.

Ceremony

Kayleigh was working with a fast-moving, high-pressure weekend where she had to trust her eye in real time. With film being such a huge part of the coverage, there was not much room to overthink. The work depended on confidence, quick reads of the light, and knowing the final edit would bring the film and digital together into one cohesive story.

Portraits

“Another challenge is having so little time for portraits. Because I am primarily a documentary photographer, couples don’t come into the wedding day with the intention of spending hours in front of the camera like they do with editorial artists. And sometimes, even if we plan for 30 minutes, the couple may say they’re done after 10 minutes, or we’re running way behind on timeline, and they want to enjoy their party instead.”

❝

“Acting quickly, being able to choose the best spot with the most interesting light and knock out a variety of images in a super short amount of time is always a bit chaotic. This comes down to trust in your craft because I don’t have time to get creative on the spot. I have to trust that I’ll find unique perspectives when I’m editing and can focus on different compositions and crops that make a photo worth looking at.”

Kayleigh

Reception

The reception carried the same pressure as the rest of the weekend. Kayleigh was shooting with a Vogue deadline in mind, while still leaning heavily into film because that is where her work feels most like itself. That meant every choice had to work fast, from flash in bright conditions to trusting the film frames would hold up once the scans came back. The result was not just about covering the party, but keeping the gallery feeling true to her voice under a pretty insane turnaround.