Images: rachelandnoahraye and gregfinck

Hey, welcome to Lensel for another week. Your weekly dose of wedding photography goodness. Here’s what is in store today:

Missing Transitions: Where on a wedding day you can find truely candid photos
Content Formats that are winning
A Sydney Opera House Wedding
+ all the news to keep you in the know

Let’s go ⬇️

NEWS

Happening this Week

Apple announced some incredible new and upgraded photo editing features on iPhone this week. With updates to ‘Clean Up’ to remove unwanted objects, ‘Extend’ to add space to an edge, or around the whole photo. AND ‘Spacial Reframing’ which is wild…. and can re-compose your photo after it was taken. SUPER helpful for those last minute edits before posting on the gram. See a quick intro them here. And dive into Apple’s full release about the Photos app, here.
Alter Magazine is a new vision for a bridal magazine! And has released their very first print issue.
Content wins. Is this the craziest, most effective content formula for wedding photographers right now? Probably.
Crop Sensor Portrait Wins. Lens maker Viltrox has introduced two new lenses designed to fill a gap in the APSC (crop sensor) lens market. That is dedicated portrait lenses that could emulate the pop and separation of full frame equivalents. So we have a new 75mm and 90mm for Sony, Fuji and Nikon crop sensor cameras that are looking very nice.
WPPI 2027 tickets went on pre-sale this week at a verrry nice price here.
Busy busy. This discussion dives into the phenomenon of wedding vendors sharing how busy they always are, and why it might not look that great to their couples…

THE BIG IDEA

↔️ Missing Transitions: Where true candids can be found

Images: federicabeni_ed and erikagabalyte

One of the biggest ideas from Bushwhacked’s ‘Invisible Direction’ workshop in Lensel last week was the idea that people change how they act when they know the camera is ‘on’.

And we want candid right?!

There are times on a wedding day everyone knows that the photographer is taking photos - in the portraits, during the ceremony, sitting at the table during the speeches, during the cake cutting. Everyone knows that photographer might catch a photo of them.

So they stand a little different. Act more normal. Get weird with their hands. Pose to the camera in a cheesy way.

SO the big question is: When on a wedding day is it not ‘a moment’?? When will people totally have their guard down? Not expecting photos.

It’s during the wedding day TRANSITIONS.

Caught off guard during the inbetween…

A classic transition
One transition moment we often think of is the bride getting into or out of the wedding car. This is great. BUT what about taking that principle and looking for these moments in other in- between moments of the day??

These are the opportunities to create natural, in-the-moment, dynamic images where PEOPLE LET THEIR GUARD DOWN.

Images: federicabeni_ed and kylajeanette

We love an expression like on the image on the right above. Surprised you are still shooting, on the way somewhere. Showing the transition from one moment to another.

Try to think about it like this: there are moments hiding in these transition moments. And it’s your job to get there, anticipate and see if you can find them.

The guests moving toward the ceremony location, finding their seats
People reacting as they enter the reception room
The bride leaving her hotel room once ready.
Guests finding their names on the seating chart.
The bride walking down stairs on the way somewhere
The couple walking through hallways, doorways, gardens, stairs, cars, corridors.
Guests gathering awkwardly around the dance floor before the party kicks off

It’s anywhere people are going from one part of the day to the next.

Images: erikagabalyte

These transition moments are where photographers normally relax.
But it’s actually where YOU NEED TO LOCK IN.

So this is a kick in the pants to try shoot more during these transition moments.

The rule? Anytime the wedding day changes location. You’ll find the images you capture might be more natural, relaxed, surprised - as you catch people off guard.

Shoot when you are not meant to be shooting.

The transition is not your break.
The transition is the photo not to be missed.

Images: haute.weddings

WEDDING FEATURE

How to Shoot At An Opera House: A Wedding by Benedict Sutton

The Opera House in Sydney creates MANY compositional issues for a photographer. Huge scale, patchy light, purple carpet, water views, structural lines everywhere. Shoot it lazily and the couple might disappears inside the big scale. Shoot it well and the iconic space does half the work for you...

This feature is all about Benedict's choices of frame, his focus on film and his patience to wait for the exact right moment.

See this wedding featured from the photographers POV on lensel.com