Sometimes you should ignore the bride and groom.
I don’t mean ignore them completely, but remember to turn your camera’s gaze toward others attending the wedding. Many of my favorite photographs from weddings are of guests! My first commitment is to my client, but their loved ones are equally important parts of their wedding celebration.
One of my journalism mentors used to say, “always look around the edges of your frame.” What he meant was, keep your viewfinder poised to capture images on the periphery. Often these are quiet moments between ‘The Moments.’ They’re not the iconic first dance, or the obligatory cake cutting. They are poetic, unexpected, or funny glimpses into the personalities of your clients’ family and friends.
This photograph was actually made during the father-daughter dance at a recent wedding. While I was focused on the bride and her father waltzing sweetly, something on the edge of my frame caught my attention. It was this gentle moment. Always look around the edges.
Written by Rachel LaCour Niesen
After graduating from the University of Missouri, where she studied Photojournalism and Art History, Rachel pursued projects focusing on rural communities in Latin America and the Southeastern United States, amassing accolades as a passionate documentary photographer with a keen eye for the human condition. Her work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2002, Rachel’s captivating photographs of migrant farmworkers were chosen for a book entitled The Human Cost of Food; Farmworker’s Lives, Labor and Advocacy, published by the University of Texas Press.
Rachel’s love for storytelling photography took an intimate turn when she stumbled upon wedding photography by trading her photographic skills in exchange for a custom-designed wedding gown. Quickly trading her front row seat to world history for a front row seat to family history, Rachel started a wedding photography company, LaCour, with husband Andrew Niesen and friend Mark Adams. In a few short years, LaCour became one of the premiere wedding photography studios in the U.S. and soon families the world over caught on to LaCour’s signature style of authentic storytelling through photographs. In 2008, American Photo magazine recognized LaCour’s contributions to the industry by naming them among the “Top Ten Wedding Photographers in the World.”
In 2007 Rachel co-founded ShootQ and now manages the commingled communities of Pictage and ShootQ.