The room did most of the work here. Two tall mirrors, a set of glass doors, and enough light coming through them to hold the whole frame together. Everything inside that is theirs.

A bride and groom reaching for one another across a garlanded hall, the winter light coming straight through the doors behind them.

Hand In Hand

Shot into the sun with about four minutes of it left. You wait for this one rather than arrange it, and you only get the frame if you are already standing in the right place.

Hand in hand along a ridge, photographed straight into what was left of the sun.

Last Light

Wide open, close to the front of the line, so only the first two hold. Printed in black and white because the moment was about the laugh and not the dresses.

A line of bridesmaids caught mid-laugh, the focus falling away down the row.

The Bridesmaids

Straight on and symmetrical, because the house asked for it. The zinnias down both sides were doing something no arrangement of mine would have improved.

A couple on the path up to a white clapboard house, the beds either side in full bloom.

The Front Porch

Close in, on a long lens, right at the end of the light. This is the kind of frame that gets printed large and stays on a wall.

A bride in a birdcage veil turning back towards the camera while her husband looks down at her.

Birdcage Veil

Two people, one rock, and a lot of Oklahoma behind them. Pulled back far enough that the landscape gets to be half the picture.

Up on a boulder with the lake and the granite hills opening out behind them.

On The Boulder

Eleven people and a mountain, which is mostly a matter of placing everyone quickly and then waiting for the five smallest to settle. One of them never did, which is why it works.

The whole wedding party, flower girls included, standing out in the saguaro.

Desert Party

Both parents soft, the middle of the frame sharp. Family sessions rarely give you everyone at once, so you photograph whoever is ready.

Held up between the two of them, and the only one in the frame actually looking at the camera.

In Their Arms

The hedges gave the frame its lines, so all that was left was to put her on the centre of the path and wait for her to turn.

A bride looking back along a garden walk, the ribbon from her bouquet still moving.

Garden Path

Nothing in this one was directed beyond asking them to walk. The best engagement frames tend to arrive about a minute after people forget the camera is there.

Pulled towards each other in an open meadow, laughing about something off camera.

Open Meadow

Two columns, one doorway, and a cold afternoon. Framing them dead centre lets the architecture carry the weight and keeps the moment small inside it.

A kiss under a stone portico with the last of the leaves still on the step.

Autumn Portico

Backlit, late in the day, everyone turned in towards each other. The frame where nobody performs is the one worth keeping.

Four of them on a park bench, nobody looking at the camera, which is usually the good one.

The Park Bench

Waited for the bulbs to come up against the sky rather than fight it. A few minutes either side of this and the letters read as either dead or garish.

A kiss in front of lit marquee letters, with bougainvillea climbing the trellises behind.

Marquee Light

Once people sit down they stop posing, and their hands tell you most of it. Black and white so nothing competes with that.

Sitting down in the grass, arms folded around each other, printed in black and white.

Nose To Nose

A wall that texture only needs the right light across it. Everything warm in this picture is either the flowers or her.

A bride against a coral stone wall, holding the bouquet that carries most of the colour in the frame.

Against The Stone

The ground was doing something extraordinary that week, so the job was to get all three of them still inside about ninety seconds of it.

Three of them and a wagon, out among the trees after the needles had come down.

The Wagon

From behind and low, so the train gets the bottom third of the frame. You get one pass at this and no second take.

Walking in, with the veil and the train running all the way back down the gravel.

Down The Aisle

Long lens through the seed heads so the foreground melts. The grass is doing the work that a studio light never quite manages.

Foreheads together in a field gone gold, close enough that the field stops mattering.

Golden Field

The arch behind her went dark on its own, which left the sleeve as the brightest thing in the picture. Colour would have added nothing here.

A bride turning inside an arched doorway, printed in black and white for the lace.

Lace Sleeves

A straightforward portrait, made once everyone had stopped worrying about making one. The boy in the middle set the timing.

Three on a bench at the end of the year, the light coming in low behind them.

Bench In Autumn

Deliberately small in the frame. Some places earn the right to be most of the photograph, and this was one of them.

The two of them alone at the water, with the stone barge and the obelisks holding the far side.

Facing The Water

Engagement sessions do not have to be casual. Dressed properly and moving, this reads much closer to editorial than to a portrait sitting.

Coming down a flight of garden steps in black tie, late in the afternoon.

The Steps

An empty wall and open shade, which is usually all a dress like this needs. The reds are the only strong colour anywhere in the frame.

A bride mid-turn against a plain plaster wall, the bouquet doing all the talking.

Red Bouquet

Shot from the hallway through the door frame, with the instruments on the near wall left soft. Photographing people at home works best from one room away.

Dancing in the nursery, framed through the doorway from the next room.

BCreative Tulsa, fine art wedding photography in Tulsa, Oklahoma