My favourite picture from last year was taken at a Dutch-Romanian wedding held in a family–owned Chateau in the Loire Valley.
The ceremony was taking place outside in the gardens; I had been photographing the guests arriving and was waiting attentively for that special moment when the bride and her father would emerge from the Chateau and walk down the path towards the awaiting groom and assembled company.
This is always a slightly nervous moment for the photographer- you have your angles more or less worked out, but until the moment arrives you’re not quire sure how the bride and father will interact as they walk towards you, nor whether the light will be constant and favourable.
5, 10, 15 minutes passed and still no sight of them. I was getting impatient, so I decided to see if they were actually ready.
As I opened the door of the Chateau, this scene presented itself before my eyes, like a tableau – an instant where time seemed to stand still. The father holding the brightly coloured bouquet, absorbed in a moment of quiet reflection and emotion, with the bride also in a seeming reverie, framed by the mirror, collecting her thoughts before the wedding was set to begin for real.
I was delighted to have been able to capture all this in one image, with their attitudes and gestures perfectly complementing one another.
This proved to me once again, that often the most interesting photographs are not those where you just wait for something to happen, but rather those where you are obliged to go looking for the picture and when you come face to face with the unexpected.