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This month, we’re celebrating the newly designated 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography 2021, our annual competition that spotlights talented wedding photographers from around the world for moving the industry in exciting directions with their creativity and aesthetics. Follow us on Instagram to see a daily takeover from each one of the Rising Stars you see here, who are sharing behind-the-scenes insights on some of the photos they submitted to the judges for consideration. This selection in particular grabbed us for the various ways that the photographers created emotional photos with joy, quiet reflection and more in their own unique ways.
Kane Lim, who operates under the business pseudonym Kane.CY out of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, says that he finds crying and sobbing faces in weddings to be so precious and contagious when he is trying to capture these types of emotional photos. “This is so difficult to fake or mimic,” he says. “Maybe this is the reason why we like romantic movies so much; when the characters cry, we cry too.”
This photo was taken during a wedding dinner. “The groom is on the stage giving his speech to the bride and he was so grateful to the bride for being with him, crossing through all the difficulty in their lives,” Lim explains. “Every word and sentence was so sincere and touched every guest, including the bride and her mom. They kept using napkins to wipe away tears on their faces, and I found this moment to be so precious and meaningful to everyone. I held my tears back, trying my best to capture the moment, and it turned out to become one of those photos that makes my heart sing.”
Martina Ruffini, an Italian wedding photographer based in Tuscany, loves shooting with natural light coming in through a window—”I work with soft shadows and never with direct light,” she explains.
Adds Ruffini: “I love how the figure of the bride stands out in this image, has a strong presence and dominates the frame.”
Jon Gazzignato, a wedding and elopement photographer in Tasmania, Australia, says this wedding was taken on a homestead at midday with a hot, blistering sun bearing down on him and his couple.
“I know that the expectation from everyone would be for me to take photos in the lovely rose garden or out in the rolling grass fields,” he says, “but while I was wandering around the property I found myself in the dusty attic of a barn closed off from the guests. I sat up there for a few minutes planning exactly how I wanted the photo to look, then grabbed the couple, put them in place and stuck the landing.”
Gazzignato acknowledges that there is so much expectation on what wedding photography should look like, so it’s never an easy thing, he says, to go against the grain. “It has taken me years to stop second guessing myself in moments like these when a more creative option comes knocking. It takes confidence in your own ability, but when you execute on your vision, it’s pure gold.”
Maja Tsolo, who was born in Slovenia but lives in London, says she loves nothing more than a good confetti throw! “There is just something about the confetti flying all around and the joyous emotion and exhilaration the couple is feeling right after the ceremony that never gets old,” she says.
That said, she admits confetti throws can be tricky to capture, “as you don’t normally have control over the location or the light and with all the confetti flying and the couple moving, it can be difficult to nail that focus.” She tends to give the couple brief instructions ahead of time to maximize her chances of capturing a good moment. She asks them not to walk through the confetti line too quickly and also asks the bride to keep her bouquet near her waist, so she doesn’t react to the confetti by trying to shield her face
with the bouquet.
This was also a very sunny and bright day, says Tsolo, and the sun had
just started peeking over the building. “I was aiming to get a good
shot before the couple reached the bottom part of the stairs, which was
sunlit. I used my 35mm lens and stayed close to the couple to be able to
get the camera to focus on them amidst all the confetti—you can just
see the sun peeking over at the top, creating a lovely haze.”
Adrián Vilanova says this image reflects a quiet moment with bride Sara doing her makeup on the floor before getting dressed for her elopement with groom Victor in Valencia, Spain.
“The initial idea was to take pictures of her sitting on a chair while she was doing her make-up in a mirror leaning against her dresser, says Vilanova. “There were some setbacks and that idea didn’t work out so Sara decided to sit on the floor and make herself up while using her hand mirror. We created a dreamy atmosphere with a little mist.”
Chonfan Bong, a wedding photographer based in Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia, graduated from school as an architect and likes to visualize landscape patterns and textures, and then integrate his couples within that context. Like he did with this image.
“Knowing that Priscilla and Ian were going to dress in their traditional costume for the shoot, I planned to capture them relaxing on the ‘Tambang’ which is a traditional boat that was once the main mode of transport in Sarawak. I borrowed a DJI Mavic Pro 2 from my best friend a day before the shoot and then made the magic happen.”
Gabrielle Desmarchais, a fine-art documentary wedding photographer based in Montreal, Canada, says that light is such a powerful tool for her work and can completely transform and give a mood to a location. “It is definitely a big inspiration for me when creating images and capturing emotion in my photos,” she explains. “I’m always looking for that magical light.”
Here, couple Dana and Anthony had planned an outdoor wedding on a mountaintop but Desmarchais says the weather was very unpredictable that day. “Clouds rolled in and there was a big thunderstorm minutes before the ceremony. Fortunately, the sun came back, piercing through the clouds. I ran with the couple to this grassy area to catch the last rays of sun before it disappeared completely behind the trees.”
The photographer adds that the humidity in the air, the hills covered in wild flowers, the embracing couple and the “magic hour” light were all elements that inspired her to create this dreamy and captivating image.
“The rays of sun entering the lens helped to convey the mood of the image by creating a blurry light at the top edge of the photo,” says Desmarchais. “Looking at the calmness and ethereal feel of the photo, you really couldn’t guest how rushed we were to take a few portraits before losing the sunlight, or that we were standing on a ski hill with chairlifts beside us! It’s just a beautiful, emotional photo.”
Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling, emotional photos, eye-catching portraits and creative photo concepts.
