Welcome to my blog, I’m Aimee, a natural and candid-style story-telling wedding photographer. It’s my philosophy, that the best wedding photography is natural, unguarded and genuine, here’s why!
Natural & candid photography
It’s the art of capturing incredible images while not having the advantage of posing my subjects! As a natural-style photographer, I have to know when those moments are coming and be completely ready for them when they do.
Part of this is knowing my couples, it’s also partly based on planning too and communicating with my couples; but most of all, it’s about experience. It comes from witnessing so many weddings and learning social cues, body language and much more. I am constantly scanning my environment looking for joy, laughter, emotion; but the tricky part is being stealthy and not getting caught!
(Side note, I just had a vision of a deer hunter jumping out in front of a deer they’d been tracking and saying ‘say cheese!’ 😂) I suppose in a way it is like hunting, you have to be a bit sneaky and not alert your subject, but I digress, let’s not go there *shudders.*
Reason 1. Real smiles.
I don’t know about you, but I can spot a fake smile from 1000 paces… Ok maybe not that far, but you get what I mean. You can tell when someone is really smiling and that’s what I aim to go for, because it looks so much nicer! Besides, we all want to remember real moments in time, not staged ones! I encourage my couples to have fun, enjoy stepping away for 10 minutes and soak in the newlywed buzz!
Just take a look at the gorgeous Rachel & Tom above!
Reason 2. Just be yourselves!
Let’s look at some of Hayley & Rob’s photos! These two are without a doubt, the giggliest bride and groom I have ever has the pleasure of working alongside! We spotted a good looking bench with a nice shrub I could use to frame them and these photos below are the real moments surrounding the posed-looking shots, but I promise you, I did no posing at all!
Look at them! They’re having the time of their lives and you can just feel the laughter between us! We were in absolute hysterics together and these two are my favourite example of why your wedding photography should reflect you both as a couple!
No one wants to pretend they’re someone else on their wedding day, just look at these real moments of this real couple being their real selves!
Reason 3. No posing like mannequins!
Now don’t get me wrong, posed wedding photographs are absolutely gorgeous! But my particular preference as a photographer is getting that unique and perfect blend between ‘posed’ and ‘natural’.
We aren’t models, we just want to marry our best friend and have the party of the decade, and I totally get that, I was the same! I remember actually saying “nah, this feels weird” when our photographer positioned our hands together in a certain way. It felt awkward, so I knew the picture would look awkward and that I’d feel awkward when I looked at it. What I aim for with my couples is the total opposite of that! I want them to look at their galleries and say “that’s just so us“!
The guidance I give is very loose and extremely open to interpretation, such as “can you cuddle into each other for me?” or “give her a kiss on the hand”. How they do that is totally up to them, and that’s what makes it natural. If they’re the type of couple who’d rather flick each other on the forehead or high five, that’s fine by me! As long as they’re being themselves, the magic will come. Look at Claire & John!
With candid wedding photography, the couple shape their own gallery without even realising it; I adapt to them, I don’t make them adapt to me! Click here to take a look at my current live galleries and click here to see my highlight video playlist!
