Raquel & David
When we arrived to Maude´s family house in Grasse- France, Manu, the groom, was waiting for us by the driveway. Many friends and family members were already there and they have just finished eating their lunch in the garden. This very same garden was to host a wedding celebration later this evening.
It was a hot summer day, but you could feel storm in the air. It was going to rain without a shred of doubt. Despite the prediction, every single person gathered in this beautiful old garden shared the same carefree holiday mood. There was a big protective tent installed all over the tables and the dance floor. It was meant to be an outdoor garden wedding and no rain was going to spoil it. Just as everyone went to get ready for church, the heavens opened!
As if on request, the rain stopped for an hour, when the bride was about to come out of the house. It poured again as we all arrived back from the church. Despite all this water, this garden wedding turned into a fantastic part. No one seemed to care that, by the end of the night, the white wooden dance floor looked just like the rest of the muddy garden. Some guests abandoned their shoes and danced knee-deep in the mud as if it was brought there for their pleasure.
I met Florin Stefan (https://florinstefan.ro/) for the second time at the Fearless Conference 2019 in Aachen (https://www.fearlessphotographers.com/). The conference is always a nice opportunity to see friends from all over the world again and share our photographic experiences with each other.
With Florin, we got to talk about our plans for 2019. He told me he was traveling to Italy in May to photograph a wedding in Tuscany. Obviously, immediately I offered myself immediately to come as a second photographer and he quickly agreed.
So here we were in Tuscany, pouring rain under the cloudy sky. But this didn’t affect anyone’s attitude or mood. That´s one of the things I love more about destination weddings. Everyone is there on holidays but on top of that, they have the opportunity to enjoy a wedding with family and friends in a completely different context as they usually would. The bride and groom, Rumanians based in The Netherlands, they got a good mix of friends from back home and from all over the world.
From the very beginning everyone made me feel very welcome and part of the team. One of the things I love the most about being a second shooter at a wedding is that you can take off your back the responsibility that comes as the main shooter. You are there to help in anyway you can, but also to enjoy and have fun photographing, almost as doing it for pleasure. You can find angles, perspectives and moments that otherwise, being the main photographer; you wouldn´t always have the time and the patience to spot.
The weather forecast wasn´t very optimistic, but that didn´t stop the bride and groom to have an outdoor wedding. It was an orthodox ceremony and I loved it. It is always very interesting to see different kinds of religious celebrations rather than the ones we are used to. It´s a privilege to observe and learn from different cultures and traditions by being an spectator in such an important day of their life and also to have the luxury to capture it.
By the time we were ready for the cocktail, Florin had already ordered the clouds to open up (there is nothing he cannot achieve) and we enjoyed the last rays of sunshine before dinner. By the end everyone was ready to party to commemorate these amazing few days in Tuscany.
La preparación del novio y la preparación de la novia son dos mundos completamente distintos. Algo que cada uno tiene que hacer solo antes de encontrarse en el altar.
Cada hombre lo lleva a su manera, pero una cosa no cambia nunca. Siempre hay electricidad en el aire, casi como en el vestuario del teatro, donde el protagonista se pone el maquillaje antes de estrenar la obra.
Este día no hay tiempo para improvisación. El papel es: ponerse el traje, la mejor apariencia y esperar…
Lo mas importante es, que en este día, ningún novio tendrá que estar solo! Le rodearán caras familiares y mucha alegría. Recibirá el mejor apoyo y una fuerte inyección de coraje de sus amigos.
Empieza el espectáculo!
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http://www.andreudozphotography.com
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It was one of those weddings, which takes a slide towards the wild side before it even starts. I loved it from the very beginning. Everywhere I looked, there was something I wanted to photograph, so many little stories within the big picture.
Ruben and Montse, the happy couple, are parents of two girls: Mariona (a natural born model) and Blanca (an unusually independent 2 year old, who wondered around and socialised with everybody requiring no supervision whatsoever). There were about 20 kids at this wedding. Beautiful chaos!
The ceremony was held in a tiny stone church and wedding guests took over its every available surface. The couple was sated in front of the priest. It was steaming hot, dark and I could hardly move.
I had to quickly adapt a strategy here, because it was obvious that moving around to try out different angles and perspective was out of question.
I found a spot with good visibility and brought three large aperture lenses to be able to change the focal range without having to move much. Then, I put all my money on Montse and Rubens reactions. I already knew, they were very spontaneous, emotional and expressive. I did not have to wait long for the children to get bored and move towards the altar. They were looking for attention and entertainment, and luckily for me, had no shame.
In this particular photo, Mariona is trying to attract her parents’ looks and her cousin is trying to get her attention. Naughty but cute!