From a generational perspective, weddings are unique events. There may be three or even four generations gathered together to celebrate a family member’s wedding. As you can imagine, this is a rare occurrence. So why is this chapter so important? Because, through your inclusion of EVP in your photos, you will tug at your clients’ heartstrings and create photographs that will be truly cherished by the entire family.

During my first years as a wedding photographer, I thought the wedding was just about the bride and groom. The only photos of the EVP I took were during the family portraits segment when everyone just stood in a row, waiting to be photographed. In hindsight, I find that approach to be very unfortunate. I can say with confidence that a great deal of my success as a wedding storyteller has been from including EVP in photographs of the bride and groom. In other words, the ultimate goal is to entwine the moments that happen spontaneously at weddings with EVP.

So, who are the EVP? Well, they vary. During client meetings before the wedding, I have a conversation with the bride about family dynamics. It is important to know who the couple is very close to. Perhaps the groom has a very special relationship with his grandmother, or perhaps the bride does not get along well with her father. Having a clear understanding of some of the key family dynamics will better equip you to include the right people in the photographs. Can you imagine not being aware that the bride does not get along with her father, and you include the father in all her significant moments during the wedding? Most likely, the bride will not be pleased with you. Being informed and doing some basic homework during the pre-wedding meetings ensures that you avoid making embarrassing mistakes.

The main idea is to incorporate EVP strategically through framing, reflections, opportunities, and balance to increase the emotional power of your photographs. If you are skilled enough to capture EVP in tasteful, visually creative, and unexpected ways, you will be perceived by your clients as a third-degree black belt of wedding photography. Everyone has a great camera built into their smartphones and can possibly have the intuition to photograph EVP, but only a skilled photographer can do so using compositional elements that draw viewers in, through techniques such as creative framing or capturing the expression of a beautiful moment of an EVP through a unique reflection. The key word here is “tasteful.” If the EVP reflection appears staged by the photographer, it will lose its charm immediately.

Even though great artistic photos of the bride and groom are beautiful and have great visual impact, that impact will always pale in comparison with the emotional impact that well-executed photos involving EVP have on your clients. In fact, nothing will convince a prospective couple to hire you more than photos that have a strong emotional connection. The couple will envision themselves in beautiful photos enjoying precious moments with the people they care about the most.

Many years ago, before I realized the importance of EVP, I had post-wedding meetings when I would show the couple a series of great “hero” photos. They would love them and smile. But when they saw the few EVP photos I took at their wedding, their entire demeanor would change instantly, and they would be overcome with emotion and begin to cry. They would often hug and thank me. It was truly an eye-opening experience.

This is an expert technique because in order to take these types of photographs correctly, you should capture the EVP not looking at the camera but being authentically engaged with whatever is going on. The key here is “authentically” engaged. If the EVP appears to be following directions from a photographer, the photo will lose its spark and emotional power. You must find a way for the EVP to actually be engaged.

EVP FRAMING

Figure 14.1: This is precisely what an EVP photo is all about. This photo not only has the bride framed by her mother, her sister, and one of her bridesmaids, but it also has multiple layers. In the foreground, you have the bride’s flower girl curiously watching a moment that she has probably imagined through movies or books about princes and princesses. The middle layer contains the bride putting on her wedding dress. This is a significant moment. The fact that she is surrounded by her loved ones (EVP) makes this moment so much more special.

This EVP photo also contains double frames. The bride is framed by the various EVP, and the moment is framed by the door entrance. The background gives the viewer a sense of place by showing the window, curtains, and whatever is outside.

Not all EVP photos have to be this complex, but whenever possible, your goal should be to add multiple visual layers to bring attention to the EVP in the photo. Notice everyone is authentically engaged. You can see from their expressions that they are focused and concentrating on the task as hand, and not a single one of them seems to be aware of the camera.

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Figure 14.2: For this photo, one of the groomsmen brought a gift from the groom to the bride. To create an EVP photo, I quickly asked key EVP, especially her mother, to stand behind the bride while she opened her gift. The mother has a high EVP ranking, so her presence in this photo was vital. The rest of the moment happened spontaneously. As the bride opened her gift, everyone reacted as they naturally would. Had I not had EVP in mind, the bride would have opened her gift by herself—which is totally fine, by the way. But this photo became very special to the bride because she and her loved ones are sharing a beautiful moment together.

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Figure 14.3: Sometimes the photographer only has to move to a different location to create a composition with a double frame. This photo happened 100% organically. This was a photojournalistic moment. However, to create the double frame, I backed up quite a bit toward the rear of the room in order to include the groomsman taking a photo of the groom and his friend, who is helping him with the bow tie. The room’s supporting beam with the sconce creates a visual separation between the stories.

This example highlights how important the architectural elements around you can be. I highly recommend that you pay particular attention to them. Don’t take them for granted; everything can be used.

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Figure 14.4: Speaking of paying attention to architectural details, this photo is another example of doing just that. This moment also occurred naturally, and the photo was taken without any direction from me. When I noticed the four groomsmen watching a game on TV, I quickly reacted by looking behind me to see if there was anything I could use to frame them. Sure enough, there was a glass door entrance that divided the living room from the bedroom. I picked up my camera with a 50mm lens mounted on it and took this framed EVP photo. Again, everyone in the photo is completely engaged in what they are watching on TV and not on me. That is what makes these kinds of photographs so special. Adding frames into the composition of EVP makes this an expert technique.

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EVP REFLECTIONS

The concept behind EVP reflections is to create or capture a composition where the main subject is actively engaged in an activity but you can see an EVP reaction to that activity through a reflection. Sometimes you may have to move the reflective surface around for it to be in the right place, and sometimes you have to arrange people to be in the reflection.

These kinds of photos require quite a bit of compositional skills because you are telling part of the story in a nonobvious way. When people see these types of images, their reactions are amusing to watch. It is almost as though they have discovered a hidden message. To excel at this technique takes some practice, and you can practice at home with your TV turned off (so it serves as a reflective surface) or with a mirror. Try to photograph an individual doing something while capturing someone else’s reaction to that activity in the reflection from the television, mirror, piano surface, or any other reflective material.

As you walk into the getting-ready room or the couple’s home where they are getting dressed, keep an eye out for all the reflective surfaces you could use. I normally use the “interactive photojournalism” approach when shooting EVP reflections.

Figure 14.5: During this wedding, the bridesmaids were scattered around the left side of the room. The mirror was already there. To take this photo, I gathered the bridesmaids in an unorganized manner so that they would all be visible in my frame. I positioned the bride’s sister in such a way that you could not see her from my camera’s point of view but you could see her face and expression in the mirror. Then, I asked her to continue fixing her hair. Once the bridal party was in position, I simply asked the bride to walk into the room when she was completely ready, so that her bridesmaids could see her in her full glory. Their expressions were completely their own, and I didn’t have to say a word. I just arranged the moment. If you are wondering how long something like this takes to arrange, it’s very quick. I directed it very casually, and in most cases, this scene would take approximately 20–30 seconds to put together.

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Figure 14.6: This is a photograph I wanted to include as an example that demonstrates how you can have EVP reflections in your image, but that does not mean that it is a well-executed shot. As you can see from the photo, the idea to split the room into two separate stories is a bonus. The light on the groom is excellent. However, the groomsmen look a bit too arranged by the photographer. My mistake was in trying to fit everyone into a small mirror. You must ask yourself if people would stand that closely together while talking. Probably not. Therefore, the solution would have been to choose higher-ranked EVP, such as the groom’s father and best man, and have just them in the mirror’s reflection. That would have been much more realistic. Also, the groom appears to be slightly posed. I could have asked him to sit in the chair nearby and tie his shoelaces. It’s very important to break the feeling of being posed.

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Figure 14.7: This photo was taken many years ago as one of my first attempts at EVP reflections. There was a mirror mounted onto the door of the groom’s bathroom. As the groom was getting ready and his best man was assisting him with the bow tie, I quickly opened the door just enough to reveal the best man in the mirror’s reflection.

Figure 14.8: This photo represents one of those very rare moments when the EVP reflection happened completely in a photojournalistic manner. I only had to shift my position to the right in order to place the bride and her mother on the left side of the frame and the mother’s reflection and reaction to the moment on the right side. I try my hardest to find these jewels of moments occurring naturally without any photographic intervention. But during all the years I’ve been photographing weddings, I know this happens rarely. For this reason, interactive photojournalism always saves the day.

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EVP OPPORTUNITIES AND BALANCE

At every wedding, you make the choice between trying harder to create something extra special or just going through the motions and taking whatever is there. Keep track of the EVP hierarchy around you. When you recognize an opportunity, find a way to take advantage of it and create a more powerful photograph. “Balancing” EVP simply means that you position the bride or groom on one side and the EVP on the other. This gives the composition balance and visual harmony.

Figure 14.9: This photo is an example of making the extra effort. While Cliff (the groom) was finishing getting ready, I noticed that his son was walking around the room. Remember, if the bride or groom have children of their own attending their wedding day, the children become the highest-ranked EVP at that wedding. Naturally, I asked the groom’s son if he would sit at a specific spot on the couch while his dad was getting ready and to make sure his father looked good and everything was as it should be. I gave his son a task to focus on. Having his son be a part of this story adds so much more emotional value to the image than if the groom were simply by himself.

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Figure 14.10: This was a fun, simple, and important photograph for the bride. The best part is, I did not have to arrange it. The bride requested this photo because one of the groomsmen was very important to her. She requested a photo in which the groomsman would be walking behind her, helping her with the dress. She started to laugh at the awkwardness of the situation, and he reacted exactly as she thought he would. This photo reminded me of the importance of EVP in wedding photography. Even though the groom is not the one helping her, this photo means a lot to the bride because of their close relationship.

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Figure 14.11: As the bride was getting ready, I noticed her sisters walking around the room and asked them if they would help the bride. Including all her three sisters collaborating on the wedding dress makes this photo particularly special to the bride. In an effort to create a more pleasing composition, I asked one of the sisters to pull the ribbon away from the dress, so it would be easier for her other two sisters to work on it. Having one of the sisters on the left side of the frame also balances the photo nicely.

Figure 14.12: Simple but powerful. Something as simple as having the groom give his daughter a tender kiss adds so much more emotional value to the wedding book. Capturing a beautiful moment like this, which includes the highest-level EVP (a couple’s children), is a major bonus!

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Figure 14.13: Just as I mentioned in the last photo, a parent is the highest-level EVP if the couple does not have children. For this reason, I asked the mother of the bride if she would help her daughter put on the veil. In a different photo, I asked the bride’s sister to help with the earrings. I’m always looking for ways to include EVP in the photos I take. The more EVP photos you have, the more the family will treasure the photos, and this equates to more sales of prints and larger albums. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

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Figure 14.14: Like many other expert techniques, there are varying levels of success based on the execution of the photo. This photograph combines the opportunity of photographing a beautiful moment with EVP (bridesmaids), EVP reflection (mirror), and EVP balance (bridesmaid on the left). The only element missing is EVP framing. Being able to combine several EVP compositional elements, such as in this example, is a constant goal of mine when photographing weddings. I call it “EVP layering.” It creates visually interesting photos that are jam-packed with the people who are most meaningful to the wedding couple.

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