Here Comes The Bride: Wedding Photography Basics

Kavan Choksi has photographed many different events in a wide variety of countries. Choksi maintains that one of the most amazing shoots of his freelance career was at a wedding in the UAE. Drawing on this experience, he shares some tricks of the trade for aspiring wedding photographers in the article below.

According to Kavan Choksi, wedding photography is the bread and butter of many professional photographers when they're not pursuing their favorite subject. Many photographers love weddings because they're a great place to hone your sense of timing, shot planning, and equipment management, aside from earning a good amount of money.

If you're still getting accustomed to the world of wedding photography, your best course of action is to work under another wedding photographer before going on your own. One of the crucial elements of successful wedding photography is learning to capture those spontaneous moments of joy, and working under a seasoned professional is one of the quickest ways to master this skill set.

You will need a lot of weddings under your belt to conquer the ability to capture the essence of two lives intertwining to become one. A mentor will prepare you and give you insights on how to best capture the moments that matter in a wedding without being intrusive and ruining the moment.

You should also plan how you're going to conduct the shoot. Aside from planning the shots, Kavan Choksi says you should visit the church or the place of worship where the wedding and reception will be held to find the best angles to take pictures. You also need to know the access points to flow freely from one nesting spot to the next.

When you have your shots planned, and you've secured the locations from which you'll shoot your images, the only thing left is to be fully present. When you time your shots accordingly to the wedding's potential highlights, your photos are sure to turn out splendidly. Kavan Choksi advises you to be prepared to take many pictures at once, as the joyous moments are sure to keep coming.

Have you been a wedding photographer? If so, how was your experience? Kavan Choksi invites you to share your thoughts in the comments section below.