Yesterday, Jean and I had lunch on the Nepean Belle. Lovely afternoon for a cruise, and a wonderful venue for a wedding reception.
I know just how good it is because I have had the pleasure of photographing a Reception on board recently. The principal reason for lunch was to celebrate Jean's birthday, but we were also delivering a couple of large format photographs that we had been invited to hang on board.
Apart from being very complimentary about the photos, our Host, Helen, remarked that she was glad that we had brought pictures of a "beautiful" bride: apparently some photographers have wanted to hang pictures of brides that were less than ... attractive.
Now that surprised me, on several fronts: first that the bride's physical appearance should be an issue; secondly that any photographer, who is after all promoting their work, should present any image that shows his bridal subject in anything but the most favourable light. But most of all, because I have never met a bride who was not absolutely gorgeous!
Seriously. In all the time I have been photographing marriage ceremonies, I have never seen any girl or woman who was not truly beautiful on their wedding day. Not one!
Maybe I have a poor appreciation of beauty; maybe I am just a romantic; maybe only really lovely ladies come to me to be photographed.... I don't know. What I do know is that, wedding after wedding I am just knocked out by each bride's beauty. It might be expressed in her femininity, or her inner glow, or in womanly strength, or in her grace, or perhaps her charm... but every woman has within her the essence of beauty which finds its expression in the wedding celebration. I do not imagine it - it is there to see in the wedding photographs.
This is not my creation. It is a quality in the bride. Every guests sees it; the groom is often left quite speechless by it, and my camera records it. It is not an illusion - it is a reality that I have the simple privilege to capture and preserve.
A bride who is NOT beautiful - there is no such thing!
