Throughout the month of November, our Photo of the Day series will be taken over by each of Rangefinder‘s newly minted 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography in 2019. The 30 honorees are featured in our November issue, and each of their full, 30-photo submissions, reviewed by the competition judges, can be found in our online gallery. For more behind-the-scenes insights, follow us on Instagram.

With a background in fashion and editorial photography (which comes in handy especially during her oft-requested group photos), Natalie J Watts truly sees her role as a precious one that connects and remembers life and loss. After hearing from past clients that the most priceless frames are those of loved ones and not epic couple photos and intricately placed details, the London-based wedding photographer has focused herself harder on capturing simple moments with real emotion.

“A little bit of my heart and soul goes into each wedding that I photograph to help tell each couple’s story in the most true and heartfelt way possible,” she says.

In the gallery above are her behind-the-scenes insights on three of the photos from her submission this year.

After marrying while overlooking the Santorini caldera, this couple chose to have a Greek guitarist play them and their guests through the venue to their reception dinner. Earlier in the day, I had noticed how beautiful the venue looked reflected in the pool and noted the couple’s wedding colors as white and blue. When the wedding party took this route, I positioned myself to capture them and their reflections as they walked, taking into consideration the white and blue tones to complement the wedding story. I always like to capture transition shots, from one part of the day to another, to help the wedding story flow, and this is one of my favorite transitions—capturing the joy and relaxed vibe of the wedding day. 

This couple married in Glasgow, Scotland and were quite hesitant to have any photographs outside in public. They decided to have confetti as they walked back up the aisle inside their venue. When they reached the top of the aisle, they turned to one another with complete joy on their faces and squeezed hands tightly—a really emotive and goosebumps moment! As wedding photographers, we make dozens of split-second decisions with every moment, and it’s up to us to decide where to stand, how to frame the image, which elements to focus on, and which settings to use on our camera to ultimately capture that moment in the best possible way for our couples.

I noticed how beautiful the rising crescent moon shone in the darkening sky. We were standing low down, so the couple needed to climb higher for me to capture their silhouette against the sky as I visioned. Luckily they, as most of my couples, for whom I’m truly thankful, trusted in my vision and climbed barefoot higher up some rocks to a better vantage point. Sometimes it helps to take a new perspective—look around, look higher, look lower and behind you in order to capture something beautiful and creative.