This month, we’re celebrating the newly designated 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography 2021, our annual competition that spotlights talented wedding photographers from around the world for moving the industry in exciting directions with their creativity and aesthetics. Follow us on Instagram to see a daily takeover from each one of the Rising Stars you see here, who are sharing behind-the-scenes insights on some of the photos they submitted to the judges for consideration. This selection grabbed us by the various ways the photographers captured adventurous weddings and elopements, interesting wedding guests and far-flung locations.

Nate + Megan of Cedar & Pines are photographers based in Joshua Tree, California, and spend about half their year traveling the Western U.S. for outdoor weddings and adventurous elopements. “Our goal is always to capture moments as truthfully as possible,” they explain. “This photo is a good example of that. The couple wanted their wedding photos to represent their disposition for adventure. So with their climbing-guiding background, they took us out after their ceremony to climb an arch and rappel from the top.”

Here, they had planned for the couple to rappel at sunset with golden light illuminating them. “But,” says Nate, “as is typical with climbing adventures, things took longer than planned, and we didn’t end up rappelling until well after dark. With my camera propped on my knees for stability, I cranked my ISO to 6400, lowered my shutter speed to 1/40th of a second, and crossed my fingers hoping for the best shooting into a very dark sky. The couple began rappelling and I caught this moment as they were looking at each other, with their headlamps illuminating each other’s figure.

“Had it gone according to plan, we would miss out on the story, the grain and the imperfections that make this image feel more human.”

See their entire submission of images to the 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography competition and read more about their approach in taking adventurous weddings and elopements uniquely.

Magda Glowacka of Fotomagoria, based in Tuscany, Italy works as a wedding destination photographer all over the world. “The most important moments in your work as a wedding photographer are the emotional ones. 
If during the wedding day my couple appears with their own children, I always treat them as equal protagonists of the story,” she says.

Glowacka says that in this wonderfully stylish, perfectly planned wedding in a Moroccan greenhouse full of exotic plants, the arrival of the little boy brought an element of surprise that she loves so much. 

“In the middle of the frame we see a beautiful woman who had to reconcile the roles of the bride and the boy’s mother at the same time,” the photographer explains. “There was a moment of mortal freeze when she was about to put the ring on her husband’s finger. Their little son suddenly reached for the ring in a flash, thinking it was a toy for him. Nobody expected this and everyone stopped breathing for a moment. We all know well how the story could end if he would take control over the ring in that moment. Nevertheless the bride reacted spontaneously with this wonderful smile and irrepressible surprise. The expressions of all the people in the picture are priceless.”

See her entire submission of images to the 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography competition and read more about her approach as a wedding photographer.

Malorie Kerouac is a wedding photographer based out of Seattle, Washington. “This photo of Daniella and Sebas is one of my favorites,” she exclaims. “As someone who grew up in Seattle madly in love with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, their dinner boat wedding on Lake Union was my dream come to life. I was taken back to the ’90s in the very best way.”

Kerouc adds: “The only way they could get married without masks was if they stood on the boat deck, which meant there was very little ambient light to shoot with. It was one of my first times experimenting with 3200 ISO film, and I was using a Canon EOSIII which meant it was an unimpressive autofocusing system that struggled in the day, let alone at night. This wasn’t intended to be out of focus or to be underexposed, and only a quarter of this roll was usable, but the few that turned out were really special and bring back exactly what that night was.”

See her entire submission of images to the 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography competition and read more about her approach as a wedding photographer.

Nina & Darek are a wedding and elopement photographer duo based in Poland, but say they are lucky enough to work and travel all across Europe capturing emotional and intimate adventures.

This photo is from couple Aga & Matt’s first dance. “We absolutely love the first dance,” say Nina & Darek. “Especially the created atmosphere of excitement and joy. And we are always prepared for any lighting condition we can possibly encounter; this one was no different.”

Right before arriving at the venue, the photographers say they quickly checked the natural lighting they had to deal with and immediately decided to set up their spot light. “We knew that our couple planned something special, so we wanted to make sure that we maximized our chances to capture the essence and mood of their dance so that maybe with a little bit of luck we could get a perfect shot like this one.”

They add that they prefer to use a continuous source of light over flash. “One of our main inspirations to create photography is music and dance, and we think that nothing evokes the emotion of an almost theatrical scene, which the first dance sometimes is. Thanks to this lighting setup, we did not distract the couple or their guests.”

See their entire submission of images to the 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography competition and read more about their approach as wedding photographers.

Phan Tien, who resides in the South of France and Vietnam, doesn’t travel to any weddings without his wife and their 5-year-old son. “They are the best assistants I have,” he says, and their energy inspires all of his photos.

Here, couple Jeff and Lillian asked Tien to travel to the Faroe Islands and Norway for their elopement.

“We spent three days with the heavy rain and strong wind in Faroe and they were always filled with big smiles and adventurous souls,” Tien explains. “We kept doing everything that we had planned to do. We hiked two hours to their elopement location under the strong wind, they made their vows shaking in the freezing weather and then we got into a truck that lead us to a place really in the middle of nowhere. Then we flew to Norway, flowers and wedding gown dressed up, and they danced around—we had so much fun.”

See his entire submission of images to the 30 Rising Stars of Wedding Photography competition and read more about his approach as a wedding photographer.

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling, fun, emotional photos of adventurous weddings and elopements, eye-catching portraits and creative photo concepts.