Photos of the Week


Eye-Catching Portraits and Photos of the Week

June 21, 2022

By Jacqueline Tobin

As we approach the end of June and are already deep into wedding season, we wanted to present a mix of wedding images that embody the feelings and emotions of love, with a splash of summer fun thrown in. Enjoy the visuals and read the backstory on each image below.

Sabrina Guyton-Wright of SGW Photography in Philadelphia says this image was taken the day before the wedding she was covering so that everyone could “just enjoy the scenery of Jamaica and have a good time.” Here, the bride (in white) celebrates on a catamaran with her wedding party.

wedding party celebrates on boat in Jamaica.
© SGW Photography

“I love this image because of the angle it was taken at,” Guyton-Wright explains. “It has the view of the blue sky and the laughter of the guests. Their expressions were so genuine and lively because they were having a blast. I love capturing people being in their element, it’s one of my favorite aspects of shooting—people being themselves, laughing, bopping, dancing—I love it all. I wanted to capture movement and the heightened energy of the loudly blasting music and the party that was going on.”

[Read: Destination Wedding Trends: Personalizing a Couple’s Day]

For this image, Rosa Garrido put the couple facing each other as the sunset light was sneaking in and crossing their heads to create “that magic of contrasts,” she explains, “the contrast between her skin so white and the darkness of the groom’s skin.”

wedding image of a couple contrasted bu light and love.
© Rosa Garrido

Garrido loves to take iconic wedding images and says she noticed this one quickly taking shape and went for it. ” I love sunsets to take pictures when the light is almost going out. I tend to look for moments that are more natural and I love that there is a connection between them even if they don’t touch each other or look at each other. As a photographer I love the challenge of improvising, and finding inspiration in a singular moment.”

Orlando Suarez of Viridian Images Photography says that the moment he saw the ornate mirror shown here, on the wall of the elevator foyer he and his couple were in, he knew he wanted to use that geometrical element to frame the bride and crown her like a queen.

wedding image of couple with bride depicted as queen.
© Viridian Images Photography

“Visually, I saw this as a black-and-white frame from the start and I wanted gradual levels of contrast,” he explains. “In recent years my style has grown into layered portraits where I look for new ways to position couples in abstract or artistic compositions. I wanted a strong presence from the groom without eclipsing the bride, so I decided to position my camera almost right up to the groom to fill the frame with his silhouette. Then, over his shoulder, I would highlight the bride with off-camera flash.”

Coming from camera right, Suarez had his wife extend a monopod holding a flash with a Magmod grid and sphere. “The light was held above the bride and slightly feathered away from the wall to help minimize light spill. The grid helps funnel the light toward the bride’s face. The sphere helps soften the quality of the light. I dropped the aperture to a point where I had the right ambient, moody feel to the scene and then adjusted the flash settings on the bride.”

[Read: Perfect Your Lighting Skills with These Portrait Basics]

Suarez says he shot over 60 frames to get this final image, experimenting with slight angle changes until he settled on this composition. “Somehow everything I strive to include in my portraits connected in this instance. I love the manipulation of light, I love the visual contrast and I love the layered abstract compositions within the image. Most of all I love, how this image helped push my confidence in taking risks.” (For more detail on how this image was made, click here.)

Keith Cephus of Virginia Beach, Virginia, says that ever since he purchased his very first camera, a Canon A-1 in 1987, he was mesmerized by double exposures, which the A-1 lets you create in-camera.

wedding season and image of bride in sari, as multiple exposures.
© Keith Cephus

“My passion grew stronger as I began competing in WPPI‘s print competition [WPPI The Annual],” he explains. “I gained so much knowledge about transforming blank canvases into award-winning wedding images and other types of photos. That’s when I began to shoot with intention, purpose and attitude.

[Read: WPPI The Annual 2022: Grand and First Place Winners]

“This image above,” he continues, “of lovely bride Stuti, was created in-camera using the efficient multiple exposure setting in the Canon R 3. It took several attempts to get the bride to tell a compelling story while maintaining the proper exposure on each image. A black background was used to highlight the lovely colors of the bride’s sari.”

When UK photographer Andrew McDonald first walked into the sanctuary where his couple was getting married, he noticed stained glass artwork that was “beyond anything I had seen previously in a Catholic Church. It was in the afternoon and the sun was beaming through these small stained glass windows and that’s when I knew I would position the couple in this multicolored lighting for a very creative photograph.”

bride and groom under veil.
© Andrew McDonald

McDonald continues: “To me the photo is mysterious. Not so much in a way that we don’t know what’s going on, but in a way that captures love and passion in a sacred place where a kiss like this wouldn’t normally happen. I love the way the light breaks apart in different hues  and falls on the veil giving a very unique look.”

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling, eye-catching wedding images and portraits you won’t want to miss out on!  Send your wedding and portrait, editorial, documentary and commercial image submissions to: [email protected]