We were taking photos on the pier when a mother and her young daughter came by. Not wanting to get in the way of the photos, the mother hurried ahead and was calling to her daughter. I positioned myself down low, ready for the right moment. It's a shot that could never have been planned or posed:

It's a perfect illustration of the benefits of what I call 'loosely directed' shots.

Few couples today want tightly-controlled formal shots, 'put your right hand on the groom's shoulder, turn it five degrees forward, bend your thumb back slightly ...'.

But this can lead to a mistaken impression what the answer is 100% photojournalistic coverage, with no input whatsoever from the photographer. 98% of what we shoot is true photojournalistic in nature: we shoot what happens, the way it happens. The other 2% happens during the bridal portraits.

By 'loose direction', I mean things like "Walk hand-in-hand between those two trees over there." Or, in this case, "Sit opposite each other here, facing each other".

The shot itself was spontaneous, but the moment would not have happened without that initial direction.

Ben Lovejoy

www.beautifullytold.com