Throughout the 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.

While he makes certain to capture all of the important moments of a wedding day, Luke Bell is most drawn to what he calls “the challenge of making images that are less obviously ‘wedding photos.’”

Inspired by cinema, painting, fashion and contemporary design, he hopes to spur feelings of wonder and curiosity in those who look at his photos as he follows intriguing light and keeps an eye on what might only seem mundane to the naked eye. “I like to keep things as minimal as possible but never at the expense of sacrificing the ambiance,” Bell explains. “Less is more, and atmosphere is king.”

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

It had been a beautiful day and the light was incredible. The only problem was that pretty much everyone was still sitting down at the wedding breakfast. I shot about 30 images of people coming and going during the meal, but I didn’t feel I had anything great. I decided to persist, and around 45 minutes after I’d started shooting, I finally got the shot. Aside from the red dress and shoes, I really like the boy running past in the foreground. Kids were an important part of the day for the bride and groom, so I feel it adds some extra context to the frame.

The great thing about weddings here in the UK in autumn and winter is that the light during bridal prep can be amazing. This bride’s room was pretty chaotic that morning and we were rapidly running out of time, so I made a split-second decision to shut the curtains most of the way on a couple of windows and ask the bride to get into her dress in the pocket of light I’d made without any further direction. Shooting for the highlights hid the other bridesmaids and the chaos going on around her in the shadows and actually made for an interesting impromptu portrait of the bride herself.

It was golden hour and I’d missed the chance to get the bride and groom out for portraits as the wedding breakfast had overrun. Initially, I was gutted. But then, as the speeches continued, the light started to come into the room in really interesting ways. On top of that, the groom’s speech really hit home with everyone, and I was lucky enough for these two elements—the light and the emotion—to come together in a compelling way.