Photo of the Day


Wedding Photos and Portraits of the Week

July 11, 2020

By Jacqueline Tobin

Did you see our most recent Photos of the Day? In our daily series highlighting some of the most interesting images in wedding and portrait photography, the editorial staff asks the creatives behind the photos to detail the backstory and technical approach. Here’s what caught our eye this week.

Pose, Frame, Capture—Just Before the Sun Disappears

Braden Young ventured to Utah’s Little Sahara Sand Dunes with this couple, and as the sun was setting, he asked them to scale one more sand dune. “We were losing light very quickly,” he recalls. “Right as they reached the top of the dune, I instructed them [where to look] and the last rays of golden light hit them perfectly.”

Photographer Uses Color to Focus on Bridal Ceremony

Peter Olvera went as close as he could without interfering in the intimate exchange of vows. But he had another challenge on his mind: “I wanted to ‘hide’ the guests from the background with the color wall they had at the ceremony.”

Elopement Photographer vs. White, Windy Winter Wonderland

Afton Flynn (of Film and Forest Photography) accompanied this eloping couple to Banff National Park where it had snowed the night before. Here, “a fierce wind gust whipped up fresh snow off the frozen lake and within seconds, we were engulfed in a full sheet of white,” Flynn says. “Luckily, the warm car was only meters away, but for one brief moment, I caught the groom holding on tightly to his bride before the viewfinder went white.”

Photographer’s Portraits Highlight Beauty, Challenge Perceptions of Black Men

Photographer Adrian Octavius Walker captured this portrait of Mychael Jamal for his series We Matter, a collection of conceptual portraits that aim to prod traditions surrounding beauty and perceptions of Black men in America. This photo was part of See in Black, a joint effort of 80+ Black photographers who sold original prints to benefit five different nonprofits that, they say, are working to “dismantle white supremacy and systemic oppression.”

Bride and Groom’s Private ‘First Dance’ at Sunset Portrait Session

Carla Towill of The Unbridled wandered these gardens with the couple at sunset just before they would all head into the reception for the couple’s first dance. For a moment, though, she asked the couple “to have a secret first dance here before they went in to do their official one with their guests,” she says. “I saw the low light coming in through the trees and knew this was the spot. It was a wonderfully intimate moment to witness—the calm before the storm.”

Dig into the Photo of the Day archives for more.