Every bride and groom and maybe any interested viewer may find more than a few ultimate picks from their wedding photo album. So you may wonder what’s remarkable about a favorite wedding picture. Well, for a photographer, a “favorite” picture is no small thing. As you probably hear all the time, artists are their own toughest critics. So to the photographer, a favorite, is an image that has met an extremely high threshold of a ruthless ever self-challenging set of standards.
In the spirit of sharing my philosophy as a photographer about my style and what I seek in the images I capture and in order to document and hopefully immortalize my personal favorites at least for my own record keeping purposes, I decided to start this blog series. In each of these subsequent blogs, I will be highlighting one of the top picks from the weddings I have covered in the previous year.
Today I would love to highlight a picture from a recent South Asian wedding I’ve covered that made it into my all-time wedding favorites.
This photo-gem is from the wedding of the wonderful couple Krisha and Neeraj’s Dallas wedding at the Renaissance Hotel in Richardson. Needless to say, this discerning bride knew exactly what she wanted in selecting her wedding day outfit and accessories. A regal look was what she had imagined for the culture-rich festivities of her Hindu wedding ceremony, and she undoubtedly achieved it. As with every traditional Hindu bride, Krisha’s attire was a splendid red lehenga – with red color representing prosperity and fertility. It’s the color of Mars which according to Indian culture, is the planet that rules marriage.
But I digress – it’s really hard not to when talking about the richness of Indian wedding traditions. Now back to the picture and what makes it a great image in my eyes. Of course, the beauty of the bejeweled bride in red, in her dazzling traditional bridal accessories - her statement necklace and earnings, and the traditional nose chain - all made for a mesmerizing subject. Yet, what also came together to produce this image are a number of other elements including the nicely lit room of the Renaissance where the bride was getting ready, and the finishing touch in the abstract quality of the final image. In my view, a thoughtfully selected piece of a subject sometimes tells a more intriguing story that the full portrait.
As a final note, I would humbly add that aside from her gorgeous bridal look, another winning decision Krisha made for the wedding is her thoughtful pick of the wedding photographer to ensure her spectacular elegance was captured with appreciation of the smallest details and in a way that does this gorgeous style justice. As with every bride, my biggest hope is that Krisha was happy with the final outcome and that she’ll forever savor the memories of her special day through the pictures I captured.
William Bichara | Dallas Wedding Photographer
