Untitled

Great photo, my birds flying off shots never turned out like that !!

To me there's something distinctly HC-B about seeing this picture and capturing it. Everyone needs their own style, but to achieve a bit of HC-B magic in a portfolio must be good!

Aah, hindsight. What we might have done had we been quicker. Ok, so we all agree there are some obvious flaws and so I find myself asking, how could one capture THE shot in this situation?

Assuming I could think fast enough, I would choose a slower shutter speed and stop down. This would produce more movement in the doves and give a little more detail in the faces. Then, with my (imaginary) superfast sports DSLR set for 9fps, jam the button and see what comes out.

I don't know what could be done about the annoying sky though. The photographer is standing in the right place to be in line with the birds and the couple for some interesting interaction to happen there. Move the camera and you lose the kid, which would be a shame. Cropping that part of the scene doesn't work as it makes the shot too claustrophobic; it just becomes about the birds, the bride, and some guy in tartan!

I s'pose a news pro with the right camera and the benefit of day-in day-out shooting experience might've succeeded, but I doubt it somehow. My feeling is that this is pretty close to the best result from an imperfect situation.

Good job!

Any wedding photographer who could capture a 'fleeting moment' shot like this and get everything 'right' would be either very fortunate, or simply super human. This is a very well done shot in my opinion -- I think the sharp focus on the doves speaks to the moment, and the out of focus humans -- especially the bride, add to the story. I have to agree that the stiff position of the center dove adds a bit of harshness to the image, but in this kind of shot the photographer is just blessed that someone in the background wasn't picking their nose (We've all had those shots)!
As to cropping out the little boy, that might be desirable for competition/artistic purposes, but it would almost certainly be a mistake from the client's perspective. That little boy may have tremendous emotional significance to the bride and groom. I photographed a wedding once where I shot a candid of two teenage girls hugging in front of the bandstand (I had no idea who they were). Later the bride told me how important that photo was, as one of the girls was the daughter of the best friend of the groom's father. Shortly after the wedding day she was diagnosed with advanced terminal cancer -- it was the last photograph anyone had of her with a smile on her face. Cropping people out of wedding photographs normally should be done only to avoid embarrassment to the clients or people in the photographs.
Well done Pantis!
God Bless,
Greg

Nice image, but by no means perfect. The tip of the beak of the bird in the left of the picture is tangent to the left border. This position creates a known compositional defect called a point of tension. I, therefore, must disagree about the timing being perfect. A few milliseconds earlier would have been perfect.
Also, a higher ISO with a smaller aperture would have helped to bring the human subjects into focus, but this situation doesn't really bother me. But I do hate points of tension (especially in my own work).

After looking at all the cropped versions, and then at the original, I like the original mainly because, as others have mentioned, the boy provides a very animated moment for the couple that were married. If I was the groom I would love to revisit the original because of this. This does not mean I do not like the cropped versions, but that the shot is for the couple. As far as the out-of-focus people in the background, I like that there is a division between the doves and the people. For me the event at this moment in the wedding is all about the doves, so why not keep them frozen in time. One can still feel the responses from the onlookers, even though they are not the focus. A great photo for discussion, and some very good points being brought forward. I keep learning the more I read this post. Thanks, everyone, for that. : )

A really great moment you captured! I really appreciate your effort to capture this photo. Specially happiness and excitement in the face of boy in right corner. well done.

While I think the photo is wonderful, y'all should keep in mind (those of you who are regularly wedding vendors, who can make suggestions to families about ways to enhance the event) that white doves (white pigeons, actually) do not come back to the owner, like trained hunting birds. They are completely domesticated, and almost completely clueless about survival. Without a regular measure of birdseed to feed them and without a cage to keep Sylvester the Cat away, they rarely survive more than a couple of weeks. We found one in the fig tree in our back yard in Memphis, with a gaping, moldy-looking chasm in the side of its breast (not bleeding). It put up no resistance to being handled. Our neighbor took "Spiritu" in, and now it's healthy and flies from room-to-room in his house.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3097/2545071710_aefdbf9966_m.jpg
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A very happy and cool moment.The expression on faces and the sharp and fast focus on the pigeons are the best part of the photo.Excellent work Sorin

I suppose one could criticize this photo on the grounds of composition. But its faults are minor compared to its attributes. As far as I'm concerned, this photo is a demonstration of what still photography is all about. What has been captured here is a scene that the eye, itself cannot catch. Look at the bride, or the kid on the right, or the bride's maid behind him, not to mention the wonderfully detailed birds. The eye is simply not capable of taking all this in in a split second. This is a substantial piece of work.

nailed it!!