IPhones, iPads and cameras

A few months ago I had an old client get in touch about their image files from their wedding in 2003. Having found the set of images, I ran through them, tweaking the files as much as you can with files from 2003 (Nikon D1X wedding photography). This was still the early days of digital photography. What people wore, and their haircuts, were not that dramatically different from today but one thing struck me as being different to weddings today – no wedding guests clutching iPhones!

Of course, the iPhone had not been invented in 2003. The first iPhones came to the UK in very late 2007. Browsing through the images – I have every wedding I have shot digitally since 2002 on several hard drives – it looks like the first time I captured one on camera was at a wedding in the summer of 2008, at Boxgrove Priory in Sussex. See below. I may have missed some from earlier that year though? But today they are ubiquitous at weddings, just as in everyday life.

iPhone Selfies

For the most part at weddings, you see iPhones being used for taking group selfies – a group of wedding guests or guests with the bride say. Shooting around these group selfies are ‘easy’ pictures for reportage wedding photography. They can make nice natural moments. Get in close or shoot from a distance. You see them at every wedding without fail. It was the iPhone that brought in this selfie habit, it was not so easy with even little compact cameras. In fact, it wasn’t until 2010 with the release of the iPhone 4, with its front-facing camera, that made taking selfies easy. Before this you would see the iPhone being used like a more conventional camera, photographing other people. This mostly meant guests now taking ‘formal’ lineups. With this camera in their phone, fewer guests carried cameras and more lineups were being shot by them during the day. So why get a professional wedding photographer to do the same? I had one wedding in 2015 where the couple asked for two quick ‘formals’ with their groomsmen and bridesmaids but then left the guests with their phones and cameras to do the other formal pictures, freeing me up to shoot natural images instead. That is the point of reportage wedding photography, natural not formal.

More photographs are taken at weddings now…

And I’m not just talking about the professional photographer steaming through their 128GB SD cards… Since having a camera on a device in your pocket has become a daily thing, so more images (snaps) are taken every day and particularly at weddings. In the old days of film you would usually only see wedding guests taking photos at a few ‘key’ moments – the signing of the register, which they still call up for and the cutting of the cake. Maybe sometimes at the confetti run. Now it is all day, at least until the light defeats the mobile phones. Cameras are still better!

UNPLUGGED WEDDINGS

And so with so many ‘cameras’ at weddings now couples are increasingly asking for ‘unplugged weddings’. Asking wedding guests to enjoy the day in real-time without recording. You hear this being announced at many ceremonies. Leave it to the professional photographer the registrar announces. (Everyone looks at the professional photographer trying to be discreet). Along with please don’t post on social media before they’ve had a chance to walk back down the aisle…

Now I don’t mind people taking pictures, before, during or at the end of the ceremony. In fact at any point of the wedding day, as long as they don’t block my view frankly. With aisle shots, often hands stretching out mobile phones and cameras can work nicely in the composition by drawing the eye to the wedding couple. Guests taking photos is part of the day, part of the storytelling.

Did you spot the groom with his camera?

Ceremonies and speeches can often be a time to snap a few ‘details’ of iPhones at weddings. As you can see here, they can also be useful for wedding guests to check on the England football team. At certain times of the year, you will usually find at least one person standing away from the wedding reception checking on the football scores on their phone. Very useful for updates.

Sniping the Snipers

Speaking of people standing away from the wedding, there are the ‘snipers’… guests armed with phones or cameras that you spot and catch in action as they photograph the wedding too. If you know anything about the usual way of holding a camera and the usual way of holding a gun, you may spot below the image from a military wedding.

IPads

Also in 2010 along came the iPad. It had a camera eventually too, with the second version in 2011. A curious thing to carry around to take pictures but you see it at weddings. Also useful for video chats with relatives who were unable to attend the wedding.

Both the iPhones and iPads are often deployed to entertain children at weddings. But some children are lucky enough to get to play with cameras during the day too.

Cameras at weddings

Which brings us around to cameras. Small digital compact cameras or big DSLRs with large zoom lenses and a flashgun atop the camera. The casual snapper and the real enthusiast. You see a fair few Leicas at some weddings. Some guests come laden for a big photoshoot. You can get a bit of ‘competitive’ energy from them, shall we say? I had one once who followed me around for much of the day, practically shooting over my shoulder. Another was very keen to snap everything. I was later told that she was a former wedding photographer. Having photographed the weddings of many photographers, filmmakers, and art teachers over the years, it’s not uncommon to see some very nice cameras in the mix. The curious one was when it turned out that the groom’s uncle was one of the most famous photojournalists this country has produced. I didn’t see him with a camera all day…

IPhones at weddings, the more the merrier…

IPhones, iPads and cameras, the more the merrier. A wedding is a target-rich environment for a photographer and for the wedding photographer so are the fellow snappers. I’ll end this blog post on iPhones at weddings with a few more images of mobile phones and cameras in action on a wedding day…