Print Competition
I truly believe that excellent composition can help strengthen the story that is being told photographically. At this charming New Jersey wedding in 2011, I was waiting at the front of the church for the wedding processional to begin when I saw this wonderful moment between the flower girl, the church lady, and her father. The flower girl was getting ready to go down the aisle, and she was being given instructions by the church’s wedding coordinator. Her father was standing at the back of the church with her as well. I knew that the story that I wanted to tell was about the little girl, not about the other two participants in the scene. I crouched down on the floor so that I was at a high level of the flower girl. I intentionally cropped out most of the woman and the father of the flower girl. I chose to keep in the pointing finger of the woman and the stern–appearing lower half of the father to give the image context. I felt that the pointing finger and the crossed, clasped hands looked a bit foreboding and juxtaposed nicely against the hesitant appearance of the little girl. I also chose to include a great deal of the church pews in the left of the frame, and a large amount of open file space at the bottom of the frame. This was done intentionally to make the little girl look even smaller than she was, and to make the walk that she was about to take seem even more imposing. I chose to process this image in black and white because I felt that it helped enforce the story being told.Filename: 2012-silver-wedding-pj-2.jpg. 1/160; f/2.8; ISO 2200; 150.0 mm. 