Eloping in an Abandoned Church in The Scottish Countryside

During this photoshoot in the beautiful Dunglass Estate with real couple, Michael and Ross, I explored the balance between documentary and editorial wedding photography.

I see myself as a “documentary-style” wedding photographer. This means that, generally speaking, my focus is on capturing natural and unposed moments on your wedding day. I find most couples come to me for this relaxed and candid style. However, at the same time, I also acknowledge the growing demand for more posed and artistic images, whether it is for a beautiful framed display or a scroll-stopping social media post. These kinds of images can appear more romantic and ethereal, but can also require a little more planning than a candid photo.

For this photoshoot, I was lucky to work alongside one of my favourite wedding photographers who specialises in a style of photography a lot more artistic than mine – Esmé Whiteside. Esmé takes a lot of inspiration from the Dutch masters, and her photography can sometimes look more like a seventeenth-century oil painting than a twenty-first-century wedding!

I enjoyed pushing my photographic boundaries and practising the “posing” element of couples photography. It has given me the confidence and knowledge to photograph with a more artistic style, resulting in a more romantic and intimate final product (if the couple demands it). I believe that documentary photography and posed photography do not need to be mutually exclusive. It is possible to photograph in creative and artistic ways while at the same time retaining an honest and true depiction of the couple and their day.

I couldn’t resist trying to capture a couple of candid style shots though! I loved getting Michael and Ross to break into laughter and lose their serious model faces for a few seconds! Here’s a handful of photos from their session up on Scotland’s east coast.