This Is How: ‘Trinity’ by Menino Conhece Menina
Delighted to have the fantastic Portugal-based duo Menino Conhece Menina on the site today to tell us how they captured this brilliant moment that won a Reportage Award back in Collection Four. I really love this piece; great tips and sentiments about going with the flow, curiosity as a wedding photographer’s great tool, composition and more. One of my favourite quotes, too: “If nothing is going on where I am, that means I’m in the wrong place…”. A brilliant piece, thanks so much, both!
This is a photograph of a June wedding in Portugal which is expected to be warm and sunny…but not this year! Summer started heavily rainy so the bride used the atrium of the church to protect herself while waiting to enter. Had we had a sunny day the story would be different, or had the bride arrived on time… That’s the beauty of the way life unveils before your eyes: you can’t control anything but you can absorb every little piece of beauty. Nothing will ever be “perfect”, of course, but that’s the challenge!
What is more interesting to us on this image is the triangle that you can trace between the bride, the flower girls and the groom inside the church, whose presence is only guessed. But knowing him there, sensing the excitement of the little girls and seeing the open-hearted smile of the bride, fills the image with all the deep and emotional feeling of that moment.
Because of being emotionally loaded, this is the best image of this moment, we believe. But this is fun to notice since it exists only because we broke our own previous plan of action. As some of you may know, we are a couple of photographers (together on work and on life). We always try to get the best of being two and in the higher moments of the day we place ourselves in order to have two complementary visions of the event.
On this entrance the plan was that Raquel would be on the choir over the door, photographing from above, while Daniel would do the front view of the bride coming in. But as things wouldn’t happen as fast as Daniel expected he moved to the front door in search of something (“if nothing is going on where I am, that means I’m in the wrong place…”, he figured). Eventually curiosity is a main weapon when having this job and so, approaching the front door, he found the two flower girls, looking to the arriving bride, and the bride herself, impatient and joyful! Daniel got out of the door and look back to the altar and the rest is history… There was the picture that had to be taken!
That is just like Cartier Bresson said, “of course it’s all luck!”
You can see more of Menino Conhece Menina’s work on their website, or here on their TiR profile (where photographers can display an unlimited numbers of images/galleries and Stories).
Did you enjoy this ‘This is How…’ piece? Then we’re sure you’d love all the other articles written by our TiR members, which you can find over here.
Interested in joining us? We showcase the very best in documentary wedding photography; celebrating the skill and artistry of what matters most: Moments. Find out all the benefits that membership brings (including 10 Reportage Award entries and 3 Story Award entries per Collection, with six Collections per year) over here.
