Most photographs that disappoint fail for small reasons nobody notices in the moment: an eye half-closed, a smile caught on the way up, a hand in front of a face. I don't trust one press of the shutter with a moment that won't come back.
When something matters — the vows, the first look, a family group, a laugh — I shoot a short burst instead of a single frame. My camera takes up to 10 frames a second, so a burst of three or four covers less than half a second. Faces change completely in that time: in a group of ten people, somebody is almost always blinking in any single frame.
I use flash all day long, not only after dark. In daylight it does the quiet work: it lifts the shadows under the eyes and chin when the sun is high, lights your face when the sun is behind you — at sunrise or sunset, with the sky still full of colour — and adds a small catchlight that makes the eyes look alive.
A flash needs a moment to recharge between shots, and now and then a frame comes out darker because it wasn't ready yet. That is one more reason I take more than one: the next frame is lit properly.
The camera follows the eye with eye autofocus, so focus lands on the eye, not the ear or the background. Between frames of one burst, the difference is in the details: open eyes, a natural expression instead of a half-smile, a hand that dropped away from the face, the veil settled instead of blowing across her cheek.
After the day I go through every burst and keep one frame: the sharpest first, and among equally sharp frames the one with the best expression and the best colour. The others are deleted, not delivered — you get one clear photograph of each moment, not ten almost identical ones. That is why a full wedding day comes to 600 edited photographs and not several thousand.
Below is one moment from a sunrise session on the Balcón de Europa in Nerja: a twirl, eighteen frames in under three seconds, shown in the order the camera took them, before any selection. You'll see the frames I would never send — eyes closed, an expression caught halfway, a frame that came out darker because the flash hadn't recharged — right next to the ones that work: open eyes, a natural expression, the face properly lit against the sky. Frame 10 is the one I would send.
For the page I've trimmed every frame the same way, keeping its shape. Beyond that, the only thing done to them is dodge and burn — lightening and darkening small areas by hand, the way prints were finished in a darkroom. No retouching, no colour grading.
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A jump lasts well under a second, and only one instant of it looks right: legs and arms in shape, hair in the air, a real smile rather than effort. You can't time that with a single press of the shutter — a burst catches the whole arc, and one frame lands at the top. Here it was the very first frame of the burst; the rest show the way down, and a second jump gave nothing better. These frames were straightened on the sea horizon; otherwise they are as they came off the camera.
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Two frames from the same second by the sea at Velilla-Taramay. In the first the flash had not recharged yet, so her face comes out darker against the bright sea. In the second it fired: the face is lit, and the sea behind stays soft and blue. It is the clearest way I know to show why I shoot with flash in daylight — and why I take more than one frame.
flash not ready
with flash
Several frames help with blinks and timing; they don't replace being in the right place at the right moment, and some moments happen only once — a first kiss lasts as long as it lasts. That part is experience and attention, not the camera. If you'd like to talk about your day, check your date here.
No. I choose the best frame of each moment and edit that one; near-duplicates aren't delivered.
Yes — outdoors in daylight too. It softens hard shadows, lights faces against a bright sky and keeps colours clean; in the evening it carries the party and the first dance.
During the day, yes — but you never have to look through them. I do the selection, and you receive one finished photograph of each moment.
Dates go early for May, June and September. Send the date, the place and the feel you have in mind — I reply as soon as possible, guaranteed.
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