I have always stressed over finding portrait locations. Every summer I spend a couple days out of every week driving and walking around the city looking for an ‘interesting’ or attractive location to which I will take couples and bridal parties to be photographed on the wedding day. I try to time it so that I am at my locations at the same time of day with the same probable weather as will be on the wedding; then I hold out my hand and look at the light and shadows. Lately I’ve been stressing over locations in a different way— in the way that locations provide context. Context has always a meaning and sometimes that meaning is irrelevant, confusing or distracting from what is important in the photograph. For this reason I am lately inclined to simplicity. I was initially attracted to this white wall for the contrast it would provide to the ornate Indian wedding clothes; but the more I worked on these images the more I appreciated it as an appropriate backdrop and open space for people from different countries and cultures to be photographed. (Despite our proximity to roses. Pink ones. ) Full blog post to come a bit later, with lots of lovely context.
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