Why I love thunderstorms on your wedding day.

A little lighting help from a storm may help more than you think.

Almost every bride prays for sunny blue skies on their wedding day. Who wouldn’t right? Well, me for one, I love a good storm. While common wisdom says great weather makes every wedding happy and bright, as a photographer I love the impact dramatic dark skies provide in a wedding photo. Typically weddings take place in the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest. If we are working on the beach or other like locations with no open shade from trees or buildings,  the subjects will be making faces from squinting. This also creates deep shadows in the eye sockets from the overhead sun. The photo shown below was taken literally in the nick of time.

The setting for the wedding of Megan and Dyson is the beautiful Ventosa Vineyards located on the northwest shore of Seneca lake in central New York state. Storms would roll in and out all day. The rain stopped shortly after the ceremony so we decided to head out to the picturesque vineyard for the family and wedding party photos.  We are working with Megan and Dyson when I noticed the sky turning dark again real fast. I can’t help but to keep shooting. The storm clouds are hanging so low it seemed I can reach up and touch them. Fortunately for us a Ventosa staff member is standing by with a golf cart to whisk us away. As soon as we get back to the winery and safely inside the skies open up. We definitely pushed our luck, but the finished image is worth the risk.

Here’s another great example of dramatic skies enhancing an image. The ominous incoming storm front is the backdrop as the Gothic architecture of St. Louis Roman Catholic Church looms large over our wedding couple Angela and Thomas. A benign blue sky could never achieve the same visual impact.

So fear not those dark skies on your wedding day. Don’t bother putting those rosary beads on your bushes. You just might get lucky and get some amazing wedding photos because of it.