What a gorgeous capture! I love to see bridal photography! I love that you had her mimick the statue in the background. So clever! I would love to have seen the crop pulled back a bit with a smaller aperture. I think a little more bokeh in the background would soften it up a bit. I really like that this isn’t a traditional bridal photo. I like that you can’t see her face. It adds interest and creates a story within the frame. Great job!

I love the idea. I tried something similar with my niece last fall and it didn’t turn out nearly so well. I might consider stepping back with a longer lens to bring the subject and the statue closer together. I reallylike the symmetry!! Very nice.

What a beautiful setting and photo…your bride will love this! I too would like to have seen the background (ie distance hills and sky) with a little more of a bokeh effect. Otherwise, very lovely!

This is a lovely shot. I love how the line of the stream draws your eye “in”, but that the bride is off-center (off-center = my favorite composition). The only thing I would’ve done different (so I’m not sure if this is a “tip” or just my perspective :) is pull back a little farther for a wider angle on the shot. It would’ve upped the “just peeking in on the bride” factor and looked more casual/lifestyle. But it really is lovely. And not your “everyday” bridal shot. Great job!

I enjoy seeing brides and grooms in non-traditional settings. I still like the bride or groom to be center-stage, so for me there’s a lot going on here. I would like to have seen a shot where you swung out to the right and captured her, toe in the water against a darker background, maybe. But if you and the bride really wanted the statue, I agree with the longer lens for compression suggestion. Keep thinking outside the box. You are clearly very imaginative.

This is truly such an amazing shot that I had to sit and study it just to find something to critique. Plus, I didn’t even notice the statue symmetry until I read the other comments, which made me love it EVEN more. Unlike the others, I feel like the point of the shot is the story – the hills, the garden, the detail in the statue – and while separating a bride is probably always at the fore front, lowering your aperture would likely allow a little faster shutter speed and maybe help bring some more detail to the sky and garden / statue. Obviously, this is a delicate balance, because you don’t want to loose light in the other sections. Truly though, amazing composition, placement, just everything. I’m in love. :-)

Tricky, tricky! I love that she is mimicking the statue. However it feels a little wide to me, I’m tempted to look at the scenery around her for a while before I get to the bride and eventually the statue. Perhaps you could try a vertical crop to tighten up the focal point a bit? Otherwise it’s very creative and I love the idea behind it :)

I love this photo! The composition comes together perfectly. Not only is the bride copying the statue, but the two together create a very nice pair of arching lines. And the bride’s dress and the light-coloured stones make a gently arching triangle. I absolutely wouldn’t crop anything here, and I wouldn’t want any more bokeh either, because then the statue would not be sharp enough. The only change that might be worth trying is moving back a step or two, to leave a bit more space in front of the bride’s feet.

I love the symmetry between the statue and bride, the candid moment and the way the image is not so much about what the bride looks like but about what she is doing. What I would have done differently was opened my aperture to at least a 2.8 so the focus was primarily on the bride, and then I would have converted to black and white, which would enhance the white of the dress and minimize any distractions that color can present. Other wise I love the natural grace that sings in this image!

I really like the quiet moment you captured. I love how she mirrors the statue which I didn’t notice at first. I like the soft colors and prefer this in color. You did a fantastic job not overexposing her dress which can be a challenge with white. I would say that is a huge challenge when photographing a bride.

As far as your settings go, I would have increased you ISO to 400 or 800 so your shutter speed would not have to be so slow. Although the image looks sharp at this size, I would bet if you were to enlarge it it might be slightly blurry. 1/20 is pretty slow to photograph a moving subject plus the natural camera shake you would have from holding the camera. The image looks a tad underexposed to me. I would like to see it brightened up a little. I wish her bangs were falling in her face because I would have loved to see her profile in this shot. Just a minor detail to keep in mind for next time. I would have also liked to see you step back about 2 feet to add a little more of the stream by her feet. Also, that would have prevented the stalks of weeds (I know they aren’t weeds, but I can’t think of the word) to keep from getting cut off in the top of the frame.

It looks like a lovely location. I am so glad you placed her in a third of the image to allow our eye to follow the lovely lines of the stream. Again, you did a great job with this image! Way to go :)

This is a really beautiful image, the colours are divine and the sharpness is fantastic. I found that my eye was wandering around trying to find a place to settle and I wonder if the image was composed to include more of the curvature of the creek perhaps my eyes may have drawn through the image more. Having said that it’s such a lovely image to have my eyes wandering around on that I found myself wanting to see more of the location around her – it’s truly very lovely.

Wow, I love this photograph! I love that the bride looks so natural, and the beautiful background. I can’t believe the image looks pretty sharp at 1/20! You must have a really steady hand. I personally would not prefer any more bokeh, and I definitely wouldn’t widen the aperture. I think it would be nice to bump the ISO to 200 or even 400 so that you could increase the shutter speed. I really love the natural look and the beautiful setting.

Beautiful!

Overall this is a great image! The bride mimicking the statue was an excellent choice. A longer lens could have brought the statue and bride closer together while opening the aperture more could have blurred the background, bringing more attention to the subjects. The horizontal composition is really good, however, I would suggest lowering the camera. That would remove some of the blown out sky and allow the view to see more of the stream in front of the bride’s feet. Thank you for sharing this. Really a great shot.

I really like how you used the use of lines to draw you attention into the bride, the statue and the weeds in the background! Great :) I would have brightened it up a bit, it looks a bit too dark. I like all the texture in the picture too with the rocks, the landscape, looks like a neat place! Great job!