Dazza Pictures

It’s been a a little busy this season with wedding shoots, commercial jobs, the editing that comes after and attending some workshops. And it was a pleasant surprise a couple of weeks back to learn that [AG]WPJA saw fit to award a place for a moment I captured earlier in the year.

Ann+Sebastian’s lovely wedding was held on Valentine’s Day at the Botanic Gardens this year. The solemnization at the garden’s Band Stand was followed by a fantastic course lunch at Halia Restaurant, which I was so humbled to have had a place set for me together with the couple’s guests. If I do recall correctly, I had chosen the beef main – yums. It was towards the end of lunch, when I noticed Ann had gathered her flower girls and some of the guests’ daughters for a stroll in the gardens. By this time, the couple’s contracted slot for photography service had ended, but for some reason that afternoon I decided to stay on a little bit longer.

So I trailed the entourage back into the gardens, where they were heading towards the bandstand. The girls were in a world of their own, looking at flowers and basically running circles around the bride playing with Ann’s bridal train. Unbeknownst to the older girls, the youngest flower girl had been having some difficulty with her long dress – she had been stepping on the hem and had to pause several times as she drew breath to catch up with the rest of the girls. It was when they hit the flight of stairs – skipped, hopped and jumped to the top, did they totally forget about our little flower girl here. As I saw this happening, I stood back and observed her lifting her dress up as she tried her best to catch up to her posse…*click*

This was a one-off moment that I cannot imagine would ever happen again nor could I ever capture again unless contrived. Which is just it. Moments like this happen only once, not staged, scripted, rehearsed, nor re-shot after an ‘N.G’ take. And that is what I love, to observe a moment in time, clicking open the shutter and feeling the warmth of knowing that I caught a genuine moment.

PS: She did catch up to the rest of the girls at the top of the stairs.