Hi! I’m Les Walas, wedding photographer Manchester extraordinaire.
I am a photographer, technically. I use cameras, lenses, flashes. I take photos, then process, develop and present them to my audience. It’s what photographers do.
Technically.
There is a whole lot more to what I do than just taking photos. Photography is about seeing, as opposed to looking. Seeing implies understanding, and understanding is crucial if a photograph is to become something more than just a still picture.
Before I raise my camera and release the shutter, I see a scene filled with people, their emotions, their actions and motives behind those actions. Then I see their context – a four-dimensional backdrop consisting of a given place and a given time. Finally, I see a pattern woven of mutual relations between all these elements… And finally I understand.
That’s when you hear a familiar “click”.
A few weeks later that scene is before you again, and it’s all there: you, minutes before the big moment, eyes focussed on a mirror, inspecting the dress you only just put on; a delightful mixture of anticipation and euphoria that manifests itself in your faint yet radiant smile, a delicate blush, the shine in your eye; someone’s hands – your bridesmaids’, no doubt – as they fasten the white lace running down your back and adding finishing touches; your iPod sat atop a mobile speaker (at this moment you’re beginning to recall the tune it was playing), a coffee table with a half-empty champagne bottle, a clutter of make-up utensils, a bath-robe hanging off the edge of the bed, an empty shoe-box with the lid missing…
It’s all there once more, right in front of you, right in your hand. And even though they’re just photos, they spring to life the moment you lay your eyes on them.
Les Walas – storyteller, wedding photographer
Manchester & beyond
