frygirl Wrote:When I say 'husband' pose I mean things like when I normally pose a couple signing the register I would normally have the groom standing the bride sitting, I guess I can get them both to sit in this instance but just small things like this. Some of the other poses I may do is where the groom stands behind the bride with his arms around her waist or them facing each other and the bride has her arms around the groom neck.
You know, I never realised the groom standing and bride sitting signing the register were gender roles. I just assumed its was almost random in the moment (whoever sat down first, etc.)
I guess the groom standing behind the bride with arms around her is more to do with the fact that the groom tends to be taller than his bride. Again, I'd never attached a gender role to the positioning in that type of photo to me it was always the taller goes towards the back (just like at school when the tall kids all had to stand in the back row so everyone's face could be seen)
And with regard to the bride having her arms around the groom's neck in the last example, my first thought when I read that was "Gosh! Those straight marriages don't last well if she's got him by the neck already!" (Sorry, I can be a bit random sometimes)
frygirl Wrote:I'm asking because I don't want to be the photographer who pees some off and my stuff just gets thrown in the bin from the wedding fair! I'm happy to do whatever people want but is it appropriate for me to ask a couple about thing like this?
Yes, ask the couple what they want. But I wouldn't come at it from the point of view of "Well, straight couples do this...." because some gay folks don't like the idea of "emulating" straight folk. (However, they are getting a civil partnership so they are heading in that direction anyway, so perhaps you may be on safe ground, even if it isn't quite the same thing)
frygirl Wrote:How about the kiss? Some of the straight weddings I do the couples are uncomfortable to kiss in front of everyone and just do a sort of hug but most do! After reading some posts on here it seems there's such a variety of opinion on the showing of affection in front of other people I guess I would have to ask?!
Again, ask the couple on this. Some may be reticent to show public displays of affection, even amongst people they know, because of negative past experience. But then again if some straight couples are also uncomfortable maybe its more to do with a puritan upbringing. Who knows?
frygirl Wrote:I just want to get it right!;-)
Don't worry about it. As others have said just ask the couple what they want from the photographs. You may end up asking more questions than you would normally, but then the couple will get what they want and you hopefully get business from their friends who may be getting hitched later on.
One final tip: Once you have this set of photos in your portfolio take it to wedding fairs in future. If a gay couple come along you can show them work that they would be more interested in. We certainly paid more attention to the photographers who showed us work they had done with gay couples in the past. (Although we noticed that most don't display it as openly and brought it out from under the table when we arrived at their stall. I found that a bit weird. My fiancé said it was so they didn't "piss off the grumpy hetero couples by letting them know they were gay friendly")
Good luck with the wedding. I'm sure the photos will look great!