One of the standard pieces of photographing a wedding is getting an overall scene setter of any important place. It’s not a priority for everyone but when it is, I work to make sure to make it is the best it can be. I could have easily just grabbed an image of the building and moved on. But when Christine, her bridesmaids and her father, were waiting outside the little Zion Lutheran Church in Oldwick, NJ, I saw an opportunity to at least put some scale into the image and show them on this day, at that place. A pretty simple approach. Being ready for unexpected moments is part of the DNA of a good storytelling photographer. There’s no way to entirely predict every possible moment but you can put yourself in a place to be ready when and if the unexpected pops up. So you wait. You get into position and wait. And sometimes keep waiting. There was no way to know that the high-five was coming but once it did this went from a simple document of a place to an image that is raised to the level of truly special and storytelling. It’s that fine sliver of what makes the difference between a nice image and an image with a spark that continues to be satisfying over time. The high-five was, as it turns out, a classic part of their father–daughter relationship and it carried right on through to the wedding day. They even high-fived after the ceremony as Christine and Nick made their way down the aisle.

It’s these kinds of slivers of moments that makes being a documentary style photographer fun and exciting. You never know when you’re going to be given a gift like this. The spark of this moment continues to stand out not just in my memory of making it but also continues to make me smile, several years later.