Here Comes The Bride – A One-Shot Story

This photograph is a reminder of the benefits of waiting, combined with some local knowledge. It was made at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, a Shinto religious complex built to honor the Meiji Emperor who guided Japan’s entry into the modern world at the end of the 19^th Century. The Meiji Shrine, also known as the Meiji Jingu, is rightly one of Tokyo’s most popular attractions for tourists, particularly those wielding cameras.

In my case on this trip, my camera of choice was the small Zeiss Ikon Contessa 35, the 1955 model, which has a folding 45mm Tessar lens. I use it with an auxiliary Voigtlander 50mm viewfinder, which I find to be close enough to the camera’s field of view. The viewfinder is extremely bright, much easier to compose with rather than relying solely on the camera’s squinty 1950s viewfinder. It is one of my favorite travel cameras.

One of the main attractions for photographers at the Meiji Shrine is the wedding parties that traverse the shrine grounds every weekend.  I knew where the wedding parties came out of to begin their walk to the ceremony grounds. And I knew the wedding party would be stepping through a large gate, which is built with carved wooden beams.

So, I took a guess that a position to the side of the wedding staging office just by the entrance gate would work, as it gave me a view of the wedding party as it made the turn to go into the shrine grounds. Then they would literally be stepping into the shrine grounds, which if I could capture it well enough would symbolize the bride and groom stepping into a new life together. Plus, the spot was an easy location to stay out of the way of the procession.

The Zeiss Contessa 35 is a slow, deliberate camera. It uses a rolling dial to advance the film. It requires the photographer to cock the shutter before depressing the shutter, which is a lever on the side of the lens. The Zeiss lens on the camera punches way above its weight class. But you have to be a patient, and deliberate photographer to get the most of out of the camera.

In the case of this photograph, I first took a couple of readings with a small, hand-held light meter. The camera was loaded with Kodak Tri-X, which I can come pretty close to correctly guessing the right exposure. I knew the Shinto priest at the end of the procession would be carrying a large, red umbrella, which is held to symbolically protect the bride and groom.

I had one chance to get it right. I had previsualized the shot, so when the priests at the front of the party stepped through the gate, I engaged the shutter. The resulting photograph is one of my favorite made at the Meiji Shrine, and I’ve shot there countless times over the past 20 years.

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