Pose Spotlight: The Walking Away Wedding Photo
Pose Spotlight is a new series where we take one wedding pose and look at it through real photos from our photographer contests. First up is the one almost every couple ends up with, whether they plan it or not: holding hands and walking away.
It looks simple, and it is. That is a big part of why it works. You are not posing for anyone. You are just walking somewhere together, and your photographer gets to show where that is.
The 19 photos below come from our “Holding Hands and Walking Away” photo contest from our photographers. Here is what this pose does well, and how to get the most out of it on your day.
It tells a story without trying
A walking away photo reads like the last frame of a film. Two people, hand in hand, heading off into whatever comes next. Nobody needs to explain it.
This frame took first place in the contest, and it shows the idea at full strength. The couple walks through lupine and wildflowers while horses graze on the hill behind them and a storm moves in over the ridge. Every part of the scene adds to the story, and none of it was staged.
It puts your location front and center
Because you are facing away, the camera is free to pull back and take in the whole place. That makes this the pose to ask for anywhere the view is part of why you chose it.
Small in the frame, with a whole valley opening up ahead. A wide shot like this captures the scale of a mountain wedding far better than a close portrait can.
On a high ridge at golden hour, the couple is barely more than a silhouette, and that is the point. The light across the peaks becomes the subject.
Two brides crossing rocky ground toward snow-covered peaks. Wide alpine settings are where this pose really earns its place.
Not every backdrop is a summit. Here it is a cliff face running with dozens of thin waterfalls, and the couple takes up only a sliver of the frame.
Open grassland, a fence line, and half the frame given to sky. Quieter settings work too, as long as there is room to walk.
A trail winding down to an alpine lake, seen through evergreen branches. If your venue has a path that leads somewhere worth looking at, this is the photo to use it for.
It shows off the back of your dress, and your shoes
Most wedding portraits are taken from the front, so the back of your dress rarely gets its moment. This pose fixes that.
An open back caught in hard sun as the couple climbs toward a pair of waterfalls.
On a set of city hall steps, a long train spills down the stairs behind the couple. Shot from low on the steps, it looks even longer.
Low sun behind the couple outlines the bride’s hair and the shape of her bodice, and stretches their shadows across the lawn.
Then there is the detail most people miss. Catch a step at the right moment and the soles of your shoes show, like the groom’s lifted heel here. If your shoes have something special on the sole, tell your photographer.
One glance back changes everything
A pure walk-away shows only the backs of your heads. Add a look over the shoulder and you get a portrait with a face in it, usually with a real smile, because it tends to happen mid-laugh.
Both of them look back here, on a mountain road lined with yellow aspens. The red and gold of the lehenga against the gray road is impossible to miss.
One of you glancing back is enough. Here the bride looks over her shoulder as a breeze lifts her veil across the groom’s back.
Ask for both versions: a few steps facing forward, then one or both of you turning back. Some of the best frames come on the walk back toward the camera, too.
Make it yours
The idea is simple enough that it bends easily to fit you.
Two grooms in kilts and tartan, crossing a meadow toward the mountains.
Bring your dog along. Walking side by side across the frame leaves room for everyone, leash included.
Flip it around, with one of you leading the other by the hand into somewhere new, like this cave.
It does not even need to be a slow walk. A quick pull up a set of steps, skirt swinging, gives the same feeling with more energy.
Built settings work as well as open country. Here an old distillery’s stone walls and rusted water tower frame the couple from above.
And a golf club lawn gives you a clean, open slope to walk down, with the hills behind you.
How to plan for it
- Look for a path, a road, or an open lawn at your venue with a view at the end of it.
- Plan it for late in the day if you can. Low sun behind you outlines your hair, your veil, and the edges of your dress.
- Walk slower than feels natural, and talk to each other instead of watching your feet.
- If you have a long train, have someone straighten it before each walk.
- It only takes a couple of minutes, so it fits even a tight portrait schedule.
Every photographer in this post is listed on Wedding Maps, where you can see more of their work and the places they shoot. Start with the Wedding Maps photographer directory to find someone who knows the setting you are planning around.
