INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Photographer’s Rant About Cell Phone Photos At Weddings Gets 89,000 Facebook Likes

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 07:16 PST, Nov 8, 2015

There’s a rant from a photographer going viral on Facebook. Posted by Thomas Stewart Photography on Thursday, November 5, 2015, the viral post complains about folks who take cell phone photos of the bride and groom, and do so in an obtrusive manner. Stewart doesn’t fault the people shown in the below video — after all, plenty of brides and grooms want their wedding guests to take cell phone photos and post them immediately to social media under specific hashtags. However, Thomas argues that there are merits to having an “unplugged” wedding, with no cell phones — ones that allow the photographers to do their jobs as the only photo takers, as reported by Pix 11.

Thomas’ rant is receiving mixed reactions on Facebook. Some folks completely agree with the photographer’s logic, while others beg to differ.

“Right, I’ve had enough. I want to talk to you all about guests using mobile phones / cameras at weddings. I want to plead with you, and I’m going to make this very simple: brides and grooms, please have a completely unplugged wedding ceremony. Look at this photo. This groom had to lean out past the aisle just to see his bride approaching. Why? Because guests with their phones were in the aisle and in his way.

“This sucks. And i’m not blaming these guests in particular; I actually take a large amount of responsibility for this occurring. In the past I should have been more specific with my clients in explaining to them why guests should be told no photos. Well, from now on, I’m going to make a pretty big deal about it.”

Taking a gander through some of the wedding photos by Thomas, it appears the talented photographer knows how to capture beauty.

However, this wedding-gone-viral inspired Stewart to write about his pet peeves, and tips for wedding guests. He advised the bride and groom in any wedding to consider the fact that iPad tablets, phones and other cameras in the hands of guests can hinder the photographer from doing their job. Thomas says those guests ruin many photos.

Not only will they get in the photographer’s way, Thomas claims that phone-wielding guests will get in the bride and groom’s way, in the manner that the above viral photo shows, with the groom having to lean around the guests to see his bride. Stewart complains that the photos the guests take are usually of poor quality. Thomas also says that looking out into a wedding crowd only to see a bunch of faces hidden behind phones taking photos aren’t as great as seeing the actual faces themselves.

Many folks can see the logic behind Thomas’ rant. After all, loads of people probably forget to silence their cell phones, and instead of only taking photos, they might accidentally interrupt the wedding ceremony. Plus, there are moments in a wedding that feel sacred, and as if all technology should be turned off. To fend off those types of fears, a nice big basket for cell phones could be kept at the entrance of a wedding, with promises that all the phones would be returned at the end, only if folks who still brought their phones in the church or venue actually trusted enough to leave them in the basket.

On the contrary, Thomas’ rant can be seen as outdated. Plenty of couples include specific wedding-related hashtags for their wedding, so that in addition to the hired photographer’s photos, they can also enjoy all the photos uploaded to Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook that their guests captured that the official photographer couldn’t. And lots of those photos get online faster, for free, and aren’t the crap that Stewart claims they can be.

[Photo by Frazer Harrison / Getty Images]

Share this article: Photographer’s Rant About Cell Phone Photos At Weddings Gets 89,000 Facebook Likes
More from Inquisitr