Image Focus

When I’d captured this image, I instantly fell in love with it. It makes you feel slightly nervous looking at the couple on the edge of a pool, but also mesmerised by the beautiful scenery.

The shot was taken at the rooftop infinity pool of a hotel in the Amalfi Coast, Italy. What viewers can’t see is that there is a net out of shot along the ledge, but there is also quite a drop down so capturing the shot was quite nerve wracking for all involved.

I took the shot with the FE 50mm f/1.2 G Master lens and my Sony Alpha 7R V. I’m a huge fan of the 50mm GM lens and I could spend entire shoots like this one working with just that one lens. It’s so sharp and I can create beautiful shallow depth of field. For this shoot I shot at f/2.2 as I wanted the image of the couple to be sharp and have a smooth background, but I still wanted the viewer to be able to see the scenic backdrop of the buildings and mountains in the distance.

The Alpha 7R V makes me a better photographer. Features such as the autofocus are just amazing, I never have to struggle getting it to focus where I want. The shoot was for a beautiful small wedding ceremony in the garden of the hotel surrounded by a few close friends and family. You can't really tell in this image, but it was shot at sunset when it was starting to get quite dark, however the autofocus has still found the eyes of the couple perfectly. The camera allows me to get these types of shots in low light which I love.

For such sentimental images like wedding photography, my clients often like to enlarge these photos and have them as huge prints on the walls of their home to remember the day. To do that you need a camera that can produce crisp images when enlarged like the Alpha 7R V. Even the finest details are able to come through when the image size is amended.

What I really love about this image is the way the couple seem to be floating on the edge with their reflection in the pool and the backdrop of the mountains and the sea. It has such a surreal appearance.

When the couple saw the image they loved it for the same reasons I did. It's really cool. As for me, I always get very excited when I capture a shot like this: I kind of do a little jump up and down afterwards. You just know when you have got a shot that you wanted, especially on such a sentimental day; we were lucky that there was no wind, and the reflection was virtually like a mirror image. I knew it was going to be a great image and was elated the second I pressed the shutter on my Alpha 7R V.