Look Closely: This Wedding Photographer Snaps Moments Literally in the Blink of an Eye

Imagine reliving your wedding not through the eyes of your photographer but through those of the people you love most.

With his eerie, unforgettable “eyescape” portraits, that is exactly what Peter Adams-Shawn is trying to help you do.

The self-taught photographer — who originally moved to Australia from England to pursue a career as a hockey player and coach — has become known for his wedding images capturing scenes in the reflection of his subjects’ eyes.

Adams-Shawn started his wedding photography business — Memories of Tomorrow — in 2007. He started capturing “eyescapes” in 2011, and ever since, they’ve been a trademark.

Though the detail he is able to capture with his Canon 5D Mark III makes his pictures look almost too good to be true, according to Adams-Shawn, he employs very little editing and never uses composites.

Want to give this technique a try yourself? Adams-Shawn told Techly that the key is to treat the eyeball like a darkened, curved mirror.

“That means the scene you are capturing needs to be a lot brighter than the subject, which is the hardest thing to compose,” he says. Especially since you want to be able to see the subject.

It’s also all about focus. “As you can imagine, “ says Adams-Shawn, “if you or the subject move a fraction of a millimeter, the focus is lost,” and so is the reflection. Contact lenses also apparently up the reflective quality of an eyeball.

Another secret? “The best frames I’ve captured have had the subject smiling,” says Adams-Shawn. “This relaxes the shot, brings natural creases in the eyes, and even this close, you can tell the subject is smiling.”

If the extreme closeup doesn’t unsettle you, what better way to remember your wedding day than in the smiling eyes of those who were there to witness it?