Photo by Cezar Gabriel Udrea

Best 100 Fearless Awards of 2023

This picture is an after-wedding photo that I've wanted to capture for a while, but I could not find the right moment during a wedding. I had the chessboard in my car with me for weeks, trying to find the right place and moment to make this picture. The pictures and the idea were in my head all the time, just waiting for the best time and place.

So, during the after-wedding session, I saw a little hill and said to myself, "That's the place." I put the groom and the bride on that little hill, placed the chessboard on a chair, and told the groom to jump. It was a very tricky shot because I had to swap the screen of my camera to see what I was shooting, as one of the hands is mine (the one above the bride's head), and the other hand was the guy who was filming the after-wedding session. It took us around 45 minutes until the groom fit perfectly, or at least pleasingly, in between my colleague's fingers.