What is Wedding Photojournalism?
What makes me a “wedding photojournalist” and what is the difference between wedding photojournalism and any other type of wedding photography?
Photojournalism is a form of journalism which tells a story through photography. When you take a trained photojournalist like myself, and place her into the world of wedding photography, you end up with wedding photojournalism. I use my skills as a professional photojournalist and my years of experience documenting story and capturing real moments to tell the story of your wedding day in an authentic, captivating, beautiful way.
Why consider a wedding photojournalist?
Capturing the authentic story of your wedding day is important to you. You want a photographer that will capture the raw and real moments and emotion while still leaving you with beautiful, fine art quality photos. As a documentary wedding photographer or a wedding photojournalist, this is where I come in.
Photojournalism allows you to act naturally throughout your wedding day. On a day that’s already a bit hectic, it’s nice to have someone there who lays low and is not always jumping in to guide and pose you. A photojournalist is more inclined to capture sincere reactions because you won’t be thinking about them being around, interrupting the natural moments constantly. This approach is more likely to result in touching photos that elicit emotion.
Click the image above to see more of my award winning images from the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA).
How do I know if a photographer is a photojournalist?
When you look through the photographer’s portfolio, you should see natural laughter or other intense emotional scenes (tears, hugs and goofy faces for example).
A photojournalist will look for unique angles and vantage points to create photos that make you feel like you were there in the moment. For example, I will often get down on the floor to be eye to eye with a child or I’ll jump in the middle of the dance floor during the reception.
If in their portfolio you see many photos of people looking directly into the lens or the portfolio consist of mostly detail shots (for example, of the rings, the flowers, etc.) they are most likely not a photojournalist.
Wedding photojournalists are first and foremost storytellers. They should tell the story of your wedding day in a way that will make you re-experience the feelings you felt on the day. You should see truth and real love in your photos the way that it really happened. Photojournalistic or documentary wedding photographers like me will tell the real story of your wedding day. We will not find the tidy, perfectly staged room with the most gorgeous light to prop you in front of for your getting ready photos. That would not be telling YOUR story. It would be telling MY understanding of what a wedding should look like. It’s also just recreating a worn-out, overdone wedding photography look that will leave you with wedding photos that look like everyone else’s.
What if I want portraits in addition to candid photos?
Just because I’m a wedding photojournalist who thrives in capturing candids does not mean that I shoot exclusively candid photos. Portraits are important too and I will always build in some time during your wedding day for both couple portraits and any other posed portraits you’d like with family and friends. Portraits are a normal and expected part of a wedding day and I would never suggest skipping them completely.
You’ll find that this is the only time throughout the day that I’ll give any explicit direction. Not everybody is a natural in front of the camera (myself included!) so I understand the need to have some direction while taking these pictures. Your mind will be in a million places throughout your wedding day and so it’s nice to have someone there with wedding experience to occasionally give a little guidance and direction.
As a wedding photojournalist, I want your wedding photos to feel alive. I want to piece together the story of your wedding day from the quiet getting ready moments through to the wild dance floor.
To help me to tell your story in the most complete way, my process involves getting to know you before the wedding a bit more than other photographers might ordinarily. Whenever you need to talk through anything for the wedding day, I’m available for a phone call or on Zoom. That way, I can build more and more information leading me to how I will want to approach your specific day. When we are about 2 months out from your date, you’ll get a questionnaire from me that will dive into the finer details of your wedding-day schedule and your family and friends that will be a part of it.
With wedding photojournalism, it’s not just about epic emotions. Sometimes it’s about the subtle bits of information included in an image’s composition that take it from an appealing or interesting photo to a meaningful, emotional capture.
When talking with Paige before her wedding, she told me that her wedding dress was the same exact gown that her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother all wore before her. I love being given details like this before the wedding because it allows me to use that knowledge to capture photos and craft compositions that I may have overlooked otherwise.
All of this allows me to better tell your unique story.
Wedding Photojournalism may or may not be for you and there is nothing wrong with that! Hopefully this all helps to clarify what true documentary wedding photography looks like and what it is all about.