Photojournalism and wedding photography

January 8th 2013

      Christmas is great but I am always glad when it's over and we've turned the corner to the first of the new year's weddings. 

    I really look forward to all the  excited brides, their nervous grooms, the lovely places and the photographic challenges the wedding season brings. 

     This year 2013, it won't be a long wait, my cameras come out on Saint Valentine's day.

A wedding in Seville where after the ceremony groups are always posed on the 

steps of the alter. Will the Vicar let me do that in Abercrave if St Valentines day 
turns out to be a washout?

    I am all for the natural and spontaneous. I’m not happy if someone else is taking a photograph and everyone has to stand in formation for ages… but I do my bit – I aim to smile or laugh in a natural fashion. After all I really know what the photographer wants and why he/she wants it despite the fact that I don’t see myself as a formal photographer and a series of formal poses is not how I would want to shoot a wedding, I do understand that  some formal poses are essential to the wedding album, if only to show (the grandchildren) who was there.

     However, the opposite of a traditional wedding photographer is not necessarily a wedding photojournalist. Often enough these days I get emails from brides who like my work, saying they don’t want posed pictures they want a photo-journalistic approach – I think this has become a style that is being used in wedding circles around the globe. Wedding photojournalism is an amazing movement, it began as a backlash to the staid, traditional posed wedding photography of the past. Before the backlash, a photographer would appear with his studio lights and his assistants, and he would prepare for the posed portrait photographs that would make up your wedding album. During any “action” he might stop the bride every few moments to issue instructions, “Stop there, tilt your head, a little more to the right, lift your chin dearie” he might say (yes he was almost always a man) “I just need to light a halo effect around your hair”, and every part of the day included him directing the bride and stopping the flow of her day for posed shots.

      Sadly the day was more about his portraits than the coming together of family and friends to join with the bride and groom in celebrating their love.

    With the advent of digital cameras, wedding photography has changed considerably and wedding photojournalism is all about capturing the reality of the day, getting the truth of the story on film without staging events. In short, keeping it real.

       “Most wedding photojournalists … focus on finding moments during a wedding that happen naturally, rather than setting up portraits.”

Wikipedia, says “The phrase wedding photojournalist has been in vogue for at least ten years and has now become almost synonymous with normal wedding photography.”

      This has got to be a good thing for the bride and groom when they come to look at their album full of spontaneous memories of the day.

      However although the bride and groom's desires are obviously the most important to the photographer nobody wants the day's memories later spoiled by a parent disappointed at the lack  of photographs of her and the family or the formal shots that she may wish to treasure on her mantelpiece.

A rather forced smile on the face of beautiful bride Luisa.

To see more formal and informal brides and grooms on my website:    
  The slightly fixed grin on this bride's very pretty face was followed by a demand for a more natural looking shot and she and the girls swiftly arranged a new group.

This one definitely did not make it to the album

              As I spent my first 25 years in photography working for newspapers, I really know what photojournalism is.

       Capturing reality yes, but a little formality or judicious placement doesn’t come amiss. I got my first job on a newspaper because an editor sent me to photograph a girl who had just won a place at a police academy. Before I left my house I borrowed a toy helmet from my children’s toy box, I had no trouble persuading the young lady to wear it, and the ensuing photograph so delighted the editor, that I shot instantly to the top of his list of freelances.

       Since then I have heard of several photographers arriving at scenes of fire damage or bomb disaster with a wounded, teddy bear conveniently secreted about their person!

       Every so often a bride (or groom) will say I can’t bear all those shots with everybody staring into camera. Of course I can see her point but when they take charge the results can be quite strange.

Hayley and Wayne cutting their cake at Margam Park Orangery

A bride who didn't like pictures of everyone gazing into camera  but forgot (or didn't know) how strange conflicting eyelines can look.

Check out more eyelines on my website