Gone are the days of the wedding photographer wielding a large and cumbersome tripod, medium format camera and portable studio lighting to photograph portraits at a wedding or posing for every single photograph including cheesy photos jumping off park benches. Say hello to something a little different – Wedding Photojournalism.  Wedding Photojournalism involves documenting the wedding day, without directing or modifying the events, to remain truthful to the day. Pure wedding photojournalism is just as the name implies, everything remains entirely untouched by the photographer; they document the day as it happens without any directing of the subjects.

What are the advantages of having a wedding photojournalist instead of other types of wedding photographers?

A good wedding photojournalist will have the necessary skills to capture everything as it happens, without having to stage or direct ‘missed moments’. This gives the couple the ability to spend much more time enjoying the important parts of the day – like spending time with their family and friends. It takes one more thing off their mind. They don’t have to worry about the photographer or posing all day. It is the wedding photojournalist’s responsibility to capture the real smiles, the real tears and the real laughs.

Not only will a Wedding Photojournalist capture important moments, but this highly skilled professional will also put all of the moments together to tell a compelling and beautiful story with the images. Beautiful, honest and compelling images will never date or go out of fashion. Couples won’t look back in fifteen or twenty years and say “what were we thinking????”.

So how do we determine if a photographer is a Wedding Photojournalist?

Unfortunately buzzwords like “photojournalistic wedding photography” are often used on many websites, as “it’s good for search engines” but often these terms can be misused.

To decide if a photographer is really a wedding photojournalist, the first step is to look at their portfolio. This should be done by keeping in mind the definition of a wedding photojournalist that we went through earlier, “documenting the wedding day, without directing or modifying the events”. If we look through the photographer’s portfolio and it only contains shots of couples posing together, looking at the camera, we can quickly discern that they aren’t really a wedding photojournalist. Look at the context of the images, who else is in the photos? What’s happening in the background? Is it staged or directed? Have the photos been heavily manipulated and retouched? Are the subjects aware of the camera?

From a few quick questions and having a look through a whole wedding by a photographer we can quickly gauge how much of their work is actually photojournalistic and if their values and style is inline with yours.

Images by Jeremy Beasley

Ms Gingham says: I guess it depends on what suits your style but personally I love this trend towards documenting such an important day with such purity. To be left free to be who you are and be able to trust that someone will document it is such a fabulous concept! Great advice too on what to look for when determining if a photographer is a wedding photojournalist. Thanks Jeremy!

About Jeremy: “It all started back in high school, when I was away on a fishing trip with my father. A good friend and journalist came out in the boat with us and he photographed a portrait of me. I couldn’t believe the quality of the photo – sure it was just a fish, and me but it was amazing! It was also a really special moment with my dad and I’ll have a photograph to help remember it forever.

From there, I was inspired to buy a camera. That turned into an SLR a few months later and I started to teach myself photography. On the weekends I started assisting some local wedding photographers and taking pictures of anything I could find, flowers in the garden, jazz bands, family members, clothes pegs on the line etc. Looking back now the photos are terrible, but it was just the beginning.”