By A. Michael's Photography
So what is a true “wedding photojournalist?” He/she is a photographer
who is dedicated, from beginning to end, to photograph a wedding like
a Time Magazine photographer might photograph the "day in the life"
of President Obama. His/her desire is to capture the actual story of
the day with all the emotion, drama, and reality that develops without
any prompting whatsoever. A client who selects a wedding
photojournalist or a documentary wedding photographer should be doing
so because they are not interested in contrived, staged, posed or
set-up style photographs that their photographer creates for the sake
of making a “perfect” photo. This client has no interest in having
photographs made that are more like illusions or portrayals of truth,
controlled by the photographer. A client choosing a documentary style
photographer does so because they desire for their photographer to
capture the reality of the day with all it’s beauty and all it’s
flaws. Emotional, spontaneous, quirky, unique, energetic images of
the day that a skilled and artistic photojournalist will seek to
capture, with careful anticipation and thoughtful composition. The
wedding photojournalist usually arrives well before the bride is
dressed and stays until they take the last photo of the bride and groom
well into the reception. At times, finding him/herself up close and
personal so that the photographs make the viewer feel as if he/she is a
participant of the moment. Other times during the day, the wedding
photojournalist steps back to seek imagery that includes the
environment and elements within the scene to help make interesting
compositions. These images are those that you would find as a single
image used by a magazine that provide much detail. The who, what,
where, why questions are all answered in one image. The end result is a
narrative collection of images that show actual emotions and
experiences of the days events.
