Capturing Moments | A Photojournalistic Approach

When asked to describe my style of photography, I normally explain that I shoot 90% of the wedding day photojournalistically and approximately 10% with posed portraits of the bridal party and the newlyweds. I absolutely love the photojournalistic style and really enjoy capturing moments as they unfold.

So what is wedding photojournalism?

Wedding Photojournalism is a photographic style that involves capturing candid, unposed moments throughout a wedding day in the most unobtrusive manner possible. Photojournalistic photographers are visual story-tellers, documentarians of the many moments that compose a wedding day. They capture as best they can without interfering, allowing emotions to occur naturally and capturing events as they unfold.
[To see a more complete definition: Wedding Photojournalism]

My favorite images are often those that occur naturally, such as the image above of Lauren’s mom seeing her daughter as a beautiful bride and the photograph below of Kristin & Patrick getting cheers from visitors of the Naval Academy after their ceremony! These moments tug at my heartstrings, they make me happy, and they reflect the day in such an honest and pure way… It doesn’t get much better than that!

For the majority of the wedding day, I am the little fly on the wall – documenting all of the important events, abundant laughter, and stolen kisses while doing my best to just let things happen – candidly! And in this way, I consider my style to be (predominantly) photojournalistic!

At the same time, however, I am not a strict traditionalist when it comes to adopting a photojournalistic style. I’m more of a quasi-photojournalist. Although I do spend the majority of a wedding day allowing events to unfold, I have this artistic love of constructing the scene for portraits of the bride and groom. Oh and the details, I have a slight obsession with details… but that’s a different post in the making! (A much longer post with dozens of exclamation points and smiley faces!) I enjoy incorporating details into posing as well, having a little more control over background, and my subject’s positioning in regard to the light.

I love to find a gorgeous location, setup my couple in a sun-soaked background, before stepping away to capture the scene. Using a longer lens, I leave the couple with a sweet anecdote or I ask them to think about a special memory and just talk about what they loved most about it – quietly backing away. It only takes a couple of moments before they are laughing candidly, smiling at one another, and blissfully unaware of my camera off in the distance.

And it is in this way that I aim to capture genuine happiness and love in my photographs. Capturing the connection that two people share, documenting the spark that exists between two soul mates… It’s incredibly fulfilling task.

So by mixing my love for portraiture with my desire to capture life candidly, I’ve developed this very blended style that – I believe – incorporates the best of both worlds! And that’s my slightly longer answer to the famous… “How would you describe your style?” Question! Hah!