Of course, I can do that, anybody can do that. You go to the wedding and look around for things to happen. Somebody will be crying with joy and somebody laughing, holding hands and showing off your 10 carat diamond engagement ring. Bride hugging a friend, groom tapping his buddy on the shoulder and laughing at his jokes. Photographs come alive, real emotions, real feelings nothing posed or fake. Every brides dream that her pictures will capture all the emotions of the wedding, good and bad. The important point to remember is that each bride will spend months, days and hours to look her best on her wedding day. She will suffer from pins hurting her head and fake eye lashes, high heels and snug dress making her waist look smaller and breast larger. Photojournalism does not care about all that, only about catching emotions. Nothing about your best side, nothing about not looking too good in profile, not about your left ear may be being slightly larger then right. Photojournalism lives no time to think about making bride look her best. All people are not perfect and photographers job is to make sure that what you see on a photograph looks the same, if not better then in real life. To hide all the little or big faults as best as possible. It only can be achieved by taking time to carefully watch and guide in to correct pose.
Photographer who specialize in photojournalism totally lobby against traditional posed shots saying that it s outdated, old, not fashionable, not real and even fake.
We all saw wonderful websites full of photojournalism stile pictures that makes us feel all the emotions of the particular wedding day. How many pictures have you seen on those sites? 10, 20 may be 30 of different weddings or of the same one? Most likely photographer picks the best pictures from each wedding to display in his portfolio or on his web site. That is what I do, and I ve seeing it done hundreds of times by the best photographer out there. But have you ever saw pictures of the entire wedding done in photojournalism? I have. I shoot weddings 100% photojournalism. And it would be fine, if all the time something would be happening, like on the news. No news photographer just walks the streets taking pictures of people. They go to places where something is happening and shoot hundreds, even thousands of pictures hoping that may be 10 will be of interest and will make a statement. Most of the time 1-2 make it to the newspaper or magazine page. Why would anybody think that wedding would be any different?
Of course, there are different parts of the wedding to be shot in photojournalism. Bride getting ready, she is putting her make up on, somebody fussing with her hair, another curl trying to get a away and is being carefully tucked in with the pin, some hairspray. Made of honor is trying to get her veil on. Time for the dress with several layers of underskirts, corset needs to be laced up and it s not an easy job, hold on to your boobs before they fall out. And then stockings, the sexy bait for the groom, something he longs to see as soon as wedding is over. Then on to the ceremony. Father is walking his little girl down the isle and gives her away to the groom, they hold hands listening to the officiant . Wedding vows bring tears to the grooms face, he is thinking that now he is responsible for 2 people instead of one, he has to support her , love and honor, even satisfy her, possibly sacrificing his Sunday football game. That would make a strong men cry any time. Brides parents remember their little girls first steps and first date and think how fast kids grow and how fast parents age, that would definitely make me shed a tear. Rings being slipped on their fingers and finally first kiss and they are husband and wife. On to reception, hundreds of guests just waiting for the young couple to walk trough the door, clapping and cheering. First toast, first dance and . That is where it s usually ends. The rest is almost always the same, they go from table to table, hugging their guests and shaking hand. That is where photojournalism ends and starts boring pictures of a hundreds of hugs and handshakes. Photographer can take 100, 200 or even 1000 pictures depending how long is the wedding, but how many of those pictures will be worth looking at? How may of those pictures will actually be telling the real story, will be actually showing the real you? Will be displaying your emotions? May be 20 ..
When you have a large family or very close friends attend your wedding, it s only natural to want have at least one pictures of everybody together. Have you ever saw 50 people being captured in photojournalistic way and having them look in to the camera at the same time? All I can imagine are some heads, some hands, some face and the rest . leaves allot to be desired.
What I described above perhaps is an ideal wedding scenario to shoot in photojournalism. Unfortunately it s not that simple. Perhaps we should look at bride getting ready. No matter how invisible photographer tries to be, most brides are quite shy. They try to turn away from the camera, hide parts of their body under a shirt or a robe, turn their back while putting dresses on and making very unflattering poses and faces. Even if you squeeze in between her and her bride maids and snapped something from the front, it looks unnatural and unflattering. It s a good think if offician will allow you to come close and snap from above his shoulder or under his arms when you try to catch that first kiss, but bride and groom don t think of you being behind them and turn for the first kiss in opposite directions. Of course, by the time you fly over to the other side knocking down the microphone, kiss is over. And the rings. Not only you have to be on the right side of the groom and on the right side of the bride at the same time, but you have to listen to angry guests who complain that you are blocking their view and they were not able to see those rings being slipped on to the fingers. "Why couldn t you have it staged later? " asks angry aunty. But in many cases you are not allowed to come close to the altar and bride still wants to have those shots of the rings being put on. You have to stage it but what do you say? "I only do photojournalism, so if I can t snap it while it s actually happening, forget about it! " The bottom line is, bride loosing the most important for her pictures, the first kiss and the rings. Not to mention dozens of other incidents, I would run out of paper trying to write them all down.
Photojournalism is picture of that particular moment, it can not be brought back if you miss it and can not be photographs if it s not happening and that is one opinion. What is important to understand and realize is that the best photojournalistic photographs are those that were professionally staged to look like photojournalism. Better photojournalistic shots are where bride and groom are so relaxed and free and are allowed to act on impulse, doing what feels right at that moment, while photographer is catching those moments. Like a theater director, master photographer will guide and advise, find the best light, the best background, will help relax and allow all the natural feeling of the moment come out and shine. And those are things that make for the best photojournalistic photographs - emotions, movement, composition and lighting.
What can I say, in my opinion, photographer who make you believe that they will stay our of your way and be invisible though out your entire wedding, those who promise you totally photojournalistic approach and deny posed shots completely, simply can not provide both. They are not able, don t know how or don t care to spend their time directing your wedding. Like a great movie or theater director will make you believe that what is happening on his stage is reality and not an act, which is much harder then doing a documentary. You watch a good film or a play and you actually believe and live though everything that is happening on the screen or on stage. After all, 10 year down the road you will forget what was happening on your wedding date, all you will have are your photographs. You will not care or remember if they were carefully staged or totally photojournalistic, as long and they are the best. Pictures where you are beautiful, natural, real, romantic, sad or happy will tell the story of your wedding day.
Point I am trying to relay here is, photojournalism is not bad and traditional is not bad. I love photojournalism and to be honest it gives me allot of outstanding photographs. But it s not the only correct approach to wedding photography that deserves attention. Larger part of the wedding is done in photojournalism any way. Even if my couples ask for all traditional posed shots, I still sneak in some candid shots which in my opinion make the wedding story complete. Shooting only traditional or only photojournalism makes for a very narrow minded, flat story telling. Use of both styles allows for a wider coverage of an event and to complete picture, story, tale of your wedding.
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