What Makes A Wedding Photojournalist Different Than A Wedding Photographer?

What is the difference between wedding photojournalism and wedding photography? As we learned early on in our career, it’s a blurred line.

For many photographers, photojournalism simply means capturing the event as it happens. They pose the formals, and along the way throw in a few candids for good measure. Then they use those candids to promote themselves as a “photojournalist”.

But is that really photojournalism?

Not by my definition. I like how the Wedding Photojournalist Association says it:

What sets our members apart in the industry is their candid, documentary approach – a distinctly artistic vision toward wedding photography.

We offer a new perspective on wedding photography – quietly capturing the real moments as they happen for the bride and groom. It is our goal to use photography to tell the story of your wedding day, not dictate it for you.

Its How You Approach It

A candid is simply a photograph taken without the subject’s knowledge. And while a great deal of wedding images can be classified as candids, a selection of candids doesn’t mean you are a photojournalist. [Read more…]

7 Tips To Be A Photojournalist At Your Next Weddings

If you look up the definition of a photojournalist, you’ll find it to be:

A journalist who presents a story primarily though the use of photographs.

It’s all about the story. It’s not about a few great portraits. It’s not about a selection of images selected and put into an album with no regard to how they fit together. When it comes to being a wedding photojournalist, it’s all about capturing the true emotion of the day through the use of photographs.

Here are 7 tips to becoming a better wedding photojournalist.

1. Be Unobtrusive
In order to capture the moment as it happens, you have to let it happen with no assistance from you. Learn to blend into the crowd, or hang out on the perimeter. When you arrive at your location, tell people to ignore you – you are there to capture things as they happen. If you don’t talk, and hang back, they will quickly follow your advice, and act out their true emotions and feelings. Allowing you to become that much better at your job.

wedding photojournalism

2. Dress The Part
Do you use two shooters? During some of our first weddings, I would actually wear dresses in a variety of colors. When I got the photographs back from one wedding and discovered my magenta dress stood out in many of the images, I bought a black pantsuit and never looked back. Dressing in black means you can blend into the surroundings, hide and be camouflaged, and be unnoticeable even when you happen to be in a few images. And being in pants means I can climb, bend, and crawl anyplace, anytime, without worrying about how it looks.
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