Documentary wedding photography – my approach
Documentary wedding photography or reportage wedding photography, even ‘wedding photojournalism’ – it has several names. But it is essentially the same approach to capturing a wedding day. Behaving like a documentary photographer or a photojournalist, photographing what happens in front of the camera, rather than creating some artificial moment.
That’s my approach. It’s the only way I photograph a wedding day.
Photography has always been about the photojournalism approach for me. From my days shooting for the University student newspaper, to working as a photographer at The Times in London. Capturing reality, capturing the story in front of the lens. A storyteller with a camera.
AN HONEST EYEWITNESS
My photography is uncontrived, observational, natural, and honest. Real. The opposite of the tired, traditional A-B-C of wedding photography which still lurks in the public imagination when they think about wedding photography.
I capture the wedding without imposing upon it. I record a narrative that aims, above all, to capture the atmosphere of the day. Storytelling through images: moments you saw, moments you missed, moments you never knew about. Real memories of the day, as it happened. Candid not contrived.
Documentary wedding photography is just that – it’s about creating a document of the day. That look, that smile, those tears, that brief moment frozen in time. Real memories, real emotions. It’s not about posing in front of the wedding car, or holding a pen above a blank registry certificate, or standing in line for countless group shots for what seems like hours.
I come as an eyewitness to the wedding day. Watching all aspects of the day and creating a framework of images, so that someone who wasn’t there can look through the photos and feel that they had been.
A Timeless memory
A wedding day goes fast. After months of preparation and expense, it can seem like it is over only moments after it began. Of all the suppliers you will hire for your wedding day, the photographer is the one supplier there whose work you can’t see at the time. There’s nothing like a floral display to view, makeup results in the mirror, or a meal placed in front of you. The photographer’s value comes, not on the day, but long after the last guest has headed home. When you arrive back from your honeymoon. When you spend a rainy day reminiscing five years on. Or when your children are planning their own wedding and want to see how it all began. By then, much of your day will be a faint memory, but photographs can bring it all flooding back. Timeless, tasteful reportage wedding photography won’t age or fade. It will be a precious time capsule of the day you never want to forget.
When you plan your wedding budget, remember that the photography will bring pleasure for decades. Hiring a skilled and experienced reportage wedding photographer is an investment for the future.
But the traditional bits?
Can you still have the ‘traditional’ bits too – often the bits people seem to think you need, but aren’t really sure why? The posed up bits. Holding the pen, holding the wedding cake knife, etc?
They happen, so there’s no need to set them up! Let these moments happen naturally. Let the camera capture them without interference if you want the best from your documentary wedding photos. If you focus on setting things up, you miss the opportunity for images of real moments. You miss actually experiencing the day and letting the photography quietly capture this.
The key thing with documentary wedding photography is that it is meant to reflect the day, not impose upon it. Moments don’t need to be posed, to be artificially created. Capturing the day naturally leads to more interesting and poignant images. It’s better to capture than to fake-create.
Group photos?
Family group shots are where ‘family pressure’ can often come into play. There may be people in your family who expect these shots, but it is the wedding couple who has to stand there the whole time, as the minutes tick by and more distant cousins are found. This eats into time that could be spent celebrating with friends. Plus time is lost for more natural wedding photography to be captured.
Most of the couples who hire me want no formal photos at all, or no more than a small handful of just immediate family. They are shot quickly and informally – no elaborate staging. A quick historical record of the generations together.
Couple portraits
Not documentary but…
If you want some couple portraits, that doesn’t have to mean disappearing from the party for an hour or more. Ten minutes perhaps, and maybe a second quick shoot if there is amazing evening light. Quick and relaxed.
Rather than the traditional upright photo, the wedding dress carefully spread out across the grass, I take images that look to show the couple’s relationship. I find the right light and then shoot around it, with just a smidgen of direction if needed. Some couples need more than others. Some just need to be told to look into each other’s eyes, they burst out laughing, and there is the picture!
A few non-documentary minutes of the day…if wanted.
How do I work?
I work alone
I’m not invisible, but neither am I centre-stage shouting out orders. I don’t pretend to be a wedding guest. Being ‘unobtrusive’ comes from the way that I work and a major part of this is it is just me. No second shooter. I am telling the story of the wedding day through my eyes – that’s what captures the images you see on this website.
A couple of cameras, a few fast prime lenses, and my eyes.
This is wedding photography for people who just want to enjoy their wedding day, rather than perform for a camera. The result will be a series of images that captured the day, often without anyone noticing when a picture was taken.