What photojournalism is - and is not
Photojournalism is defined - at least by most standards - as a visual capture of moments that actually happen without direction by the photographer. A staff photojournalist with a publication would, in fact, be fired for manipulating an authentic news scene.
Now, the exception is: portraits, fashion and studio photography...which are also part of what a photojournalist might be called upon to produce for publication. However, the main point is that a photojournalist is highly skilled at capturing fleeting real moments since it is important to the news readership to be able to trust that the real-life moments published truly did happen without manipulation.
About 20 years ago, when photojournalism-style (also called "editorial style") seeped into the commercial photography world, there became something I termed at that time: "fauxtojournalism." This was a style which can appear to look like undirected moments but, in fact, they are highly directed. Subjects are told where to stand and where to look and sometimes how to affect an expression.
January 10, 2022
Information about wedding photography
How Photojournalism portraiture works
20 years ago, I invented a style of working with couples that would result in a couple of really cool results. One of the results was that the couple could take a break from the wedding for a little while - like most of the time, 15-20 minutes, catch their breaths, reset and then go into the second half their day. The second result was that I could capture moments of them during this "break" that would yield a more authentic and relaxed set of images where the couple was more at ease and more likely to have expressions that were more authentic. I called this the "walk-about."
I was on a wedding photography forum back then called the Digital Wedding Forum - or DWF for short. There were about 300 of us at the beginning in about 2002 or 2003. I talked about this approach for wedding couples and it was discussed quite often as being somewhat of a new idea.
Another solution I came up with back 20 years ago when entering a tradition-based (every wedding had a formula for how every wedding was "supposed" to be shot) was how to take more stress off of the timeline of the wedding day. I came up with an idea of doing a "first look" of the couple which would allow them a special private moment together. By doing this, it took the pressure off of the need to photograph EVERYTHING AFTER the ceremony - where there was already so much pressure to get to a reception and not keep guests waiting on photography.
October 5, 2022
PHotography talk!
