If you hate being posed or you’re awkward in front of the camera 🎉 AND yet you want beautiful + meaningful wedding photos, READ THIS

How to have your cake and eat it, too.

Everywhere you turn, you find beautiful + posed wedding & engagement photos. There are entire Pinterest boards dedicated to them, and there’s no shortage of styled wedding blogs that flaunt perfect settings and “perfect” weddings. Everything is conventionally wonderful.

Not to mention your feed. Certain times of the year, you can’t browse social media without the barrage of perfectly coiffed, model-esque looking brides and grooms and marriers, strutting it up as if they’re on the cover of Vogue.

Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a tad.

But you get the point.

And yet every week I talk to couples who say they’re overwhelmed with the idea of being posed.

“Neither of us are good in front of the camera,” they tell me.

Or, “We’re a bit awkward about being photographed”, they’ll say.

At this point, I’m nodding empathetically.

I’m awkward as hell in photos, and I understand the dread people feel when needing to be photographed - NEEDING to document and preserve this very precious, once in a lifetime thing… - and yet not wanting to be a puppet on a string for a photographer all day.

Le sigh.

So here’s the good news.

There’s a whole genre of wedding photography that’s dedicated to *you*

Yup. Wedding photography that’s not all about the fake smiles, the cheesy posing (although often times we can do cheesy posing just for the FUN of it), or geared toward Pinterest boards.

If you’re here, you’re probably not all that surprised, but let me tell you a little bit more in case you’re curious.

I’m talking about DOCUMENTARY wedding photography. Or PHOTOJOURNALISTIC wedding photography. Or wedding REPORTAGE (a British variant of the same).

What is Documentary Wedding Photography, Wedding Photojournalism, or Wedding Reportage?

Documentary/Photojournalistic/reportage wedding photography is really just a branch of wedding photography dedicated to capturing and preserving stories and story-driven photographs.

completely candid moment, in which Kelly’s best friend Morgan helped her into her dress, during the getting ready portion of a 2020 elopement in Tamworth, Ontario.

Out of the million moments that happen at a wedding (if you had a million eyes, you could see all of them, I’m sure), certain moments are more meaningful than others. They reveal a lot more richness about what the heck was going on, and who was all involved, than others.

In this sense, folks… not all moments are made the same.

Unfair?

Maybe.

But it’s true…

So, now, as photographers, we have a choice.

What I mean is… There’s only one pair of eyes/hands/cameras I can bring to the table; and even when I bring my stellar assistants and second shooters, and videographers… there’s still only so many of the moments that can be captured.

So the choice becomes which moments are most important?

Which wedding moments are most important to photograph at your wedding?

Some moments that are timeless and will be captured no matter what. The first kiss, the vows, etc.

Those are traditional moments. They are important because they fit in the traditional wedding script, and have been happening for many decades… and are likely to keep happening in weddings for a long time to come.

So one day, when you flip open the pages of your weathered wedding album (but not too weathered, if you choose a premium album company, like I do), you’ll be able to relay those moments to your great-grandkids without having to give too much explanation.

But then there are the other moments:

The kooky, unreal, absurd, quirky, joy-filled, humorous, surprising, tender, intimate, profound, hilarious, + contemplative moments that need to be sought out.

You see, they are happening all around us all the time, but… they sometimes go uncaptured.

Why candid wedding photographs get missed:

the groom enthusiastically fed cake to his bride in this back-yard wedding in Verona, Ontario. This candid moment brought a lot of laughs to the couple during their photo reveal. It is one of their favourite images from their wedding.

Even though brilliant candid moments unfold every wedding, wedding photographers often don’t look out for them. They don’t prioritize the “candid”, because they emphasize the more traditional.

For instance, they might spend a few hours orchestrating specific scenes, arranging the details (think: rings shot on a branch), and other such things. They might take a couple of hours after the ceremony for posed group photos, with various combinations of the people gathered there.

These can be valuable photographs, of course. But when taking time doing them, you are essentially blocking off that time for the opportunity to catch non-conventional, candid, and fun moments.

What’s the solution?

There’s more good news: there is LOTS of options to get exactly the kind of photos you like.

If you want both traditional and non-traditional (candid, fun, epic) photos, then:

option 1: Hire a traditional photographer & ask them to bring a non-traditional 2nd shooter.

option 2: Hire a non-traditional photographer & ask them to bring a traditional 2nd shooter.

This is the perfect marriage of both types of photography, and that way, each expert gets to take the kind of photographs they’re best at.

If you truly value candid, modern, unposed photos, and just want a few photographs of the family & some couple’s photos, then most wedding photojournalists will be able to beautiful deliver on that promise.

But what is right for you?

Above all, you have to consider what you and your partner want.

How comfortable are you in front of the camera?

When you imagine yourself in ten, 20, 50 years, old and grey, sitting hand in hand with your wedding album in front of you…

What are the types of photographs you’ll reminisce about?

What grabs your eye?

Is it grandma Annie, getting out on the dancefloor and busting a move.. offering you an opportunity to remember her spirit and just how amazing she was? Is it your cute little niece, who was so tiny back then, and had some chocolate cake smeared all over the front of her dress?

What will bring a tear, a smile, a laugh?

And then work backwards.

Best kept non-secret: wedding photojournalists are really good at taking epic shots

Most photographers who are awesome at taking candid photographs are also really good at taking epic couples’ photos (but the opposite is not always true).

Why?

an example of a couple’s photo that was “posed”. Documentary photographers are often just as capable of taking posed couple’s photographs as traditional photographers; but they also truly value the candid.

Because they already know how to work with all available situations, angles, and light available. When the conditions are JUST right, and when they have the chance to choose where to take the couple, then the ensuing photographs are beautiful & epic.

If you’re not sure what’s right for you, or if a wedding photojournalist is a good idea for your wedding, let’s schedule a chat!

I’ll give you a quick call, and we can discuss your level of shyness/awkwardness in front of the camera and determine from there what kind of photographer would be best for you.

(open to all couples, not just ones in Kingston, Ontario, or Canada)

After their thank you speeches, Rachel gives her new wife Sandra a kiss.