WPJA Winning Photos Round 19
I’m delighted to have received another two awards from the WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) in the penultimate round of 2018.
This picture above is from Alexandra and Michael’s Middle Temple Wedding from a few weeks ago. As a London wedding photographer, I love working at the beautiful church at Middle Temple. It allows for some great compositions. There’s a fabulous covered entrance way where the Bridal party prepare to enter the church, and this picture shows Alexandra arriving there. I’d photographed her arriving in the car, and walking along the courtyard. One of the things a wedding photojournalist needs to do is be 30 seconds ahead of the action. By anticipating peoples actions, I can be better prepared to capture moments. So I made sure I was already in the alcove, with my trusty 18mm Zeiss Batis wide angle lens, so that I could capture this scene. The composition works well because of the balancing figure of the clergy in the doorway, as well as the repetitive pattern of the archways.
Action – Reaction
This second image is from Juliette and Joe’s Jewish Wedding at The Grove and shows the moment Juliette’s bridesmaids see her in her dress for the first time. It was a great moment to photograph! I was in the room with all the bridesmaids as Juliette got into her dress, and we all faced the wall. Once she was ready, the bridesmaids turned around, and I knew that I should photograph their reaction before turning myself to photograph Juliette. It’s one of the great documentary concepts that I use to tell compelling stories – Action and Reaction. You’ll have to head over to the full blog post to see what they saw to make that reaction! I was delighted to see that fellow wedding photojournalist Emil Boczek who was photographing this wedding with me also received three awards, two of which were from Juliette and Joe’s wedding:
If you’re a photographer and are interested in learning more of these techniques used in wedding photojournalism, please check out my Wedding Photography Training where I go over my method for story-telling in a series of Skype calls. There’s an option to come and shoot a wedding with me as well, and many photographers who have undertaken mentoring now regularly work with me at weddings.
You might also be interested in this article about why you might want to book a photojournalist for your wedding.
Congratulations! Great work!