4 Reasons Why Documentary Wedding Photography is Perfect for Your Wedding
May 31, 2020
4 Reasons Why Documentary Wedding Photography is Perfect for Your Wedding
Choosing the right wedding photographer can be quite a challenge so why should you commission Ray Anthony Photography as your Detroit wedding photography team? For one, we’re masters of our craft, having perfected the art of documentary wedding photography, also known as reportage or photojournalism. But what does documentary wedding photography offer you and can it really breathe something new into your wedding?
Your Memories Will Be Intact
Have you ever looked at a picture and remembered what the photographer kept asking you to do prior to taking it? All the awkward poses and the forced facial expressions? I’m sure at some point you must have asked yourself, ‘How long will this go on?’ Sure, the photo lets you remember who attended your wedding day, what they wore, and how old everyone was at that specific time. Don’t get me wrong, family and wedding party portraits are important. I don’t mean to downplay their necessity on a wedding day. After all, weddings are like a family reunion and people may have traveled all over the country, and world, to attend your wedding!
With wedding photojournalism, however, you get so much more than the who, where and when…you get the what and why! By this I mean the substance of your love story between you and your partner, you and your families and friends. Documentary wedding photography shows the gambit of emotions you will experience throughout your whole day. Because you are not encumbered with your photographer following a “shot list,” or staging and posing the images throughout the day, you are freed up to be in the moment and truly celebrate! The magic of our images is not about what we do to make those photographs great, as much as it is about being ready at all times for what is happening in front of our cameras! We photograph your wedding like we would photograph “a day in the life” of some celebrity for Time Magazine.
If I were to tell you the kind of effect photojournalism has on people; if I were to describe it, I would say it’s the closest thing to time travel. Why? Because when you look at your pictures, you’ll feel as if you’ve gone back to your wedding day. The pictures will look so natural and ‘authentic’ that the emotions you felt back then will come flooding back again.
In photojournalism, we don’t interfere with your wedding story at all. We let events play out the way they should. All we do is preserve them so you can relive them again and again. Your memories will thus be of a wonderful day celebrated by wonderful people. Those are the kind of memories you should have when you look at your wedding pictures, and not thoughts about how frustrated your wedding photographer made you!
We’ll Blend In
‘Blending in’ are the keywords here. As best as we possibly can, we do our best to blend in as if we were guests. We won’t go around making a ruckus all over the wedding or demanding center stage! We’ll be as efficient as we are stealthy.
The end result will be you seeing the photos we captured of your family and friends being themselves and expressing honest emotions and feelings. We will be capturing these moments with them being oblivious to our actions or even presence, tuning us out! One of the most common compliments we are told when we leave the wedding at the end of the night from the couple or their families is they didn’t even remember us being there! When they see the photos for the first time after the wedding, they are astounded how thorough and comprehensive our coverage really was.
People Will Look Their Best
The only time we will tell people to ‘smile for the camera’ is during the portrait session of the day, which might only last 30-45 minutes out of 12 to 15 hour day! In fact, when a bride warns us that she doesn’t photograph well, we know that she most likely is referring to posed pictures from the past or even “selfies” from her phone now-a-days! When people pose and smile because they know a picture is about to be taken, it just rubs the authenticity out of the picture. Natural is best, and this is only possible when people are unaware that they are the subjects of a picture. With my team of talented documentary photography associates helping me to capture all the angles, we look for pleasing expressions, laughter and joy in peoples faces. We are experts and finding them when the subjects of our images are unaware that they are being photographed. We’ve photographed hundreds of weddings and I cannot recall a single one that complained about how they looked.
Your Images Will Be Unique
Pictures taken by traditional photographers tend to look the same. The simple reason is that the photographer takes charge and instructs you on what to do and how to go about doing it. Each and every wedding they photograph is often a repeat of the previous wedding in terms of poses and setups, just different faces and people. I am not knocking this at all. Many couples prefer a classic, traditional-style wedding photographer, and that’s great! It may not even occur to them that their wedding photos are exactly like all the photographer’s previous weddings. I would be so honest to say that this type of couple is not the right fit for us, or we for them. Our images are unique and authentic because we are commissioned to photograph the wedding without prompting anything and to be unobtrusive. The couple that appeals to documentary-style photographs isn’t interested in idyllic, fantasy-like imagery. They want real photos of how the day naturally unfolded so that they can relive the wedding day over and over when the photographs are delivered to them.
If you’re looking for a Detroit wedding photographer to document your wedding, please take some time on our website. Check out our collection of “real weddings” and see how each wedding is unique from the others. Soon the pandemic will pass and we’ll all go back to celebrating the events that mean everything to us. We are beginning to book up for 2021 already and can even squeeze you in to our calendar for 2020, especially if you are considering a smaller wedding to be compliant with the Governor of Michigan’s restrictions for small gatherings. If this is the case, we have some special packages for you!
Ray Anthony Photography would love to talk to you about this and other aspects of your wedding day. We’ll even recommend some great vendors to help make the grand day complete. Please click here to schedule a free consultation or give us a call or text us right now at 866-UNPOSED (867-6733).
Documentary photography is a wide-ranging form of fine art photography that can probably be defined in many different ways. The goal of the documentary photographer is to create an accurate representation of the subject. Here’s another useful resource to read for tips on documentary photography.
