Why are couples moving away from traditional wedding photography?

For most of the history of wedding photography, there was a very predictable lineup of photos that would be taken and then put into an album or framed and hung on a wall. These included the family portraits taken before the ceremony, the walk down the aisle, the first kiss; then the departure from the church or wherever the service took place, a few candid reception shots, cutting the cake and possibly driving away in a car with “Just Married” written on the windows and tin cans and streamers attached to the back bumper.

More recently, that lineup was expanded to include shots of the rings artfully placed on a pillow, the wedding dress on a hanger, the invitations; and then the first look and an hour or so of posed bridal party shots.

And there is nothing wrong with any of that. If posed shots and still lifes are your vibe, go for it! But recently, more and more couples are looking for something a bit different. More genuine, perhaps, with more focus on enjoying the day among family and friends and less worrying if a shot list was completed.

If you’re someone who doesn’t particularly enjoy posing for photos, or you’re someone who wants their wedding to be a day of celebration and socialization with family and friends without the added pressure of making sure you get “the shots”; or maybe you’re someone who wants photos but thinks maybe you don’t want a “wedding photographer” because when you think of wedding photography you think of all of the traditional elements I mentioned above, and that just isn’t you…?

Welcome to non-traditional, creative, documentary style wedding photography!

To be clear, the difference between traditional wedding photography and non-traditional wedding photography is not professional versus amateur. Unless you go the route of handing Polaroid or Instax cameras to all of your guests. Which is a a super cool idea, but in my opinion you might not want it to be the MAIN source of your images. You still might be thinking “ok, but what exactly IS non-traditional, documentary style wedding photography? Because I’ve looked on sights of photographers who say that’s what they do, and there are still a ton of posed shots, and shots of the rings and the dress.” And this is SO TRUE. Especially in the United States, you might be hard-pressed to find a pure documentary style photographer; but they do exist! I should know, as I’m one of them.

Every photographer is different - thank goodness - but we non-traditional shooters follow a few basic principles: Technically perfect photos are great, but emotionally resonant photos are infinitely better. A great photo shows you how it felt to be there, not just what it looked like. Motion blur is good when used properly. Nine times out of ten, the photos people love the most are the ones they didn’t know were being taken, or the ones that captured spontaneous moments and genuine emotion.

There are a lot of different names for what I call documentary wedding photography; wedding photojournalism and street style weddings top that list. I always encourage couple to plug a couple of those phrased into their search browser and then hit “images”. Scan the results and click on the images that speak to you. If you agree that a move away from traditional wedding photography sounds good, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you find.

And if you enjoyed this post, and like what you see in the images, I’d be thrilled to hear from you! Contact me anytime, and I’ll get back to you in under 24 hours.