Ok, So your planning your wedding right?, isn't it just hard enough as it is all this wedding planning without learning a photography language aswell?, your probably worrying about what the cake design should be, venue costs, how will uncle Bryn get from the Priory hotel to his home in Bargoed at 2am, which dress matches the shoes you shouldn't have bought last week!.... then to top it all off you google "wedding photographer cwmbran" and low and behold you seem to be reading a different language! A language with words like reportage, classic, contemporary and photojournalism.
At this point your probably looking at some great photographs from five or six different wedding photographers websites and on top of that there are five or six different prices and options to match! Its enough to drive anyone over the edge!
Well lets make life a little simpler for you then and lets deal with Reportage first! "Reportage" is a new kind of photography that has become inceasingly popular over the last few years. We seemed to have moved on from the "Traditional" or "classic" photography of the past where family members and bride and groom line up and have posed photography in a very orderly fashion. Most photographers these days offer "Reportage" style "on top of" or "aswell as" the usual family "traditional" group shots.
Reportage allows you to "capture the moment" a photographic flashback if you like of what really happened on your day. The moments that tell a story of their own, documented through the lens of a camera in a sort of paparazzi style. Its a photographic journey of the whole day as a sort of fly on the wall if you like. Reportage is also known as photojournalism. Opposite and below you can see some examples of reportage style from kapow .
Sure, you want your posed photos, the traditional family shots, and so you should - all lined up, those are a record of the event, who was there on your big day and these are equally important to the reportage photos. Its the traditional photos of the family that will go into frames and albums and be a keepsake in years to come. But its the reportage style of photography that are the fun shots, the telling a story of how it really was; Your Uncle bryn at the bar with a pint in his hand catching up with an old friend he hasn't seen in years. The laughter, the tears. Its about emotion, the camera seeing the real story. For the photographer its this style that I enjoy the most, I can be comfortably sat in the corner of the room during the wedding breakfast and I'll have my zoom lens on the camera. I'll snipe away, watching what is happening all over the room, looking and waiting for smiles, laughter, tears and any strange facial expressions. Then I'll click away taking shot after shot after shot, the more photographs I take, the greater the amount of high quality reportage photos. There's no point in being sat there just taking a photo every now and again, both Dave and I will work hard being at different ends of the room, capturing photos that are hard for one photographer to cover on his own. The results as you can see speak for themselves.
During a typical wedding day we will begin the reportage photography usually at the bride's house, taking photos of the bride and bridesmaids getting ready. This usually lasts 20 - 30 minitues, thats just the start, as Kapow are two photographers working as a team we will also be at the grooms house, simultaniously being in two places at once if needed. Then there's the church and the people arriving. You can see from the photograph opposite some girls arriving to a wedding in Newport in August. What stood out for us that day at that point in time was the weather and the glamour of a red dress and umbrella and heels against a quite plain and dour ordinary street background and rain! She stood out and the photograph being reportage makes a statement of what was happening at that time on the way to the church. (and yes the dress and umbrella really were that colour!)
Moving on to the ceremony and traditional family photos which we take in the traditional style; we also are able to capture these moments as reportage aswell. Because we are a team of two photographers, this allows us to create and capture these two main styles of photography at the same time and to create tricks of the eye. One of us usually takes the formal "traditional" family photos, while the other on occassion and when the time seems right, waits, watches and snipes and takes the same photographs from different angles and this enables us to capture traditional poses from unusual angles, some of which then turn out to be great reportage photos of their own! This creates a softer and less rigid feel to the traditional group photos but at the same time capturing those family members.
Reportage is an excellent way of getting great photography without annoying anyone. There's no need for staged photography with reportage so there are quite simply no poses, no set up shots and no hassles for the bride and groom. Its an unobtrusive style of photography that not only looks good but works exceptionally well with the logistics and formal nature of a wedding day. Quite simply the photographer is silent and out of the way.
Reportage photography also makes a slideshow on DVD of the day very interesting in that the series of photographs tell a story in sequence. When put together artistically they can create an almost film feel to the photography and the slideshow can and does tell a story brilliantly.
Reportage sounds easy, I'll admit. The truth is that some of the time it can be and very enjoyable. It is best done without the use of flash however. I feel using it to capture off the cuff reportage photos can cause a distraction and spoil a moment! The ceremony and traditional shots are after all staged poses so they are looking at the camera and expecting a flash, using a flash however when they are unaware of your prescence causes the wedding guest to look at the camera and say something stupid like "oh your not photographing me are you!, wait till I brush my hair" and the moment is lost forever. This is why my Nikon 70 - 200mm f2.8 VR2 lens is never far from my side all through a wedding. I'm yet to use a zoom lens that competes for sharpness and quality. It simply is an outstanding lens for this type of work.
It is important to note that Kapow whilst shooting the majority of the day in a reportage style also offer the traditional posed group photographs as part of all our packages and with these two style of photography you can be assured of getting an excellent mix of traditional and modern photography styles.
