Our Approach to Wedding Photography is Unique:
The Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) is an organization of photojournalists and wedding photographers from around the world that photograph weddings in a candid, documentary style. We prefer to work in an unobtrusive manner capturing the real moments as they happen. It is our goal to tell the story of your wedding day, not dictate it for you.
Our Selection Process for Wedding Photographers:
The WPJA is a highly screened, critical organization. Less than 5% of wedding photographers qualify for membership. Membership is based not only on web site and image quality, but also on:
1. Technical/Creative Qualities:
Members must have exceptional skill, originality and creativity in their work. Frequent membership denial is based on:
• Indoor images with poor on-camera lighting and direct flash shadows.
• Images that appear to be shot at F8 with a 50mm lens. A good use of a variety of lenses will score high during the review process.
• Many subjects in portfolios cropped at the knees with huge amounts of high noon, cloudless sky overhead. Members are encouraged to crop work to improve image content.
• Many hand tinted or digitally manipulated images.
• Redundant images or sequence shots with minimal change in content.
2. Factual Information:
Members must make factual and knowledgeable statements where quoted. Frequent membership denial is based on:
• Bold statements on web sites, i.e, "digital is better than film".
• Misleading or confusing information on wedding photojournalism, using the word 'photojournalism' alone to describe 'wedding photography' or identification as a photojournalist but lacking work history or images to prove it.
• Description of style or approach that doesn’t match work displayed on a web site.
3. Web Site Quality:
Members must reflect a clean web site design with easy navigation. Sites must load with all images and links functioning. A photographer’s web site is an extension of their creativity and reflects on the WPJA members as a whole.
4. Image Quality:
Members must reflect good image quality on their web site. Do you need to optimize your images in Photoshop for the web? We try to look past poor image quality to see the moment. Frequent membership denial is based on:
• Entire portfolios that are flat (lack black in the images).
• Images with large pixels.
The Wedding Photojournalist Association is setting the standard in the wedding photography industry when it comes to Wedding Photojournalism.
