Professional Photojournalistic Wedding Photography for
Newport Beach, Orange County, Southern California
and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
and all other Hawaiian Islands including Maui, Kaui, Big Island, and Molokai
Wedding Portraits, Wedding Candids, Wedding Photojournalism, Custom Wedding Albums

Welcome to  a unique, artistic experience amidst an ocean of picture takers.  Browse this site to find all kinds of useful galleries and samples of our work, wedding photography advice, informative articles, wedding day photography tips, and contact information to schedule an appointment to book our services.  Our style is very unique.  Most fellow wedding photographers say that we have a very unorthodox approach to wedding photography...and that's fine by us.  Our style is a combination of traditional portraiture, candid photography, and photojournalism, with an emphasis on photojournalism.  We strive to capture your day in an unobtrusive manner that is not posed.

When researching, most brides need information in an orderly format.
 This format seems to have worked with numerous brides in our 15 years of experience.
Photo Samples
Engagement Shoot Samples
Wedding Shoot Samples
Pricing
Contact Us to Schedule an Appointment

We service Orange County, Newport Beach, San Diego, some areas of Los Angeles (most of Southern California)
and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii and all Hawaiian Islands including:
Maui, Kaui, Big Island, and Molokai
for all wedding photography services without any travel fees.

What is Professional Photojournalistic Wedding Photography for
Newport Beach, Orange County, Southern California
and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
and all other Hawaiian Islands including Maui, Kaui, Big Island, and Molokai
Wedding Portraits, Wedding Candids, Wedding Photojournalism, Custom Wedding Albums

  Many Brides ask us what our style is.  Some others ask us directly: What is Photojournalism?

Dictionary.com defines photojournalism as:
1.) journalism in which photography dominates written copy, as in certain magazines.
2.) news photography, whether or not for primarily pictorial media, publications, or stories.

Simply stated, Wedding photojournalism (Orange County, Newport Beach, parts of San Diego are all covered for wedding photography services without travel fees)  is a style of photography that is becoming more and more popular in the wedding business.  Traditional photography has a dated look when it comes to designing custom wedding albums, and photojournalism adds more flavor by telling the story of the wedding day from a photographers perspective, rather than just having a series of snapshots, and posed pictures.  And while these may be pretty, they don't often possess a sense of elegance. We see these types of pictures in what we in the industry call "formals", or even jokingly we refer to them as "prom pictures".  and the photographer shoots posed pictures of the bride and groom, bridal party, and even the bridal family.  Photojournalism is different because we try to remain as unobtrusive as possible during the wedding ceremony.  We try to capture images from an artistic perspective that also tell the story of the day.  While there are many photographers who claim to be photojournalists, it is doubtful that many of them truly understand what photojournalism is, and where the term came from.

Modern Day Professional Photojournalistic Wedding Photography for
Newport Beach, Orange County, Southern California
and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
and all other Hawaiian Islands including Maui, Kaui, Big Island, and Molokai
Wedding Portraits, Wedding Candids, Wedding Photojournalism, Custom Wedding Albums

  Bill Hurter, Editor of Rangefinder Magazine, and author of "Best of Wedding Photography" (Amherst Media) shed a great deal of light on this subject.  Here are some of his thoughts:
We live in the midst of a great renaissance of wedding photography. It is a time when divergent styles collide with changing attitudes to produce the finest imagery this genre has ever known. At no other time since photographers began recording the wedding ceremony to preserve its history has the style and artistic merit of wedding photography been so remarkable.  The focus of the modern wedding photograph is emotion and intimacy, and through the tools available, like digital capture and Photoshop, the end result is romance.

 In the earliest days of photography, weddings were photographed in styles that captured the bride and groom in stuffy, overly formal poses. Even with the emergence of “the wedding album,” which incorporated group portraits of the groomsmen and bridesmaids, and the bride and groom with family members, posing remained stiff and lifeless—no doubt a byproduct of the required length of early exposures.  As the style and variety of wedding photography progressed, posing techniques closely mimicked the classical arts, and there remain many flawless wedding portraits in evidence today from those early years.

The tools at the disposal of today’s wedding photographer are vastly superior to yesterday. This classic wedding image captures the romance and mystery of the wedding by incorporating areas of softness and high contrast to define the mood of this inconspicuous bridal portrait.  It is against this backdrop that wedding photography evolved—or rather, rebelled. In this early style, each shot was a check mark on a long list of posed and often prearranged images. Even spontaneous events like the bouquet toss and cake cutting were orchestrated to reflect the classical posing techniques. Spontaneity and the joy of life had all but disappeared from this most joyous of ceremonies. Amidst such a controlled environment, it is not difficult to see why there was an active rebellion in the world of wedding photography.

Today’s wedding photographer works unobtrusively and while he or she may set up the situation, the participants define the action. A class of wedding photographers known as wedding photojournalists, spurred on by their leader, the articulate, provocative and talented Denis Reggie from Atlanta, GA, rebelled against the formality of the art form. The photojournalists believed (and still believe) that capturing the emotion of the moment is the most important aspect of a good wedding image. The story of the true and natural unfolding of the day’s events had to be the end result of such efforts. Furthermore, everything about their methods and procedures was different than those of the traditional wedding photographer. They shot unobserved with high speed film using available light. They used 35mm SLRs with motor drives—and flash became a last resort for the wedding photojournalist.

 As you might guess, the traditionalists recoiled in horror at this new breed of wedding photographer. They denounced the grainy and often out-of-focus “grab shots” created by the photojournalists, and they predicted that the final days of wedding photography as a profitable and predictable livelihood were at hand.  As at many other times in history, a spirited clash of ideas and artistic differences spawned a new era of enlightenment. For the first time, brides were able to make real choices about how they wanted their once-in-a-lifetime day recorded. In addition to pristine color and a wealth of storytelling black & white imagery, brides can now choose from a diverse range of styles, imagery and presentation. Add to the mix the incredible and explosive creativity introduced by the advent of digital imagery and we now find ourselves in the midst of a true Renaissance.

 Masters of the medium, like Yervant Zanazanian from Australia, are gifted at creating the subtle intangibles in an image. In addition to flawless posing and emotion and design, note the hourglass shaped highlight covering the steps. Artful burning-in and dodging was required to produce such a skillful effect.  Once viewed as a near-deplorable way to make a living, wedding photography now draws the best and brightest photographers into its ranks. It is an art form that is virtually exploding with creativity—and with wedding budgets that seemingly know no bounds, the horizons of wedding photography seem almost limitless.  This book first appeared a little more than two years ago and this is now the second edition. During that short time, I have “discovered” dozens of new and amazingly talented wedding photographers, most of them of the photojournalistic persuasion.

The trend away from traditional wedding photography continues but with some surprising new twists. The new breed of wedding photographer has no problem “directing” an image, as long as the results are spontaneous and emotion-filled. This is a surprising turn of events, considering the almost evangelical mind-set of the pure wedding photojournalist. To be sure, there are many more of these kinds of photographers who exhibit the same fervor for the “captured image,” but there are also a growing number of new photographers who don’t particularly care if they are purists, in the photojournalistic sense.

There are few limits to today’s wedding photography. How about a posed kiss and dip in the middle of Grand Central Station? The move away from film and towards 100% digital capture continues unabated, although the current breed of digital wedding photographers is aware of the increased time and effort involved in being purely digital. New methods of workflow and image editing continue to evolve and new software is helping to aid in the transition.  The little picture is just as important to the wedding album as the big picture.  Also evident is a move towards fine art imagery, complete with the elements of abstraction, symbolism and the finer points of design. Yes, it is a changing genre, to be sure, seemingly forever redefining itself and always growing more popular among brides. The modern-day wedding photographer is among the upper echelon of the photographic elite, both in status and in financial rewards. This book then is a continuing celebration of this great and evolving art form and its fabled artists.

Digital Vs. Film for Professional Photojournalistic Wedding Photography for
Newport Beach, Orange County, Southern California
and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
and all other Hawaiian Islands including Maui, Kaui, Big Island, and Molokai
Wedding Portraits, Wedding Candids, Wedding Photojournalism, Custom Wedding Albums

The question we are asked most when meeting with brides, or even when we are on-site at a wedding is: "Do you shoot film or digital"?
The answer we give them all the time is "100% Digital."

Now I know some purists out there are moaning and groaning right now, but in our humble opinion, there are too many reasons to shoot digital over film.  The main advantage of digital photography is feedback.  With a professional Digital SLR camera, we get instant feedback on what the basic exposure is.  With film, we don't, and let's be honest: with film, there is still some guesswork.  One of the biggest arguments that film shooters still use to this day is: that digital images don't enlarge as well as film images.  And that may be true to a certain point.  But, as long as you are not ordering a 20x30 photo album, you have nothing to be worried about.  Through the use of Photoshop's Image size with stair interpolation method, and the use of Genuine Fractals, enlargements can be made very easily, and with little to no loss of clarity.  Today's professional Digital SLR Cameras like the Nikon D2X, or any other professional grade camera body that one could purchase at Ritz Camera, Calumet Photo, Samy's Camera, Best Buy, Circuit City, Walmart, Target, or just about any other retail establishment that sells camera gear,  costs several thousand dollars, and the reason for that is obvious: They produce images as good as film cameras, and have more controls built in to the camera to optimize exposure, than film cameras do.  When developing film, there are still many variables that one must fully understand in order to get perfect prints.  Digital eliminates a bunch of those complications.

Ken Rockwell, a great photographer and industry guru has written several articles on this subject.  Here is a excerpt from one:

The choice depends on your application. Once you know your application the debate goes away. The debate only exists when people presume erroneously that someone else's needs mirror their own. I can get great 12 x 18" glossy prints from my digital camera, and we all can get fuzzy results on film. It's the artist, not the medium, which defines quality. If and only if you're an accomplished artist who can extract every last drop from film's quality then film, meaning large format film, technically is better than digital in every way. Few people have the skill to work film out to this level, thus the debate. Most people get better results from digital. Artists print their own work, but if you use a lab for prints you'll have more control and get better results from digital. Convenience has always won out over ultimate quality throughout the history of photography. Huge home-made wet glass plates led to store-bought dry plates which led to 8 x 10" sheet film which led to 4 x 5" sheet film which led to 2-1/4" roll film which led to 35mm which led to digital. As the years roll on the ultimate quality obtained in each smaller medium drops, while the average results obtained by everyone climbs. In 1860 only a few skilled artisans like my great-great-great grandfather in Scotland could coax any sort of an image at all from a plate camera while normal people couldn't even take photos at all. In 1940 normal people got fuzzy snaps from their Brownies and flashbulbs while artists got incredible results on 8 x 10" film. Today artists still mess with 4 x 5" cameras and normal people are getting the best photos they ever have on 3 MP digital cameras printed at the local photo lab.

How to Plan and Prepare for Professional Photojournalistic Wedding Photography for
Newport Beach, Orange County, Southern California
and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii
and all other Hawaiian Islands including Maui, Kaui, Big Island, and Molokai
Wedding Portraits, Wedding Candids, Wedding Photojournalism, Custom Wedding Albums

Long before wedding day even arrives, I start planning the shots and angles ahead of time.  Since we have worked at just about every major venue in Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego, we are already familiar with their lighting conditions, and we know what shots will work, and what shots won't.  It has taken long years of experience to understand the delicate balance of artistic wedding photography vs. standard portraiture, and we are presented with constant challenges that keep us on the cutting edge of education and understanding. Black and white photography vs. color photography vs. sepia toning photography is a constant evolution and knowing how to capture those moments on your wedding day, and to know which moments work best in color or black and white is essential. Each wedding is unique, and we are constantly looking for that one subtle difference in each wedding so that we can exploit it, and make your treasured wedding moments stay captured so they will be with you for a lifetime.

At Exposure Perfect Photography, we are your specialists for Newport Beach, Orange County, California Professional Wedding Event Photography.
We also specialize in Newport Beach, Orange County, California Professional Wedding Event Photographers.
And of course we have an extensive portfolio of Newport Beach, Orange County, California Professional Wedding Event Photo samples.

Website Optimized and Maintained by JNT Media Solutions
 Copyright © 2009 by ExposurePerfect.com - a Newport Beach Orange County Southern California and
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii Wedding | Event Photographers | Top 5