Wedding Photojournalist Award
Masterpiece Award Winner - the Wedding Photojournalist Association
I am thrilled to say that I won an award yesterday for Best Documentary Wedding Photography from the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA). This award means a lot to me because the WPJA "reserves membership to select photographers around the world whose portfolios and practices demonstrate talent, expertise and client service in wedding photojournalism." Not only that but some of the other award winners in this collection are documentary wedding photographers I have long admired and looked up to for their wedding photography. I am honoured to be amongst such great company. These awards are judged by news photo editors and award-winning photojournalists (including Pulitzer Prize winners!), looking for images that "use the tools of photographic narrative to tell a couples story", no posing or fakery, just moments - a few portraits aside, that's what my approach is all about!
The shot that the judges chose is from a recent wedding in Portugal, the wedding of Lee & Jordan during their preparations. It captures the love and excitement of Jordan's soon-to-be Mother-in-Law and I am so pleased that my first Masterpiece Award came from their wedding day. You can see more from their wedding in Portugal here.
UPDATE November 2018: Honoured to be included amongst the WPJA's top 50 UK Wedding Photographers - happy days!
UPDATE 4 June 2019:
Since I first published this post, I have won a number of other awards for my wedding photojournalism. It's a an honour to be recognised for my work by the WPJA among others, especially for images that are moment driven and unposed! Here's a selection of the winning images:
This image is from a wedding at Bruisyard Hall in Suffolk, UK. I had two choices as Robyn walked down the stairs to see her dad. I could have stayed at the top and had an aerial view of Robyn descending but something in my gut told me to go downstairs. I hid behind a curtain, so I wouldn't draw Robyn's attention and I'm so glad that I did - this is most definitely one of my favourite images from 2018.
This image is from a wedding at Childerley Hall, near Cambridge, UK. As the wedding guests sheltered under their umbrellas, I was looking to make an interesting image that captured the, fortunately, short-lived rain shower. I was drawn to make this image by the expressions on the guests faces, the bright red lipstick and the smiling eyes as the sun was spotted breaking through the clouds.
This is one of my all time favourite images, from one of my all time favourite venues, Voewood in Norfolk, UK. This house can throw some shapes - see more about how I created this image here!
Sheer delight at the words pronouncing you husband and wife - this image from an intimate winter wedding at a Dairy Barns Wedding in Norfolk!
A perfect little shaft of light, falling upon the newlywed couple, made for one of my favourite exposures at this gorgeous wedding at the Hotel Du Vin in Cambridge. if you're looking for award winning wedding photography in Cambridge, give me a shout!
Friends and family gather around to help the bride with some readjustments to her dress - this picture from a Bruisyard Hall Wedding in Suffolk.
Newly-wed husbands, seen here in fits of laughter, during their wedding speeches. I knew I wanted to capture this close up, so I got low to the table with a wide-angle lens and waited for the jokes to deliver the perfect moment. This photo was taken at a destination wedding in Portugal.
At a late autumn wedding, in Cambridgeshire, there wasn't much time, before sunset, to take portraits after the speeches but luckily, we found a little pocket of golden light, just enough to make this portrait of the bride and groom and win me an award from the Artistic Guild of Wedding Photographers.
And another from Bruisyard Hall, our bride, Robyn, beaming from ear to ear at the necklace her, soon to be, husband had delivered to her room. Her expression says it all and I just love the smiles on the faces of her friends, gathered round her as they got ready for the wedding celebrations.
I hope you've enjoyed looking at these images - for more information about my approach to your wedding photography, take a look at this page all about my style and approach.