Here's one I shot yesterday just outside Waco's City Hall.

I'm often asked about my particular style of wedding photography. To put it succinctly, I'm a photojournalist. That means a few different things on a few different levels, so let me explain a bit ...

Educationally speaking, I have a Bachelor of Arts in journalism -- with a concentration in photojournalism -- from Baylor University. I've worked on staff for several different newspapers, and I've done extensive freelance work for various publications and entities since my graduation in 1999.

Practically, being a photojournalist means I cover events and occasions as they naturally unfold. I don't attempt to control or manipulate the shooting environment in any way. I'm there to simply document what happens with high quality, story-telling photographs.

With wedding photography in particular, the old style of photography focused primarily on formal, posed photographs. While formal photos are desirous for any complete wedding album, wedding photojournalism focuses on shooting documentary style photographs that capture the nuances of the event while telling a compelling visual story of the wedding day. Of course, formal photos are taken, but they are not the heart of the wedding photography coverage.

In the end, it's all about capturing lasting images. And capturing lasting, narrative images is what being a wedding photojournalist is all about.

This picture is indicative of why I love wedding photojournalism. The groom and ring boy were running a pre-ceremony errand and they were both sharing the same umbrella. I knew it was a cool shot so I fired off about six or seven frames, and this is the image that popped out at me.

Sure, you could easily set this sort of shot up, but real life is much more fun than that!

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Sometimes, when you're trying to capture a photojournalistic moment, there can be certain ... well ... distractions:

The Bride and Groom are leaving, and this kid's in the way!



Doesn't he know I have a job to do? :-)



This is where cameras with fast autofocus and fast frame rates really come in handy -- shooting through the "noise" while you're simultaneously cleaning up the frame, looking for that Decisive Moment



Eventually an image breaks through, full of joyous emotion



Sometimes the best images aren't technically -- or compositionally -- perfect. (For example, some photographers might argue that the basket in the last frame is a distraction.) But the reality is when the moment is right, and the emotion is captured, most of the distractions tend to fade away ... all that's left is the enduring image, forever.