American Photo: The Top 10 Wedding Photographers of 2011

Greg Gibson
Greg Gibson Photography
Washington, DC
greggibson.com

Gibson used a fisheye lens to capture this sweeping shot from the balcony as the wedding ceremony began. “By taking this position,” he says, “I was able to tie all the elements together. You see the beauty and architecture of the venue, the bride coming in with her father, and the waiting groom in the background. It tells the whole story in one frame. This is what I strive for in all my images.”

In 2002 Washington, D.C.–based photographer Greg Gibson was already a successful photojournalist with a couple of Pulitzer Prizes under his belt. But he was burned out on the relentless competition in the world of high-level photojournalism and disenchanted with covering political scandals. After encountering a former colleague doing beautiful wedding work, he tried it himself, thinking he had the right skill set and that it would allow him to spend more time with his family. “When I was a journalist, if you had asked me if I would ever be a wedding photographer I would have laughed at you,” he says. The job turned out to be far more satisfying than he’d expected, however. The switch not only broadened his technical skills and gave him a new appreciation for portraiture and lighting but also allowed him to create images as meaningful to a private audience as his journalistic photos had been to a public one. “They’re not just trite, pretty pictures,” he says. “You can make something that has real impact and meaning to the people you’re working for. I try to photograph a wedding in the same way I used to cover news events. You’re telling a story. You’re trying to capture moments that have meaning and that are spontaneous and real.”

“I stood on a chair so that I could get sharp focus on just her eyelash.” Shot with a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens wide open.


“At every wedding there’s at least one of these guys doing something crazy on the dance floor. I used off-camera flash to the rear for highlights and separation and on-camera flash for front fill.”