Wedding Photojournalist Association
(Taken from the website)
‘Since 2002 the WPJA has been helping couples capture the story of their wedding.
The Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) is a professional organization composed of photojournalists and wedding photographers from around the world. What sets our members apart in the industry is their candid, documentary approach – a distinctly artistic vision toward wedding photography.
The Wedding Photojournalist Association puts the world’s best wedding photography at your fingertips. We offer a new perspective on wedding photography - quietly capturing the real moments as they happen for the bride and groom. It is our goal to use photography to tell the story of your wedding day, not dictate it for you.
OUR VISION
To achieve our mission, the WPJA only accepts into membership gifted, honest wedding photojournalists who work tirelessly to deliver excellent photography to their clients. We also sponsor semi-annual competitions to inspire photographers and illustrate for consumers how transformational truly great wedding photojournalism can be.
WEDPIX ONLINE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE
WedPix, the WPJA's Online Wedding Photography Magazine, is a complimentary resource for brides and grooms, photographers, wedding planners and all wedding photojournalism enthusiasts. The articles featured in every issue, cover a vast array of topics, including general wedding photography advice for the couple, technical discussions, feature articles on WPJA award-winning members, business/marketing discussions, and many others.
Much of the information presented by WedPix Magazine is derived from interviews with well-accomplished WPJA members. Thus, readers of the WedPix have the privilege of gleaning from the experience, talent, and knowledge of some of the finest wedding photojournalists in the world.
ARTISTIC GUILD OF THE WPJA
‘The Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association (AGPJA) is comprised of outstanding wedding photographers, who are at the forefront of the wedding photography industry when it comes to enhancing images. The chief objective of the AGPJA is to provide members with a platform where the finest artistic wedding photojournalism in the world is spotlighted and promoted for the bride and groom.
The AGPJA is a separate division of the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA). Whereas the WPJA upholds strict guidelines that forbid excessive picture manipulation, the AGPJA encourages and fosters creative image enhancement, with the vision of promoting Artistic, Fine Art Wedding Photojournalism.’ http://www.wpja.com/about-wpja/
To help me decide my USP, I have also taken a look at the official website for the Artistic PJ Wedding photography to see if this style is what I would be interested in.
Artistic Guild to the Wedding Photojournalist Association
(taken from the website)
‘The Artistic Guild of the Wedding Photojournalist Association AG|WPJA is comprised of outstanding wedding photographers, who are at the forefront of the wedding photography industry when it comes to enhancing images. The chief objective of the AG|WPJA is to provide members with a platform where the finest enhanced, manipulated and/or artistic wedding photojournalism in the world is spotlighted and promoted for the bride and groom.
The AG|WPJA is a separate division of the Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA). Whereas the WPJA upholds strict guidelines that forbid excessive picture manipulation, the AG|WPJA encourages and fosters creative image enhancement, with the vision of promoting Fine Art Wedding Photojournalists.
The AG|WPJA establishes and upholds high standards that are taken into consideration during the judging process for our wedding photography contests. Using all artistic tools at their disposal, members skilfully enliven their work in post production processing.’ http://www.agwpja.com/about/
When looking at this association, I’m really inspired at how these photographers have taken a creative perspective and fine art approach of a wedding day and I like how they stand out from the other photographers I have researched. The only problem with this type of wedding photography, is unlike WPJA, the photographers will be more involved in the wedding and may at time become a distraction for the actual wedding itself!
Society of Wedding and Portraits Photographers
The SWPP is a representative organisation that offers guidance and supports wedding and portrait photographers offering them a range of educational seminars all around the world.
The SWPP currently represents photographers who specialize in the following areas of expertise: Freelance, Photojournalists, Weddings, Portraits, Children, Animal, Equestrian, Digital, Commercial, Fashion & Glamour, Landscape, Nature, Sport, Medical, Scientific, Press, PR, Architectural, Industrial, Forensic, Natural History, Research, amongst others.
The Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers - SWPP
Subject matter: Weddings, portraits, fashion, glamour, children, babies, school and all other social photographic subjects.
Qualifications/distinctions available: LSWPP ASWPP, CrSWPP, FSWPP
The Master Photographers Association
‘Established in 1952 and with over 1700 members, the Master Photographers Association is the United Kingdom's only organisation for full time, qualified and professional photographers.
The MPA offers members a variety of membership benefits, including education, qualifications, informative regional meetings, national seminars, business building promotions and marketing support.’ http://www.thempa.com/about-the-master-photographers-association.php
On the website, the MPA also offers information about selecting your perfect photographer for your wedding, portrait or commercial needs. The advise using one of their own photographers to ensure the following:
- Strive continually to uphold the professional standard of their work and to improve the standard of practice in the professionals a whole.
- Conduct themselves so as to uphold the reputation of the Association and with it the spirit and dignity of their profession.
- Deal fairly, honestly and helpfully with their clients, employer, employees, suppliers and fellow members and when required to give professional opinion shall do so conscientiously and without malice.
- A member shall exercise all reasonable skill, care and diligence in the discharge of their duties and, in so far as any of their duties are discretionary, shall act fairly and in good faith.
- A member shall at all times and in all respects conduct their professional and business operations within the law.
ASA - Advertising Standards Authority
Taken From http://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA.aspx
The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. We apply the Advertising Codes, which are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice. Our work includes acting on complaints and proactively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements.
Our framework Broadly this means that the system is paid for by the industry, which also writes the rules, but those rules are independently enforced by the ASA. For TV and radio advertising, we regulate under a contract from Ofcom.
The UK advertising regulatory system is a mixture of
The UK Advertising Codes are written by two industry committees: the Committee of Advertising Practice writes the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) writes the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising.
The system is a sign of a considerable commitment by the advertising industry to uphold standards in their profession. All parts of the advertising industry – advertisers, agencies and media – have come together to commit to being legal, decent, honest and truthful in their ads.
Regulating ads
As well as acting on complaints, we carry out many other regulatory activities to make sure advertising stays within the rules. For example, the ASA actively checks ads in all media and regularly conducts surveys of advertisements published by sectors in there is either unsatisfactory compliance with the Codes or where there are societal concerns about that sector.
And together with CAP, we work to support the industry to help them get their ads right before they are published. For example by providing guidance, pre-publication advice and training for the industry.
Non-broadcast advertising
There are many millions of non-broadcast ads published every year in the UK, so it would be impossible to pre-clear every one of them. For example there are more than 30 million press advertisements and 100 million pieces of direct marketing every year.
However, lots of advice and guidance is available through CAP Advice and Training. This includes free bespoke pre-publication advice from Copy Advice and online resources that advertisers, agencies and media can use to check the latest positions on hundreds of different advertising issues.
