Since I became a wedding photographer I've been struggling as to what brand of photography best fits my personality and style. One thing I knew for sure was I was a "journalist", I naturally tell the story of my clients wedding day... no brainer, but what else? I started out declaring my self as a portrait-journalist since I was promoting my creative style of shooting, but I quickly discovered I'm not a fan of posing. Don't get me wrong, I started out in commercial fashion so I know poses and I capable of posing but when I looked at magazines I found myself staring at the pictures trying to figure out how they created that image, whether they used light or reflectors and from what angle, things like that. I started wondering if that's what brides remember? How I twisted and turned her, how bad her feet were hurting as she held that pose until the lighting was right, how this huge bright light kept flashing in her eyes??? I don't want my brides thinking about that when they looked at their pictures 5 years later, I want her remembering how she felt, how nervous she was while getting ready, how excited she was when her soon to be husband was about to see her in her dress for the first time and how in love she felt as they danced their first dance.

Guess what, not only is that not the making of a portrait-journalist, in my opinion, it's also not the making of a photo-journalist. So what am I? I recently went back and was looking at some of my shots from previous weddings and I realized what I am, I had to coin a new name (it's new, I Googled it and found nothing concerning this word), I am a emoti-journalist or emotion-journalist, perfect!!! I will tell the story of how my clients looked, how they prepared, walked down the isle, said their vows, exchanged their ring and celebrated their love, but I'm going to tell a much deep story as well, the story of Love. How their fiends and family looked at them as they danced, so happy that they found each other, how they looked at each other falling in love over and over as the night progresses. 

That's me! That's ALL me! So now my journey begins with a reboot, branding myself as Thom Lodge of Lani Kai Photography, who specializes in Emoti-Journalism Wedding Photography.