Joel Thomas Photography

About Joel Thomas Photography

Joel Thomas Photography

corny jokes, real smiles, zero stiff posing

Hi! I'm Joel, a wedding photographer in central Pennsylvania. My motto is: if you don't enjoy taking the photo, you won't enjoy looking at the photo. Everything starts with you two feeling comfortable enough to be yourselves. Yes, I'll help guide you and set up the shots, but the goal is always the real smile, the real laugh, even the silly face. Whoever you are is who I want to show up in the photos. (Fair warning: sometimes this involves terrible dad jokes.)

You'll never get just me, either. Every wedding includes a second photographer from my team, because your day happens everywhere at once and you can't be in every room. While I'm with you two, someone's catching the rest: your grandmother laughing, your friends mid-toast, your dad at the bar telling stories. You get to live it all, then see it all. Off the clock: my wife Kristin (who is also on my team of second photographers, and is almost as goofy as I am... almost), a border collie named Oreo with more energy than both of us combined, a lot of Netflix, and an undefeated record at knowing movie quotes. Try me ;)

Best of Zola 2025

Services

Services

  • Engagement session
  • Extra hours
  • Image editing
  • Printing rights
  • Second photographer

Photo formats

  • Digital

Deliverables

  • Digital files
  • Digital rights
  • Online gallery
  • Printed enlargements
  • Same/next-day sneak-peek images
  • Wedding album

Reviews

Write a review
Rating: 5.0

5.0 out of 5

5 reviews

  • SP

    Sarah P.

    Rating: 5
    •Apr 27, 2026

    Fantastic! The Absolute Best

    My husband and I hired Joel for both our engagement and wedding photography, and he was absolutely incredible to work with from start to finish. He brings such great energy and has a natural way of putting everyone at ease, which made a huge difference throughout the day. Beyond that, his talent truly speaks for itself—he captured stunning, high-quality photos that we will cherish forever. We were especially impressed when he sent us a sneak peek of some of his favorite shots the very same night of our wedding. We are so grateful we were recommended to him, and I can’t recommend Joel Thomas Photography enough. If you’re looking for someone who is both incredibly skilled and a joy to work with, Joel is the perfect choice for any wedding or special occasion.

  • LD

    Liz D.

    Rating: 5
    •Mar 29, 2026

    Joel is the BEST!!!!

    Joel is the BEST. Best decision I made for the wedding was booking him. He is SO fun to work with, takes absolutely gorgeous pictures, and is extremely organized. A huge bonus is that he is also very funny and will have you feeling comfortable getting photographed in a matter of minutes. My entire bridal party raved about him following my wedding. He did our engagement pictures as well as and gave us a bunch of tips during that session - it was one of our favorite days! He and Jules made our wedding day absolutely amazing, I’m lucky to have had the pleasure of sharing it with them. Spending the day with them was so fun! Book him if you can- you won’t be disappointed!

  • JN

    Jess N.

    Rating: 5
    •Oct 14, 2024

    Great Experience!

    We had the best experience with Joel! It is important on your wedding day to surround yourself with people you trust and who know what they are doing; Joel is just that! He is organized, calm, and he made the day so fun! We felt that Joel and Kristen were our friends just hanging out with us on our wedding day. Of course, the photos came out incredible and Joel snapped all the combos we asked for! We will recommend Joel to anyone who will listen!!

  • LW

    Lindsay W.

    Rating: 5
    •Aug 21, 2024

    Great Photographer! Highly Recommend

    Joel was a pleasure to work with and my favorite vendor at my wedding! He did our engagement photos and wedding photos and we loved both sets of pictures. He is a very natural photographer who knows what he is doing. He works hard to make everyone around him feel comfortable with his infectious personality. Also the day of the wedding can be crazy by Joel is very calm and worked well with the venue and other vendors to make sure everything ran smoothly. He was always very upfront about his processes and cost and was very affordable! My favorite part was all his packages gave you 8 hours of wedding photography minimum. Not all photographers do this. He really knows how to capture the love and fun between you and your partner. I highly recommend to use Joel Photography for your wedding day! I am so glad we did and hope to us Joel in our future family photos.

  • DV

    Danielle V.

    Rating: 5
    •Jun 6, 2024

    He exceeded our expectations and more!!

    When I was looking for a photographer for our wedding, I didn’t just want anyone off the street. I had looked at several people’s work and talked to many photographers, but there was always something missing from their work that I had been searching for. When visiting a wedding expo, I came to his booth and knew immediately that this was the photographer I wanted to shoot my wedding! He doesn’t just take a photograph; he captures a moment in time! His photos evoke emotion more than just happiness. I could feel the joy and warmth of his subjects come to life. His use of color and composition set the stage for the perfect image to hang on your wall. Right off the bat, Joel was funny, extremely personable & amazing to work with! He made it fun to be photographed (especially if you don’t do well in front of the camera but love the end result). Joel really made the whole process very easy and enjoyable by explaining everything and answering all of our nitty gritty questions. And believe me, we had A LOT of questions! With every request, he did not disappoint! He mastered the skill of capturing our love and our personalities in every photo he took! Through his creativity that shows in our engagement & wedding photo album… I can’t help but smile, laugh and get a little teary eyed. It was such a great experience. If you are looking for a photographer for your wedding, I would highly recommend Joel Thomas!! I will definitely be using him again in the future for our family photos!!!

Big and loud is my specialty. That is exactly the family I come from. The “kid table” is all grown up now, but that just means we are louder. There are also 5 or 6 (hard to keep track) doctors in my immediate family… so I am very familiar with dominant personalities. I can be assertive if I need to be while still making sure everyone is happy and keeps on smiling for the camera!
I'm going to quote one of my favorite TV shows: "Fear is good. It keeps you from being a crappy doctor [photographer]. Trick is you just can't let it paralyze you." - Scrubs. The moment I'm not at least a little nervous before I do a wedding is the moment I should stop doing weddings because that means I've forgotten the importance of them.
Technology is constantly changing, but you can check out the gear page on my website to see what I have in there right now!

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