I’ve mentioned before that the winter seems to be the season for (business) awards evenings, and that this fills a lot of my diary. But one of the most pleasurable awards events that I shoot happens in autumn. It’s a series of evenings where the NCS (National Citizens Service) students graduate. NCS is a self development programme for 15-17 year olds throughout the country and for the past couple of years I’ve shot their graduation events run by the Stoke based YMCA … including this evening, down at the Lyceum Theatre in Crewe. Talk about using a fabulous venue!
These events are fast paced: a mixture of talks from graduates of the scheme, past and present, video presentations of many of the year’s activities, songs sung by several of the students, and a lot of certificates being handed out to groups. It’s non-stop, and needs constant concentration – a standard event, in other words!
Photographically, shooting a live event in a theatre is quite a challenge. While there are plenty of lights on the people onstage, they’re actually VERY bright, while the auditorium and lots of the stage area is incredibly dark. That contrast is a huge problem for camera sensors, and means a lot of hard work on my part to get photos that are exposed properly. On the other hand …… that huge range between bright and dark adds drama to the photos, as you can see.
It was a great night – hundreds of committed teenagers celebrating their achievements in a wonderful, eye catching venue.
Shooting events (whether in theatres, cafes, conference halls or just about anywhere you can think of) is something I’ve done for years. If you like what you see here, and have an event coming up that you think would benefit from being photographed properly, please get in touch.
