I think that one of the most important things I can do when shooting event photos is to focus down on the small moments. It doesn’t matter if the event is a handful of people sitting around a table or – as here – five hundred in a Victorian Hall, there are numerous little moments happening. People seeing one another for the first time in ages and sharing a hug; a joke passed between friends; a roll of the eyes at how awful that joke is; that feeling of elation as the winner is announced; the moment of pride as your daughter walks onstage to receive an award …. the list goes on and on. But they’re all individual human moments; and they’re what make an event a memorable occasion.
So I see part of my job as being to record as many of them as possible and include them in my record of what went on.
This event, from last autumn, is a great example of that. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, I was asked to shoot the awards evenings for the NCS at a series of presentations. On this occasion, that meant travelling down to Stoke, for a night in the King’s Hall where 500 teenagers and their proud parents shared memories of a year spent learning new skills, making new friends, and doing things for the community. (If you don’t know about the NCS scheme, it’s well worth checking out. Things will be a bit different this year due to Lockdown and it’s impact, but the scheme is still operating – link to their website is here).
At a time when I simply don’t know when I’ll shoot an event like this again, it’s great to look back at an evening like this. Not being able to attend events really drives home the importance of event photos that recreate moments don’t you think? Great to have been able to help preserve these memories for this group of people; and to have created photos that will help promote the scheme to future cohorts.
