I’ve been photographing business events for years now, and the truth is that photography skills, while important, are only a small part of what you need to succeed.
One of the vital ingredients is the ability to be unobtrusive.
Now, modern cameras are a lot quieter (most are silent in fact) than even a decade ago, but there’s more to it than that. Just because you have a silent shutter doesn’t mean that your presence hasn’t been noticed.
No, what I mean are soft skills that can only be developed over time and through practice. When I started out a long time ago, the practice of shooting candid event photography usually meant standing on the outside of an event and pointing a long lens at people across the room. It resulted in some decent shots, but interactive moments between people were lost. As was a sense of being up close and right next to what was happening. So would you believe me when I said that it’s possible to stand in the middle of a crowded room, camera to my eye, and be invisible to the people around me? Well it is.
It’s hard to explain exactly, but it’s all about mindset and how I behave in that situation. It requires confidence firstly – the confidence to simply stand there amongst strangers. Sure, they’ll notice me initially, but then after a few seconds they’ll return to their conversations. Their brains have told me that I have a right to be there, that I’m part of the event. That’s when I can start working, looking for moments developing between people.
Similarly, and this happens frequently, I have to move around a crowded room with minimum noise and disturbance. Not always easy, but necessary to get good shots. Of course, sometimes a room is so packed that movement isn’t possible. In such situations, it’s a case of using my experience and composition skills to create the best shots available. Shooting through the audience, using people to frame the shot, elevating my viewpoint to include as much as possible – whatever it takes to get the shot, basically.
As an example, here are a few frames from a particularly busy fire safety event I covered last year. Great event, really well organised, but boy was it busy! All the skills I’ve described above were necessary to get results for my client.
Of course, a busy event means it’s been a success, and that’s what we all want. But, as I’m tried to explain above, that’s why it’s worth hiring a professional to capture it properly for you – it’s simply the best way to show just how great it was.
Want to tell me about your forthcoming event and get a quotation? Just get in touch, I’d be happy to talk.
