Photo notebook

Notes on recent event shoots

The event at Parliament and the event in the Wairarapa were both amazing learning experiences. I would like to do one more before then attempting to get paid for this work.

Wairarapa

  1. I was way too shy when shooting folks and I reckon I missed some big opportunities by not being a bit more interactive. That is a fear I need to overcome.
  2. I had a brand new (used) lens, which I used a lot. In hindsight this was really risky as those lenses — Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 — have a reputation for varying quality. I was lucky as the images were OK, but it could easily have been a different story.
  3. The client seemed very happy with the images and I was so pleased and relieved about that.
  4. I was still a little surprised how few keepers I had from the day… I took a lot of images but so many were binned, only 23 were given to the client. Now this could be a much higher number but I was strict on editing.
  5. Missing key moments: I needed to be switching lens more frequently between the two I was replying on, and it was also disappointing that I completely missed some moments – or at least had shots that were barely usable.
  6. It was a kaupapa Māori event and I was quite shy about photographing at moments that may have been sensitive, my understanding of tikanga is more than most pākehā but still very limited.

Gear list:

  1. Large timbuktu bag
  2. Bodies
    • D810 (not used, in the car)
    • Z8
  3. Lenses
    • 180-600 Z (not used, in the car)
    • 24-70 Z
    • Sigma 70-200mm 2.8 F (used heavily)
  4. Power
    • 4 ENL-15s
    • 8 spare AA eneloops
  5. Lighting
    • 1 flash
    • 1 controller (not used)
  6. In the car
    • tripod / monopod
    • cleaning stuff

Parliament

  • This was the first gig that I have photographed where I was either not the client or I was friends with the client
  • The light was very challenging
  • my jpeg settings (vivid colour etc) was really not good in terms of review and with the colourful stage lighting – it totally freaked me out as I reviewed them as everything appeared overexposed
    • CHANGE: use neutral, think about skin smoothing and high iso tweaks
  • The brief was not not to do crowd shots although that would have been a cool thing to try
  • The initial review of the JPGs was REALLY scary, they looked so bad. the RAW files were OK and responded well to noise reduction.
  • The MC: they were amazing but they did not look up much so they were very hard to capture, and while they were not a hurried talker, they did not really pause.
  • Host: semi-animated, relatively easy to shoot but did not pause much
  • speaker one: looked up a few times, good pace, did not move and was not animated, so most pictures look the same
  • speaker two: very lively and animated but photogenic, a lot of interesting shots. great eye contact with the audience, a joy to photograph
  • speaker three: halfway between, mostly the same set of mannerisms, so not a lot of variation, but had great eye contact with the audience. I should have gotten a bit closer to him.
  • panel: tricky, got closer to them for some shots, need to think more about this

Lessons:

  • get closer and don’t be afraid to get closer and be visible
  • move around more
  • try lower shutter speed at times to bring the mega high iso down
  • change lens more frequently – should carry the 24-70 around with the 180-600 (a 100-400 would be better for the smaller venues, and 70-200 for even smaller, and much less intimidating)
  • be more attentive to all venue staff, and especially the organiser
  • not being able to do video is going to be a big problem as it is essential for many events
  • adjust JPG format in event bank
  • adding copyright to the camera and enabling it for commercial gigs
  • need to strip metadata from my images before posting to the portfolio

What worked well:

  • white balance did capture the light well (flash or 5250k)
  • 180-600 reach and range was good, but a little slow
  • had everything I needed and more
  • the silence of the Z8 was really good

Gear list:

  1. Both timbuktu bags (only needed the smaller bag for the Z8 and 24-70
  2. Bodies
    • D810 (not used)
    • Z8
  3. Lenses
    • 180-600 Z
    • 24-70 Z
    • 35 F (not used)
    • 105 F (not used)
  4. Power
    • 4 ENL-15s
    • 8 spare AA eneloops
  5. Lighting
    • 1 flash (not used)
    • 1 controller (not used)
  6. not taken
    • tripod or monopod
    • cleaning stuff- that was a mistake, need to have this