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Work that photographer, work it!

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So you’ve just had a flash of realisation that you don’t have the time or perhaps the skill to take pictures as well manage all the other details of your meeting or event, so you’re thinking about hiring a pro to do it for you.  Great!  You’re on your way to having some memorable shots and capturing your event in the best possible light.  What next?

Before you book, give some thought about what it is you will do with the photos during or post-event.  This will allow you to brief the photographer and ensure you receive the images that you want avoiding disappointments once the show is over.  It will also help determine the duration you book the photographer for, this is important as many of them work on a hourly rate. So if you just want a few shots of a keynote speaker or awards ceremony at the end of an evening you may need only book them for a shorter period – saving you money!

Many photographers will help you determine what you want but here’s a few examples to get you thinking about what you may want to capture;

  1. General reportage – the capture of the event in a casual and unobtrusive manner (informal)
  2. Formal staff headshots – opportunity to get these done with everyone in the same place at the same time!
  3. Contract signings / new agreements being made
  4. Group/team shots
  5. Awards ceremony
  6. Keynote speakers
  7. Key customers
  8. Staff with key customers
  9. Branding – good to use for portfolios to help organise future events
  10. The finer details – food / decor, such as flowers / menu cards / table displays

People skills

Talk with the photographer and meet them face to face if possible before confirming your booking. Most of all trust your intuition and ask yourself do they have good people skills as well as a experience?  Pro photographers may be able to take great pictures, but if they lack people skills and are going to be mingling amongst the CEOs and key customers at your event, you need to make sure they can do it with a friendly, but highly professional and discreet approach without being intrusive or rubbing people up the wrong way. As a marketeer, I’ve needed to use different photographers for different occasions depending on my needs. I came to know what photographers would and wouldn’t work in different situations with different people and worked with that knowledge to get the best from them.

Site inspections and rekkies

Inviting the photographer to do a rekkie of the venue before the event could be useful if they haven’t worked it before.  If the photographer can’t make it, they’ll probably arrive a little earlier than booked to have a quick look around and quickly suss out the best angles / use of lighting for the shots you need.

The photographers intuition

On the day, a good photographer will work hard and fast to get you the shots you need with minimum fuss.  An even better photographer with good people skills will just know when people have had enough of peering down a lens and being flashed at!  This is especially true during an event where there is food and alcohol circulating – there can be a short window after which people just want to enjoy themselves without it being captured on candid!

Have a quick chat with the photographer before and during (if possible) the shoot as well as when their time working for you comes to a close to ensure they’ve got everything you need captured ticked off.

One closing tip – it will work in your favour as an event organiser to give people a heads-up that there will be a photographer present – forewarned could be forearmed, i.e. with more make-up, more hair styling and tidier appearances as appropriate! Your colleagues and / or customers will appreciate the warning!

Have a great month!

Fiona

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