Commercial Event Photographer
Freeman, a global trade show and events design company, sought a commercial photojournalist to cover the Vidcon event at the Anaheim Convention Complex. The wanted someone that could capture their design and the feel of the event. They also needed quick delivery the images for social media. They did not want an event photographer, per se, but someone who could campture the color and intereaction of the people there.
I focused on anticipating moments of people responding emotionally and used short lenses with as little depth of field as possible to photograph facial expressions. I also, shot to an iPad at times so the client could send event images out for social media.
Everything is a story to me and it matters not if I am working as a commercial event photographer, shooting coporate lifestyle for a financial firm or narrating scientists working a pharmaceutical lab, my objective is always the same. To create a story about the people I am photographing that suits the my client's needs.
I think the best results are when the client just cuts me loose on an event as happened here at Vidcon. I was able to find authentic moments without choreographing much. That said, we do spend a lot of time learning what the client is seeking, going over their style sheets and lists of must-have images. We also usually do a pre-production Zoom meeting to make sure everyone body is on the same page.
When the clients wants images from our location, we can often shoot to iPad, make selects on the fly and send from our locaiton. For this we chage a kit fee of $150 per day for the iPad and transmitter. Most clients do not have such urgency, so then we post images to an Adobe gallery for final selections which we later upload to a Dropbox folder for delivery to the client.