Event Photography - Probably the best business in the world - Page 2

You must firstly bear in mind that you will be working long and unsocial hours as you will be working while others are playing. You will be mostly working Friday and Saturday evenings, with some weekday evenings as well, if you specialise in ‘black-tie’ type event photography and if you are looking for equestrian, motor-sport or team-sport work then be prepared to be working all weekend from early mornings to late afternoons.

You will need patience for dealing both with your strange and varied clientele and with the vagaries of your equipment, which will misbehave at the most inconvenient moments. You must be able to keep a professional and courteous demeanour at ALL times if you want to make a success of the business of event photography. The absolute last thing you want to do is to be rude or get flustered, even if you have a queue of 20 people, the head of the queue is drunk and your printer has decided not to co-operate! Your ‘raison d’être’ must, at all times, be to make money by making a sale, which is where thinking outside the box when things go wrong becomes a necessity. Be creative and deal with the situation.

An example of this occurred last year when my assistant and I turned up to photograph a black tie dinner dance at Southampton Football Club’s St Mary’s Stadium. Now, having been there many times before, I knew that we would be setting up a mini-studio in ‘our’ bay window in the ‘Mick Channon’ Suite. When we arrived, we were told that because there were 480 people attending the event, the tables had overflowed into the bay window and therefore we could not set up there!

“No problem, we’ll set up in the ‘Terry Payne’ Suite opposite,” I said to the harassed official. “Ah no, that’s where the drinks reception for 480 people is taking place," was the reply. We could set up in there, after everyone had sat down for their meal but that meant that not only would we lose the substantial ‘arrivals’ sales but the guests would also be unaware that we were at the event at all!

My assistant was all for going home at that point but the only result of that would be an early night with no sales. Not good! Being used to coping with things going wrong and thinking outside the box, we did set up in the alternative room offered and by strategically placing a series of signs (yes – part of my ‘essential equipment’ list) pointing to where we were and ‘bribing’ the DJ to constantly mention our presence, with some free photos and a glass of his favourite beverage, we were eventually able to take over £700 at the end of the evening.

The final thing you need to be a successful event photographer is to take into account what the customer wants – not what you want to do. Now, you may want to print 12x8 pictures because you like the large size but the customer wants 7x5s because they are only buying a memento of the day and that size is convenient to carry round. It is easy, as a photographer, to become blinded by our own preferences and prejudices and to offer what we like or are used to, whether the customer wants it or not.

A well-known example of this is the Nottingham boot manufacturer whose long-established family business was failing as a result of cheap imports from the Far East. A business advisor suggested he consider changing his product to cater for the growing demand for ‘women’s style boots’ in men’s sizes for the cross-dressing market. Initially appalled, he quickly realised that this was a road he had to go down to prevent his business from becoming insolvent and, to cut a long story short, his business thrived by dint of his taking into account what the customer wanted and not what he wanted himself. Incidentally, this true story was turned into a popular film, titled Kinky Boots (2005).

The market for event photography is virtually unlimited and space precludes me from detailing the many different types here. The subject is covered in more depth in the ‘Event Photography for Profit’ one-day training courses, run monthly in conjunction with System Insight. Suffice to say that the market covers black-tie, schools, sports, universities, animals, charities and business, to name but a few.

The correct equipment is vital to successful event photography and contrary to popular belief and what others may tell you, I can guarantee that you could be up and running from a standing start, and making money, for less than £1,000 with some judicious purchases.

A reasonable quality digital camera is obviously the first pre-requisite. I am an unashamed Nikon user and love the D2Xs and the D200, particularly with the fast f2.8 Nikkor lenses. My favourite lens for most event work is the 17-55 f2.8 which gives the coverage I have found most useful. For Canon users, go for the 1D, 5D or 30D and Fuji’s S2, S3 and S5 are again superb cameras for most event work. A word of caution though; if you are going to concentrate on sports, motor sports or equestrian events you will need a camera with the ability to write files fairly quickly and a long and fast telephoto lens is essential. Don’t think, however, that you have to spend a fortune to get started in event photography.

Another major factor is the ability to print immediately or at least within a short time of taking the picture and this is where the latest model dye-sublimation printers come into their own.

For those not familiar with dye-sublimation technology, the machines basically work by ‘boiling’ (or sublimating) yellow, cyan and magenta dyes from a ribbon directly into the paper. This gives a ‘continuous tone’ photo-quality image unlike the ‘half-tone’ or ‘dithered’ image produced by inkjet printers using very high resolutions to achieve their results. Dye-sublimation printers also put a final layer or ‘overcoating’ on the pictures so they come out dry and ready to handle.

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Photo Quote: The thing that's important to know is that you never know. You're always sort of feeling your way. Diane Arbus