A Mad and Wonderful Week
A few weeks ago I had a mad and wonderful week - and it’s only just really sunk in. So let me describe it to you!
For many months I’d had a wedding booked in for the 13th of September, I’d met with the lovely couple over a coffee and cake - and all was arranged. A few months pass and I’m contacted by an agency regarding a client of theirs looking for a headshot photographer - fantastic, right up my street.
I put in my my submission for the job, give them my day rate, and cross my fingers - a week passes and I’ve got the gig - amazing!
The dates I was initially given were for late September, but it turns out there was a mix-up and the job will be the 11th to the 12th! I look at the timings, the transport situation and figure I’m going to be tired for the wedding on the 13th, but it’s do-able and I’d be mad to turn down such an opportunity, so I’m in!
Details and more specifics get laid out, and I start planning what I am going to need for such a job - and more to the point, figuring out if can I lug all of it on the tube!
The event was to be held at the ExCeL centre in London, over two days, with 2000 attendees, I was there to provide headshots to those attendees, but there’s a catch - I can’t take the shots home, and edit - I have to live deliver them there and then!
So my equipment pile just had a tether cable, laptop and portable stand for the laptop added! Oh and of course my setup has to be flawless, as I can’t fix anything later.
I make some additional enquiries to hone in on how things are going to work on the day, and it turns out that there’s no backdrop provided by the vendor (often there is, due to branding), so that pile just got bigger as now I need to lug a portable background to.
My gear pile now has camera, lens, memory cards, studio flash, light stand, modifier, sand bags, laptop, tripods, reflector and even more that I have to get from home, to the event and back, without putting my back out.
The setup, everything here had to be lugged from Cornwall to London, in one bag, with a light stand in my spare hand!
Thankfully I’ve gotten incredibly good at packing, sorting and picking gear that gives me maximum effect, for minimal gear and weight.
Two invaluable bits of gear for me have been both made by Westcott, and whilst this isn’t an advert, I have to shout out their “Eye Lighter” reflector, it gives me a great clamshell lighting setup, whilst only using one light, and their “X-Drop” background is easy to setup and super lightweight.
Even better than great gear selection, is the Elizabeth line, it’s so easy to get off the train at Paddington, hop on that line, and get off at the ExCeL - it made this whole experience a breeze, though getting a light stand on and off a train during a rush period leads to a lot of “excuse me”, “so sorry” and “aahhh, watch your back”!
I arrive on site, for once without any train drama (if you know me, you know what I mean!)
Did I mention the ExCeL is huge? I didn’t? - well it really is, I’d looked on maps and figured it was big, but to be there in person, inside and setting up in just one of many areas within this gigantic building was a little overwhelming and utterly brilliant.
I rock up at the entrance - and I can all ready tell that this is going to be an overwhelming experience!
The next day I am shooting, the event is live, my gear is ready to go and I start meeting some really fun and lovely people! I’m there to update their headshot for professional and possibly personal use - many telling me that they’d not updated in years, or as always happens, they hate getting their photo taken, but the opportunity to do it for free was just to good to pass.
They did not pass the opportunity either! Over the two days I photograph a little under 400 people, or about 20% of the attendees to this event, and I deliver around 600 photos to those people. The queue for the booth was constant and never ending.
Thankfully my people skills aid me here, I’m both working with my sitter in that moment, and managing the queue, thanking people for their patience and cracking the odd joke to keep people happy, whilst simultaneously getting my next person comfortable in front of me with the camera, and the gathered crowds as I take their photo.
Pose is a dirty word to many, it invokes the idea of stiff, unnatural and awkward, so I try to consider my roll more about directing, talking the person through how I want them to sit, tilt their head, look at me etc
Given the crowds, the pressure is on me to do this correctly, but also efficiently, with enough personality and gentleness to keep everyone comfortable and looking their best. This is even more important when there’s no post production, no do-over, it’s three snaps, and pick one to be emailed there and then.
This image is from the event, and exactly what the attendee received! It went from camera, to laptop to email in the space of two minutes.
After day one, I was tired, after day two, I was proud of what I’d done, but also a little broken - and day two gave me a heart attack at the start.
That queue I mentioned, the one that never went away, well it turns out I was indeed the most popular booth at the event, and so much so, that my queue was causing the health and safety guys to sweat. I arrived on site ready for round two - only to find my gear was missing, gone, vanished! My heart was in my throat as I looked for someone to shine a light on what happened!
Turns out, that because my queue stretched out in to areas that shouldn’t be blocked, they’d picked my gear up and moved me to a place that was more manageable, and just neglected to tell me!
After a laugh later and re-setting up, it was a good job they’d moved me, because the queue was back with ferocity and the day blurred by as I photographed even more people!
A side note about my booth, it was so busy - that other booths sent their marketing guys to hang around the line and do their thing!
After the day concluded, a few goodbyes to people I’d met during the job, I packed my gear, grabbed the tube and started my journey back home - arriving at 11PM, and snoring by midnight, I’d got lenses to clean, batteries to charge and a wedding to shoot the next day… oh and another event.
The week before the mad one, a request went out for a photographer to cover two hours in the evening of the 13th for a company dinner and awards ceremony - so I booked that in to - because I’m mad!
This job certainly offers variety and I love it! Two days of shooting corporate headshots, followed by a wedding on the moors - capturing candid, beautiful fleeting moments between the bride and groom with their attending guests! Followed by a Big Mac thrown down my throat before going to a business dinner and awards evening at a local golf course.
From corporate headshots at a mad event, to lush greens and candid moments - what a transition!
Busy weeks like that are exhausting, but fun and a real reminder that I’m doing this, I am bending life to what I want and actually achieving it - and I am so proud of that week and pulling it off.