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“Show Notes”
Are you leaving money on the table? Marcus breaks down event photography, a high value, high pressure genre that perfectly complements your commercial photography marketing. Learn how to capture the atmosphere and emotion that brands need for their future campaigns.
• The Preparation Blueprint: Discover the essential questions you must ask your client before the day begins to guarantee you capture the client’s full vision.
• The Gear Guarantee: Discover the essential equipment setup you must adopt to guarantee reliability and professional results in unpredictable, low light venues.
• The Relationship Advantage: Learn the powerful, simple strategy borrowed from wedding experts that helps you turn venues and speakers into your best source of repeat bookings.
“Show Transcription”
00:03.29
Sam Hollis
Hello Marcus, how are you?
00:06.21
Marcus Ahmad
I am very well. Thank you, Simon. How are you?
00:09.87
Sam Hollis
Excellent, very, very good. I’m just ah adjusting my microphone and things. Excellent. um And today, Marcus, um I understand you’re going to be talking about how we can integrate a different type of photography into our business.
00:23.58
Marcus Ahmad
and Indeed I am, Sam. In fact, it’s something that is not often talked about and doesn’t really get the attention it deserves. I’m going to be tur talk talking about event photography.
00:38.92
Sam Hollis
Event photography. Excellent. Well, over to you, Marcus. You are the main event of the show.
00:43.21
Marcus Ahmad
Okay, so… ha it’s very Well done. Very good. Good segue. So when people think of events, they often picture conferences or awards nights.
00:55.66
Marcus Ahmad
And yes, that’s a big part of it. And in fact, at the moment, I am in deep event season, conferences all over the place. um And I’ve certainly noticed that it’s a growing market.
01:08.37
Marcus Ahmad
Well, certainly for me, anyhow. But event photography also
01:11.15
Sam Hollis
Okay. So when you say event season, kind of when is that roughly?
01:15.33
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, um ah well, we’re in the winter now and I think that seems to be quite a busy time for it. You know, I guess it’s when when businesses, you know, they’re winding down or they want to have a recap for the year.
01:22.55
Sam Hollis
Okay.
01:27.93
Marcus Ahmad
Who knows? But yeah, it’s roughly about the season now.
01:32.51
Sam Hollis
Okay.
01:32.91
Marcus Ahmad
um But it’s it’s not just um about awards. It does cover event photography, brand launches, small business gatherings, retreats, network sessions, or even live workshops.
01:46.32
Marcus Ahmad
And in this episode, i’m going to break down what event photography really is, what to expect, the kind of equipment that helps, and how to prepare for the day.
01:57.16
Marcus Ahmad
what happens on site, how to handle the editing and most importantly, how to find work in this space. So what is
02:05.95
Sam Hollis
Perfect, Marcus. Sounds interesting. Right. Where are starting?
02:09.83
Marcus Ahmad
So what is event photography? At its heart, it’s about storytelling under pressure. It’s capturing those moments that only happen once. The energy of the room, the connections that are being made, the atmosphere, and turning them into a visual narrative that the client can then use afterwards.
02:31.40
Marcus Ahmad
You’re shooting for emotion, interaction, and context. And for a brand, These photos become a way to extend the life of the event for marketing, PR and, of course, for social media.
02:45.19
Marcus Ahmad
But also, individuals find a way to remember and relive those key moments. So as an event photographer, you’re sitting somewhere between, I don’t know, a documentary and a brand storytelling.
03:00.83
Marcus Ahmad
You’re a visual journalist, a brand ambassador and a people watcher all rolled into one.
03:08.46
Sam Hollis
Wow, i don’t know how get any time to breathe doing all of that, Marcus.
03:11.85
Marcus Ahmad
Do you know what? It’s a busy day, Sam. It is a busy day and it can be a long day. I’m going to be talking about that. um But as I say, it’s I’ve been doing photographing conferences now for maybe three or four years, especially as I’ve been doing brand photography because it links in nicely with that.
03:29.82
Marcus Ahmad
And I do see it as a growing ah it is great’s a growing market. Maybe because of post-COVID, it’s an opportunity for people to get together. I don’t know. um Maybe it’s a way that companies can…
03:41.17
Marcus Ahmad
finance or event companies can make more money? I don’t know, but certainly I’m finding it’s growing. um So let’s talk about gear. um With your equipment, it’s going to be, you need reliability and flexibility. flexibility You’re often working in changing light, moving through crowds and reacting quickly.
04:03.27
Marcus Ahmad
So your equipment needs to keep up with you. An event, a typical event setup might be a couple, well, certainly two camera bodies, and you do need two camera bodies. Even if you only use one, you need one as a spare.
04:18.51
Marcus Ahmad
But you want to set one up with a… wide to standard lens, maybe a zoom like a 24 to 70. um And the other one with a telephoto zoom and like like a 70 to 200. And certainly that 70 to 200 is a mainstay of the event photography world.
04:40.12
Marcus Ahmad
um And certainly as what
04:40.39
Sam Hollis
So that’s kind of for you picking out the person on the stage, you need to get close to them, that sort of thing.
04:45.64
Marcus Ahmad
Exactly. Well, exactly.
04:46.39
Sam Hollis
They’re at a distance.
04:47.44
Marcus Ahmad
it helps you move helps you move around the room with your lenses. I’ve just gone and according got another new 70-200, well, secondhand.
04:58.01
Marcus Ahmad
And yeah, they it certainly… You you need… good quality equipment, and also you need fast lenses as well, Sam, because often is the case, it’s very dark in these places, incredibly dark.
05:07.63
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
05:12.50
Marcus Ahmad
um So you need some things with apertures of 2.8 or even faster.
05:12.69
Sam Hollis
Yeah, yeah. And then what’s your… Yeah, of course.
05:18.79
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, go on.
05:18.63
Sam Hollis
Whoa. Okay. And what’s your thought on um having two shooters? So taking someone else with you.
05:26.90
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, I’ve never done that. I don’t think you need to. I don’t think you need to. I think you’ve just got be really active. and it it Look, it could be done. And certainly I work with video crews and that is that is the norm.
05:41.62
Marcus Ahmad
But with another shooter, I don’t often see it unless it’s a really big event.
05:41.74
Sam Hollis
Yeah. Yeah.
05:47.65
Sam Hollis
Okay. Yeah, I guess if it’s kind of the event where they want like a photo of everybody coming in, you might need another because they could do that while you were doing the room and stuff.
05:47.82
Marcus Ahmad
But yeah, look, why not? Okay.
05:53.51
Marcus Ahmad
ah Okay. Yeah, I see what you’re saying, Sam. Yeah. Okay, that’s a good point. Yeah. You somebody might check ah you might have another photographer who set a headshot booth up or something like that. That could definitely work. And i’ve yeah, I’ve seen that done.
06:09.00
Marcus Ahmad
So you’ve got… You need… ah reliable equipment, but fast lenses, so you’ll need and an on-camera speed light, um which you might not use in the main room, but you might have to do some meet and greets or like what we call a step and repeat board, so which is when you have a ah a board with logos on and people come in front of it.
06:29.82
Marcus Ahmad
And that could be, you have to photograph people in front of that.
06:29.97
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
06:32.94
Marcus Ahmad
So that’s where your flash would come. Yeah.
06:34.18
Sam Hollis
It feels a bit like the end of the Tour de France or the Grand Prix.
06:35.02
Marcus Ahmad
Well,
06:37.16
Marcus Ahmad
yeah yeah well except it’s inside under very bad lighting but yeah it is just like that ah it’s the red carpet thing sam you know that we all know and know very well um yeah and certainly you might just be even pulled in for the job just to do the red carpet you’re all these step and repeat and there are jobs that i do where all i do is to step and repeat um yeah so that’s
06:47.26
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
06:50.05
Sam Hollis
yeah
07:02.87
Marcus Ahmad
That could be the case, but um um certainly an on camera flash is what you need. Spare batteries and memory cards. If you’re using VR lenses, you will be going through the batteries like nobody’s business it and mirrorless cameras as well. So you do need a lot of spare batteries.
07:19.79
Marcus Ahmad
VR lenses, Sam, I can see looking at them quizzically there, are vibration reduction lenses. the The lenses that will basically you have got little motor inside well so you can shoot at lower shutter speeds.
07:26.84
Sam Hollis
Ah, okay.
07:33.59
Sam Hollis
Oh, okay. Presumably that’s mainly for the the more telephoto lenses.
07:35.25
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah.
07:38.43
Marcus Ahmad
Exactly right, Sam. It’s definitely for the telephoto lenses. Very useful. You don’t really know it’s working, but you do see it they do it it does eat up the batteries. And finally, you need comfortable bag and good shoes because you will be walking miles.
07:48.04
Sam Hollis
I can imagine.
07:55.75
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. And up and down stairs.
07:57.15
Sam Hollis
and what if what And what’s your thought about weight of equipment?
08:00.14
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. Go on, Sam.
08:01.37
Sam Hollis
Do you consider that?
08:02.34
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah.
08:02.37
Sam Hollis
Because if you’re carrying two camera bodies and lenses, that’s heavy.
08:03.45
Marcus Ahmad
Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. It’s heavy. And yeah if I’m um so, yes, I do consider it, Sam. ah And. I would definitely be packing a different bag depending depending on the event.
08:18.12
Marcus Ahmad
um if If the client, I know the client wants the the f pictures is really quickly, the photographs quickly, going to take my laptop with me and that’s going to add a lot of weight. So if I don’t have the take that, I’ll avoid it.
08:30.26
Marcus Ahmad
um Sometimes and I might not take certain lenses. Like, for example, I might not take my super wide lenses and I might do that on my phone instead if they really want those.
08:41.66
Marcus Ahmad
So, yeah, I am always thinking about the weight because that bag gets very heavy to carry around. Yeah. it’s ah It’s quite draining on the body.
08:48.09
Sam Hollis
Cool. Right. Let’s move on from equipment, Marcus.
08:50.88
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah.
08:51.37
Sam Hollis
What else have we got?
08:52.96
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. um Okay. But just to add, just one more thing on equipment, Sam, that is about sometimes you might need, if if you’ve got it ah ah on your mirrorless camera, you can put them onto silent shooting mode, which can sometimes be, if you’re in a very closed environment, can be very, very useful.
08:59.58
Sam Hollis
Come on then. Only one.
09:11.88
Marcus Ahmad
I don’t have that option. I just have a beep.
09:13.69
Sam Hollis
Okay.
09:14.32
Marcus Ahmad
I do. I am aware of that. So um let’s move on to expectations and preparations. So before the day, preparation is everything. Have a clear brief from the client and you’ve got to ask the questions.
09:28.24
Marcus Ahmad
What are the purposes of these images? who’s the key Who are the key people or VIPs? Are there any must-have shots or brand elements to include? And where will the photos be used?
09:40.54
Marcus Ahmad
Is it on the socials? Is it on websites? it on press? um And the and reason why these folk these questions are important is, like, for example, if it’s going to be, I know an event’s going to go out on Reels, I know that I’ve got to shoot a lot portrait images.
09:59.28
Marcus Ahmad
If it’s going to be for a website, it’s going to tend to be more landscape images or for LinkedIn. ah So that’s why it’s important to find those. and when am i And when I’m talking about,
10:08.85
Sam Hollis
Yeah. And I think um asking is so important, isn’t it, Marcus? Because if you just assume the client’s going to tell you what they want, it’s just going to be in their head.
10:13.04
Marcus Ahmad
yeah, yeah.
10:16.44
Sam Hollis
They’re not going to tell you. the end of the day, you’re going to have the right shots. They’re going to be disappointed. You’ve got to ask. And then they it’ll be in there, won’t it? But you do have to ask those questions and to bring it out.
10:26.68
Marcus Ahmad
You do have to, I mean, look they don’t know that, they you know, you you have to ask the questions unless you’re dealing with a big marketing key team, which is often the case.
10:30.13
Sam Hollis
yeah
10:34.16
Marcus Ahmad
And they might know it, that they might know it. But certainly these days, you know, you have to shoot landscape and portrait. So of each, you know, sometimes each shot, if it’s somebody, if is if it’s their key speaker.
10:45.59
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. And yeah, and find out what’s the vibe, what’s the brand, what is their brand. and And I did a a little bit in on a newsletter a little while ago, Sam, about ah ah talking about shooting to a brand ah ah identity when you’re doing an event.
10:54.41
Sam Hollis
Thank you.
11:02.59
Marcus Ahmad
So, for example, there’s an event that I’m doing um and next in a couple of weeks in London, and I know their brand is really dark, so I’m going to be really shooting with lots of black backgrounds, so it will look really nice in their websites.
11:16.21
Marcus Ahmad
So those are the kind of things you can find out. You can find out whether they’re going to have any logos around. um There’s going to be any branding, any bags and stuff like that. And you want to make sure you include all those kind of things.
11:29.62
Sam Hollis
Yeah, makes sense.
11:31.14
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah. And obviously, what you the the most important part you need is a running order.
11:32.43
Sam Hollis
Cool.
11:37.44
Marcus Ahmad
So you can make sure that when the speakers come on stage, that you’re there to record them as soon as they do it. Because sometimes if they well these things can happen very quickly.
11:48.98
Sam Hollis
Yeah, you don’t want be stuck and that’s the moment you decided to go to the loo and you miss the main event, do you?
11:54.15
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, you know, and that’s like yeah that’s very practically what could happen as well. Yeah, definitely.
12:00.15
Sam Hollis
Okay.
12:00.54
Marcus Ahmad
So i’ll just give have a little bit of water here.
12:04.38
Marcus Ahmad
So on the day. So ah event days are all about staying calm, observant and ready. So arrive early. So you’ve got time to check the lighting conditions and test your settings before people arrive.
12:20.52
Marcus Ahmad
You want to talk to your organizer, confirm the key shots and running order again. And then once the event starts, you want to start putting your mind into anticipating and observing.
12:32.91
Marcus Ahmad
um yeah and I cannot emphasize that enough you really you just go into this mode of where you’re really really really looking or I certainly do and you’re hyper hyper aware
12:47.05
Marcus Ahmad
and what the kind of things you’re looking for the kind of things you’re looking for are those unscripted and authentic moments between people like when they’re gathering in the before the event you’re looking for those handshakes those smile with
12:47.62
Sam Hollis
Excellent.
12:59.88
Marcus Ahmad
people smiling at each place, people laughing at each other. And that’s when you’re going bring in that long lens and you might go in tight um or whatever, you know, and and then ah tint anticipating about what’s going to happen.
13:15.31
Marcus Ahmad
You’ve got to be aware of the competition in the background, make sure there’s no awkward backdrops that can ruin the shot or people doing things in the background that you don’t really want.
13:26.21
Marcus Ahmad
And one thing that I’ve learned is keeping an eye on the light. You’ve got to look around, Sam, for those little pools of light, you know, either by windows, if you’ve got windows, or spotlights coming down, where you can, it will just make your photographs look good.
13:43.23
Marcus Ahmad
Because obviously, you want to make good photography.
13:44.50
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
13:46.62
Marcus Ahmad
And invariably, the lighting is really bad.
13:47.50
Sam Hollis
Yeah. And as you say, light is an issue at a lot of these events. Yeah.
13:51.27
Marcus Ahmad
It really is, Sam. And so you’ve got to start looking around and knowing what will work well and and and use that. And you’re almost just going to stay in one spot for a little while and wait where the light is good and waiting for things to happen in that spot.
14:07.44
Sam Hollis
yeah Amazing. Right. Anything else, Marcus, on our journey through event photography?
14:12.18
Marcus Ahmad
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes, yes. How many of the time? OK, yeah, OK. So let’s talk about um editing and delivery. So once the event’s done and the work is the work isn’t over, editing is where you bring it all together.
14:27.67
Marcus Ahmad
So you’re looking for a clean, consistent look with natural skin tone, balanced light and a touch of polis. Now, that’s an ideal. Let me tell you, sometimes that’s not the case because you are dealing with mixed lighting where we get what you get cross curves.
14:42.32
Marcus Ahmad
You might have daylight coming across, you know, with at one color temperature and you might have tungsten light with another color so it’s you’ve got to just be your editing style has got to match that and you know just go with it you’ve got to be really good at this so
14:57.92
Sam Hollis
Yeah, yeah. And then presumably also speed is of the essence because I presume with it being an event, especially if they want it on social media, you know, they want it right away.
15:03.28
Marcus Ahmad
well yes
15:07.37
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, I’m going to talk about that. But yeah, let’s yeah exactly right, Sam. Speed is really important. That’s what they want. They want you want to be delivering those photographs within 24 to 48 hours.
15:19.92
Sam Hollis
Yeah, yeah.
15:21.09
Marcus Ahmad
And so you’ve got be you’ve got to you haven’t got time to go mad on the cropping or the editing and dropping in, you know, dodge, you know, not dodging, um cloning and doing that kind of thing and getting rid of getting rid of stuff.
15:33.75
Marcus Ahmad
You’ve got to get it all. You’ve got to get it right in camera.
15:38.25
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
15:38.77
Marcus Ahmad
So there’s minimal editing.
15:38.97
Sam Hollis
And then, so then the editing is much quicker. yeah
15:41.59
Marcus Ahmad
ah Exactly, Sam. yeah And so it’s much, much quicker. You’re almost in a copy and paste event.
15:45.75
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
15:46.18
Marcus Ahmad
Because look, I mean, look on a typical day, I mean, how many, I’m going to suit maybe a shoot maybe 800 images. I’m going to be delivering 400, you know, maybe 300, 400. I know, is that high?
15:57.84
Marcus Ahmad
I don’t know, but that’s what I do. And the client seems to be happy with that or demand that.
16:01.25
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
16:02.59
Marcus Ahmad
So yeah, you know, you don’t have to spend too long editing it.
16:05.36
Sam Hollis
So in some ways the editing should be as much simply selection as anything else.
16:10.73
Marcus Ahmad
Exactly right, Sam. Exactly right. Exactly. Okay, let’s get into the last bit on how we find work and how you build a reputation doing this. So the relationship is, it is relationship driven and most opportunities as they do come from word of mouth, repeat clients and partners, partnerships with venues or event organizers.
16:33.52
Marcus Ahmad
But you start local, start with your own networking events, your own meetups, and make sure you deliver those images quickly and soon your reputation will grow.
16:45.29
Marcus Ahmad
thing that wedding photographers do, and i you know I think we can learn a lot about the marketing side from wedding photographers, so is that they tag venues, they tag speakers, um it in the post and on the pictures.
16:56.55
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
16:58.31
Marcus Ahmad
And I think that’s a great way of moving forward. ah
17:02.11
Sam Hollis
Yeah. And then we also, Marcus, I think talking about that, we’ve got lots of shows where we talk about working for free.
17:02.67
Marcus Ahmad
You can…
17:06.56
Sam Hollis
There’s a specific one, haven’t we, of kind of, if you are going to try and get started, if you are going to work for free, that’s okay.
17:08.26
Marcus Ahmad
Yes. Yeah.
17:13.34
Sam Hollis
But yeah, definitely listen to our show because it’s like, don’t just do any old thing for free. There’s really specific things you need to think about. So go and listen to the show on that.
17:20.77
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, excellent. so Yeah, definitely do that. um So ah but the the main ah people that I work with events are on the aid are the marketing but marketing departments of these big companies.
17:33.07
Marcus Ahmad
um And so ideally, if you’re going to be once you’ve got a portfolio together, those are the kind of people you want to be contacting. ah PR agencies, brand managers, and event planners. Yeah.
17:44.84
Sam Hollis
Perfect. Sounds good. Lots of networking then, Marcus.
17:47.38
Marcus Ahmad
So let’s just do that. It is networking. um Yes, it is. And it a is worth it. it’s a you know it’s It’s a good genre to get into. it’s And event photography is all about capturing energy and emotion in real time.
17:56.84
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
18:01.52
Marcus Ahmad
It’s fast moving, people focused and rewarding when you get it what right. The gear helps, but mindset and awareness are everything.
18:07.31
Sam Hollis
Yeah.
18:10.21
Marcus Ahmad
Let’s finish on that. Okay, Sam, were are you going say something?
18:11.25
Sam Hollis
And in some ways, although we’re end up commercial photographers, in some ways this sounds like a perfect opportunity as well to fill the winter for wedding photographers. You’ve almost got an opposite season. And in some ways, the skill sets in terms of that capturing things as they’re happening overlap a lot.
18:27.02
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, yeah. um’ I think there’s a big overlap there. But maybe the the thing is, Sam, it’s a different market, isn’t it? So maybe that’s where you need those two websites and two business heads on.
18:36.76
Sam Hollis
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. that’s it the skills are the same but yeah yeah definitely the the customers are so different
18:40.22
Marcus Ahmad
But yeah, yes.
18:45.49
Marcus Ahmad
Yeah, yes. Oh, there is one thing I didn’t say, Sam, there’s one thing I didn’t mention, and I think we we have had a show on this and it’s about shooting in cross genres. If you really want to get your eye in for doing event photography, I really recommend doing street photography because that is a place where things happen unexpectedly and you have to react to it very, very quickly and have, you know, have your eye and fingers trained in towards that to react to that environment.
19:11.54
Sam Hollis
There we go. And there’s shows on that. Well, Marcus, thank you very much.
19:17.14
Marcus Ahmad
Thank you, Sam.
19:17.42
Sam Hollis
So, yeah, really cool show. um Lots to learn. New genre, perhaps, for people to kind of fit into their existing business or to learn more about. um And I will see you next week, Marcus.
19:29.45
Marcus Ahmad
See you next week, Sam.
