event photography

Working with news photographers at your event

If you’re planning a corporate event or any other type of event that you hope will attract the news media, then you may need some tips on how to work with the news or press photographers who will attend.

While the six media relations tips provided in that linked article may sound obvious, many companies, both big and small, can get it very wrong. It was no secret that Canada’s previous federal Conservative government was horrendously bad at running press conferences and photo ops.

“Photojournalists are not there to make your client look bad or good. We are there to represent the truth to the best of our ability and strive to maintain objectivity at all costs,” advised [Amber] Bracken [President of the News Photographers Association of Canada]. “At the same time, we also strive to capture the world beautifully, your client included.”

You need non-partisan press photographers to cover your event or photo opportunity so your company might earn the media blessing. Editorial photography published by news outlets is the most credible type of information. People trust what they see in a newspaper or magazine.

Similarly, most public relations photography and press release photography should also be editorial in nature and contain human interest. The best way to achieve this is to hire a photographer who has a journalism background and who has worked for a news publication.

 

Best Face Forward

It’s often been reported (more examples here and here) that employers often check a job applicant’s background by viewing the applicant’s social media presence. I always thought these news articles were exaggerated.

While photographing an event today, a group of guests motioned me over. They wanted to talk about cameras and photography. The conversation turned to how they use photos at their jobs.

Their jobs: one person does the Canadian hiring for an international engineering company; another does the hiring for a technology company; the third does the hiring for a department of a major Canadian bank.
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Getting what you paid for

For the past few years, a Canadian TV network would hire five photographers to cover an annual live event that it hosted and broadcasted. The photos were used for its web sites, media handouts and its annual report. The photographers were each paid $2,000 to cover the four-hour event.

The photo procedure for the event is that full-resolution pictures, for third-party news media use, are posted online within 15 minutes after it happens. This occurs continuously throughout the duration of the event. Lower resolution images are also quickly posted to the TV network’s various web sites. Two photo editors and a card runner are hired to do this work.

Last year, someone at the TV network decided to save some money by hiring only two photographers and then filling the gap by using three of its employees. The TV network rented three pro cameras, three pro lenses and one pro flash for these employees to use. The cameras were set to auto-everything.
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Conference Notes

There are many online articles offering tips to photographers on how to photograph a business conference. The authors of these articles usually give such wonderful photo advice as: bring a spare battery, carry an extra memory card, take pictures of the people speaking, etc.

For something completely different, may I humbly offer a few suggestions to conference organizers who plan on hiring a photographer to cover their event. Not only am I a photographer who has covered many conferences and conventions, both local, national and international, but I’m also someone who has helped organize a few small conferences.

Conference photography is of secondary importance compared to the conference itself and your attendees. But a few changes can make the photography better and more effective.
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A Photo Opportunity Without Any Opportunity

Yesterday I photographed a press event / photo op / reception in Toronto. It had bad lighting, bad staging and bad media flaks. It was run by the Prime Minister’s Office.

For “security reasons,” the media had to be searched both by police and by sniffer dog. The audience? They just walked in.

There were lots of rules for the media: where to stand, where not to go, what not to shoot. Reporters weren’t allowed to ask any questions nor interview anyone. The audience? They could do anything they wanted.

The audience was standing and the three political VIPs (Canadian Prime Minister and two European Union presidents) were seated on a low stage. This meant that when the three were seated, (far enough apart to prevent a group picture), they could barely be seen by the photographers and TV cameras who were on a riser at the back of the room:
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Pass on this pass

With the proliferation of cameras and web sites, almost everyone is claiming to be a photographer or a journalist. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a wedding – portrait photographer asking how he can get a Press ID card. And, he was in a hurry because he wanted to get into an event this weekend.

My answer was: Press ID cards are for people who work for the Press.

If you run any event in Canada, be aware that there is no such thing as a generic “Press card” or “Press pass”. Anyone who tries to use such a card to gain entry to your event is a fraud.

Anything that simply says “PRESS PASS”, “PRESS” or “MEDIA” is fake. A business card is not a press pass.
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Toronto Film Festival 2012

With apologies for the length of this post, here’s my annual rant:

The 37th edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is underway. From a photographers’ point of view, TIFF has always been considered to be very poorly-run event. Although from a movie-goer’s point of view, the film festival might be heaven.

I’ve been covering the film festival since 1988 and little has changed over the years. Off hand, I can count only four positive changes over the past 24 years:

(i) A photo pit was covered to protect against rain;
(ii) Many steel barricades were covered;
(iii) A red carpet was relocated from the small east side of a theatre to the much larger west side;
(iv) The central hub of the film festival (TIFF’s new building) has fast wifi (which works about half of the time – perhaps it’s overloaded during the festival?).

Let’s look at a few things (in no particular order):

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