The project was a challenge because I wanted a sense of elegance in the photographs, rather than a simple documentation of a tourist spot in Central Park. I didn’t want crowds of people around which is tough for summer in Central Park. I found that even when I got wide shots of the whole pond I wasn’t getting the detail and ambiance that I was looking for. There was too many things going on in the photo, and the stonework wasn’t getting it’s fair due.

Then I switched to a long lens, one which I normally use for portraits and snap! I started getting the look I was going for. I was able to get amazing results, using the marble and water as graphic elements. I’m really excited about what I came home with that day. Here are a few samples from the session.

What made this shoot a success was three things: timing, patience, and experimentation. I made sure to shoot at a time when the light looked the way I wanted it to, I took my time waiting for the crowds to clear and to think about my options, and I experimented with wide and long lenses until I was able to capture the sort of images that I wanted to get.

Plus I didn’t drop any gear in the water, which I consider to be a success for any shoot.

It mostly a grip and grin assignment and pretty run of the mill. However, at one point I wandered over to the trophy and happened to catch a great moment. Bud Selig’s signature is engraved in the bottom of the trophy and the former NYPD cop who guards the trophy tilted it up to show the bottom. The group of guys were clearly big Yankees fans and were very excited to see something that most people don’t. It was one of those occasions where I was in the right place at the right time and made a great image. I don’t aspire to be a reportage photographer, but I certainly do appreciate these little snapshots (literally) of the human experience.

But no matter what happens, you’ve got to think on your feet with this job. Even if the client shows up with their own set, you’ve got to stay calm, take things in stride and get the shot. The more times you get blind sided the better prepared you are for being not prepared.

I’ll post the final shots from the session once they are published.

In the meantime, here is a shot from the nearly lost corrupt flash card of Minneapolis in the morning…kinda has a sci-fi feel, no?

Now, a note on that last statement. I am not talking about wedding photography when I say events. I’m talking about corporate event photography. And while I risk starting a flame war here, I would be willing to say that there are far more competent wedding photographers than there are competent corporate event photographers. When I try to locate examples and tips and advice about event photography, it is almost always about weddings, which is an entirely different animal to your basic corporate event.

Let me break this down a bit. At a wedding, people expect, if not beg, to have their photo taken. There is an understanding that having your photo taken at a wedding is part of the gift you are giving the bride and groom to remember their day, and that to avoid the camera would be depriving them of their happy memories. The photog usually is able to use flash, have an assistant, and have a dedicated period of time for photography (for at least the wedding party). And for the guests there is usually tons of booze making it easy to forget about the photographer.

At a corporate event things are very different. First, there isn’t any booze, at least during the day sessions. And if there is booze at the cocktail hours and dinners, they don’t want anyone having their picture taken while they’re drinking, so you have to get creative to crop out wine glasses etc. But most of all, people don’t really want to have their photos taken at corporate events. They are there to work, and not to have fun. Sometimes they fake having fun if they need to for their jobs, but they don’t want photographic evidence of it.

So here’s the problem that I face. I walk into the room usually with a slightly hostile crowd who doesn’t want their photo taken in the first place. Furthermore, they are generally sitting listening to a lecture, or taking notes, or sleeping. Hard to get exciting shots under those circumstances. There isn’t time for me to build up a rapport, or to be there passively for so long that they get used to me. I have a short period of time to build a library of images for the client, so I can’t mess around. And then there is the problem of how to get the types of shots that I want from a technical standpoint.

What kind of shots do I want? I want candid expressions, people interacting. I want shots of people who have forgotten that they are on camera and are reacting to the event in a natural way. These events usually take place in large hotel ball rooms which generally don’t have windows, and do have very high ceilings. For me, this makes lighting a particularly tough challenge.

Option one is to use on-camera flash. This is particularly difficult for a number of reasons. First, your standard speedlight, although powerful, is very small in comparison to the size of the room. In order for me to get the quality of light I am looking for, I have to be very close to my subjects. However, this usually isn’t possible because hotels generally pack tables so close together for these events that it is very difficult to navigate more than the edges of the room, and there would be large portions of the room that my flash won’t reach. Not to mention the fact that I’d really be getting into people’s faces, which wouldn’t get me the shots that I want. And the constant flashes would be a distraction to the people at the conference.

Off camera flash? The only way I could think of doing this would be to set up a series of fill strobes to raise the ambient light in the whole room, while at the same time being hidden enough so that I can shoot from any angle. But then I’m faced with the same problem of the lights causing a distraction.

Last week I photographed a tax event for college students that my company sponsored. 100+ students listening to lectures and doing team-building activities. After a few stuttering tries to capture the event using my on-camera strobe, I put it away for the rest of the event and decided to shoot the whole event using available light, long exposures, and high ISOs. I shot most of the event using my new 70-200 with image stablization and I couldn’t be happier with the that! Having been used to the non-stablilzed 70-200 I felt like a zen master, snapping crystal clear shots at 200mm at 50/second, handheld. This may not be that exciting for some people, but for someone without super-steady hands this was a real breakthrough for me.

As you can see, even though I’m using the high ISO, I was able to get some great detail (click on the image to see the full sized sample on Flickr).  For the pixel peepers, sure, when blown up these images are a bit grainy. You won’t be seeing them on giant billboards or even large posters any time soon but the quality is more than enough for my client and what they were looking for. I shot all of these images with available light on a Canon 5D on or around 800-1000 ISO.

So what happens if the client does need better quality? What if they needed to use these images larger? That’s when I’d start to sweat, and would probably tell the client that it wasn’t something I could do.  One part of me is like, anything more than I was delivered is asking too much and I shouldn’t worry about it. But the other part of me wants to be able to solve the problem. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone else has any ideas I could try when photographing these kinds of events. Again, the challenges to be over-come are:

• Large, windowless hotel ballrooms with overall low ambient light
• Inabilitiy to get close to the subjects due to layout of the room and/or semi-hostile attitude towards the photog
• Flash photography could distract from the event

More on this later.

For this particular meeting I lucked out in both respects. The room had both black out blinds and solar blinds, so I opened up the black out blinds completely and pulled the solar down half way. Solar blinds are translucent so they act as nice diffusers for the light while still keeping the room bright. The conference room was on the 26th floor, and I caught the sun at a great time. By the end of the shoot I had lost the good light, but I was in great shape for the most of it. If I could have controlled wardrobe I would have made some other decisions, but overall I’m pleased.

So I pulled together the location resources I had available: First things first, I need a city. I live in New York City, how convenient. City, check! Next, I need a helicopter. Crap. Ok, new plan, I need a tall building. Obvious choice, the Empire State Building. Unfortunately, the ESB doesn’t allow tripods or any other equipment. I would be going this one alone with my camera, my less than rock steady mitts, and about 1000 German tourists.

A side note to tourists: When you go up to the 86th floor observatory, you first are taken to the 80th floor, then you have to take a second elevator the last six floors to 86th floor. They give you the option of taking the stairs instead of waiting for that last elevator. Those of us who are used to climbing stairs and doing lots of walking can bound of up those six flights pretty fast. If you are old, disabled, or overweight and not used to climbing stairs, WAIT FOR THE ELEVATOR. Apparently, this advice comes too late for all the elderly, disabled, and fat people wheezing and limping up the stairs in front of me last night.

Anyways, I’ve submitted my images to London for review. Hopefully they’ll find something they like. Here are a couple of outtakes.