A couple of weeks ago, I owed a friend, Ted from TWS Photography, a favor and had the opportunity to photography an Event, the Thai New Year 2015. He was recently married to a Thai woman and was trying to lend them a hand with the Miss Songkran Beauty Contest. As San Diego Event Photographer, I was happy to help and learn about a new society. I must say it is really interesting how cultures differ from your own, when you are close to the action.
Ted wanted everything to be perfect and I can understand that, as a perfectionist myself. We must have met about five or six times, before the actual event. We even did a site walk-through to make sure that we had ample room to set up a background, lights and camera with tripod That was a good idea, because guess what, there wasn’t really enough room, as usual. Out of an entire 50 by 100 foot room, we got stuck in the corner. Here are a few things that we considered:
Model Release form. Now normally you I am a stickler for this one, but we made the assumption that the girls over 18 years of age, understood that they were going to be photographed and that we would use their pictures on social media sites aka Facebook, Twitter, Instigram. One thing that I did do, was create a PDF form that the girls could sign in with their personal information, this allowed us to have their address to send the pictures to them, as well as an informal model release form.
Winning Check. Since there was a decent sum of money; the winners of the pageant would receive a check at the end of the contest, up to $500.
Gift Baskets were another idea. Since some companies could not donate money, they gave in other ways and we pooled all the items together and made gift baskets for the girls. These baskets consisted of creams, soaps, lotions, jewelry, and gift certificates.
Each participant would receive complementary head and portrait shots. This would consist of four of five, 8×10 shots that the girls could use for their modeling portfolio. That was the donation from TWS and RKS Photography.
Since Ted was on the board at the Thai Temple, I was to man the studio. I had an assistant, which was kind of unexpected, but a good thing. Usually, I prefer a female, because women are not offended when other women touch them. He made sure the girls were all signed in, before we stated taking their picture. He also assisted the girls in getting on stage, since they were wearing formal gowns. While Ted was mingling, I decided that he could get some candid shots and I gave him my backup camera. After I finished shooting, in the make shift studio I grabbed the camera from him and finished the pageant. One thing I did learn touching the top of someone’s head is bad luck and looked down upon, in the Thai culture.
I hope I have not bored you too much. I had a lot of fun writing this one like all of my blogs. I trust I have given you some valuable tips to think about, before planning your next shoot. It’s not all bad, just be clear and informative, it will save you a lot of headaches. Remember nothing is set in stone and there is not a perfect formula, so go out and have some fun.
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