This past weekend, I had the opportunity to photograph the National MS Society: Walk MS 2014 event. As a San Diego event photographer, I was eager for the opportunity to volunteer my services, for a good cause, get some practice in and maybe expand my portfolio.
As you know, I like to be prepared, but I didn’t want to be weighed down or worry about taking my rolling camera case; so I decided to take my trusty Kata DR-467i Digital Rucksack with me. Since it would be daylight and I would be shooting outside, I wouldn’t have the need for flashes, remotes, or light stands, so that was a bonus. I decided to take my Nikon D3, as my primary and my backup would be my good old D90. My volunteer position focus, as an event photographer was general shots and my shot list was composed of shoot everything, which is pretty easy; except for the fact that you need to be everyplace all at the same time. Since, I was doing general shots, I took my Tamron 24-70mm and my Nikon 18-200mm lenses with me.
When I got there, I walked around and scoped out the area, people were still setting up booths, so I wanted some shots of setting up and managed to capture all corporate sponsors. I ended up running into two other volunteer photographers, along the way and decided to pick their brains on the National MS Society photographer procedures. Well, I guess I made one mistake shooting in RAW, oops. Normally, that is not a bad thing, but on rare occasions, some photographers must shoot in JPG format for the client. This is because the person, is looking to download and post immediately. Luckily, I work in the office and can drop off a CD-ROM. Most cameras allow you to shoot in both RAW + JPG, which is handy; unfortunately since you are doubling your pictures, you are also pretty much doubling your space usage as well, so I recommend bringing an extra memory card, just in case. I like shooting people in his or her natural stage and what I mean by this is the subject is acting natural. In an event type shoot, shooting this way is good, but usually clients want people posed and participating in the photo. This involves you, the photographer being assertive and asking people to take his or her picture. Definitely, not for the shy or timid. Another concern was that I would not hit the 100+ photograph mark; unfortunately by the end of the event I had 300+ pictures, which was great. The sad part is that I will have to edit 300+ pictures. Of course it could be worse; I could have to develop that amount of pictures and pay for them. Thank god for digital.
I hope I have not bored you too much. I had fun writing this one. 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 perfect formula, so go out and have some fun.
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