Planning an event and staying under budget requires strategic decision-making, which includes retaining an Irvine event photographer who has the skill level to match the high standards of the function. The resolution, quantity and technical aspects of the photos you need will vary according to the type of event you’re hosting, its venue and the industry it serves.
Conventions and events photography that’s high-quality is a marketing boost, and low-quality work is a marketing bust.
When researching an Irvine event photographer to cover meetings or trade shows, you’re more likely to meet the conventional expectations of your company and its clients by engaging an individual with experience in the world of C-suite executives. There are large, successful firms such as Olan Mills and Lifetouch, but church directories and school pictures are the types of jobs in their wheelhouse – not events.
It’s not holiday party photography you’re after either – no pyramids of partygoers or shots of Harry when he’s half in the bag. You want to lean toward traditional, professional poses.
But there’s more to convention photography than you might imagine.
With a world of vendors seeking exposure, your job is to get their story told with quality conventions exhibit photography. The products your staff sends out will reflect your brand and can impact the success of future corporate trade show productions.
National conference photography calls for executive experience.
Executive function is more than just a reference to your frontal lobe here. While conventions and tradeshows photography serves exhibitors through promotion and advertising, conferences are organized to draw attention to topics and issues.
National conferences are held by both for-profit and non-profit entities in a variety of genres, including:
- Academics
- Science
- Sports
- Business
- Ethics
- Government
National conferences are regularly held in Irvine. The College Orchestra Directors Association hosts a masterclass at UC Irvine. Focus Conferences brought experts to Hotel Irvine to discuss respiratory care and sleep medicine.
Conference attendees meet for an exchange of information, consultation or discussion, and photo images can serve as a form of documentation. An Irvine event photographer can follow the formal agenda of a conference and create a package using shots from each session and highlighting speakers and crowds, or other features you request.
The resulting photos can be uploaded to your company’s website or on social media platforms to extend the life of the event, plus promote the conference the following year. A hired professional can populate websites with photos from the event which can be shared through Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Someone who’s dialed-in to pop culture can create the best concerts and live performances photography.
Concerts and music festivals are a huge draw in Southern California. In Irvine, there are outdoor venues like the Mike Ward Community Park where the city’s Sizzlin’ Summer Concerts Series is held. The best photos from these types of events require an athleticism resembling the sporting event photography you see coming from the Bren Events Center at UC Irvine.
Skills behind the camera are somewhat different to capture the beauty of the Irvine Music Festival, where the classical training of students on violin, viola, cello, double bass, and piano are in the spotlight. It requires an artistic eye to convey the symphony of emotion and the personality of the young musicians.
If you’re a promoter, you need bands and musicians photography for advertising, as well as shots from live concerts. Good music photographers have to be high-energy, says Format Magazine. Sometimes the shot is coming from the middle of a crowd of fans, while other opportunities come from crowded buses.
Some of the biggest challenges for rock band photographers are:
- Low lighting
- Sweat from the mosh pit
- Angle of the stage
- Lack of control over subject movement
- Choosing a proper lens
Music photographers doing album covers and feature story art are expected to convey the performer’s personality. Their influence is illustrated by the work of such 20th century heavy-hitters Henry Diltz, who shot The Doors’ Morrison Hotel cover and famed John Lennon-Yoko Ono photographer Bob Gruen.
Irvine event planners sometimes need to book live music acts for parties, celebrations or awards shows. In most cases, the final photo product should include images of the musical artist’s performance along with other aspects of the function, and an Irvine event photographer with a wide range of experience can tackle the whole party, from guest arrivals to the last dance, when everyone calls it a night.
Red carpet and PR photography adds visual artistry to your event.
There is perhaps no greater photo-op in Southern California than red carpet arrivals at awards shows. It’s where we get a lasting image of most of Hollywood’s movie stars. That’s pretty good evidence about how lasting those moments can be.
Irvine event photographers live near entertainment industry studios, so they tend to have at least some experience in film, TV or photo shoots with celebrities. Whether your event involves paparazzi-worthy subjects or not, the same rules apply that photographers know about working at the Oscars.
A Business Insider article from a few years ago talks about what it’s like to shoot pictures of stars at the most photographed event of the year – the Academy Awards. Getty Images photographer Larry Busacca says the key is to “wait, watch, listen, decide, and commit to shoot,” and it usually happens in a split second. Photographers need a lot of physical stamina – on their feet all day carrying heavy equipment … and then be ready for that perfect shot.
As an event planner, or as your company’s PR director, you also want a team who can capture those memorable moments when hired to produce galas, awards, and fundraisers photography. The package they submit to you can become your own promotional material, holiday cards, and may even become the face of your brand. So, it’s important that you hire an Irvine event photographer whose quality of work reflects your priorities and the end game for your company’s business goals.
