What goes wrong at events?
Something, nearly every time. It’s rarely anyone’s fault, and it’s rarely the thing you planned for. Here are two real ones, and how I try to plan around the kind of day they came from.
The wire in the tall grass
I was photographing an outdoor event and tripped over a power cord hidden in the grass. It was green, in tall grass, and it was the cable for the speaker’s microphone. I pulled it out, and the speaker stopped transmitting mid-talk.
The worst does happen. It ended all right, and it wasn’t the worst thing that’s happened at an event, but it was embarrassing. You apologize to the right people, you help get it fixed, and you keep going. I look at cables on the ground now before I move backward.
The awards nobody stopped for
Every award was supposed to get a photo. That message didn’t reach the people accepting them, so they took the award and walked off the stage, and the team was left without the photos they needed for marketing.
There were several award sessions that day, so we got to fix it as we went. People kept walking, now and then someone paused for a photo, and the communication was just off. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. If the person running the stage had known the plan ahead of time, it would have worked. That’s the lesson: tell the MC, and put the photo moment in the run of show.
Why plans don’t survive the day
I spent years in weddings, and you see it there all the time. You can plan every minute and still not account for the uncle who needs something, a kid having a meltdown, or at a corporate event, a VIP who walks in at the wrong moment, or a need that comes up right now.
Plans are great as a form. Being able to roll with the punches is what I bring. Here’s how I set the day up for it:
- I get there about an hour and a half to two hours early, so a late day doesn’t put me behind.
- I get the shot list and the schedule ahead of time, and I plan the day from them the day before.
- I have a direct line to the right people, often a chat group, so something that comes up mid-day reaches me.
- I get the standard shots first, then use any spare time for more creative ones.
What you can do
Tell whoever runs the stage or the room what the photo moments are. Give me one person to reach during the day. And if something is going to matter to you, say so before the day, because it’s much easier to plan for than to fix.
For the rest of the planning, see what goes on a shot list and the questions to ask before you book a photographer.
