Event Photography – Christmas in July.
Event Photography: getting ready for a successful festive season.
A collaboration between 4 PR agencies
It was pleasing to receive the call from one of my regular PR clients ‘PR Direct’ recently for some event photography. The ‘Christmas in July’ event was hosted at the KitchenAid experience showroom in Wigmore Street, London and sponsored by Whirlpool. It was organised by 4 PR agencies – Fab Comm, Nudge, Taste and PR Direct. This was a media event aimed at homeware magazines and bloggers at about the time they are planning their Christmas issues. It was a surprise to me that they plan these issues in July. However it was very unseasonable for this event to be organised for one of the hottest days of this rather memorable summer. The agencies had done a grand job of making the store look christmassy though.
The event photography shoot
It was perfect timing when I arrived. Things were getting off to a rather busy start so I set to work straight away. It only took a couple of shots before I was in full swing. The lighting was very conducive for this type of event photography, giving a beautiful ambience to all of the shots – perfect for the Christmas theme. For me, I was in full reportage mode doing what I do best – picking off moments. The brief was to show off all of the suppliers at their best. There was to be special emphasis on the venue, as the parent company were sponsoring the event.
I have carried out a number of these types of shoots now and I have begun to recognise some of the characters involved. The were a few ‘celebrities’ to watch out for, although as I do not watch ‘Bake Off’ I didn’t have a clue who they were! Sarah from PR Direct put me right as she knew them all personally.
It was not surprising that most of the winning shots involved interaction between the guests and Paul A Young, an award winning Chocolatier. They just flocked around him as he was handing out hot chocolate to die for. Another popular stall was Microplane, where there were hands on demonstrations on how to grate ginger and other exotic ingredients. Downstairs, the highlight were cocktails shaken with various flavours of Gordon’s Gin and Baileys.
Post production
For this type of shoot a fast turnaround is of the utmost importance. This usually means some burning of the midnight oil. This event was going to be one of those long hauls, however I did get a reprieve as they were not going to need the images until after the weekend.
The actual processing is fairly simple though, as their is no requirement for any make over type processing or careful colour matching. There is however a need for some creative cropping to remove distracting elements or people. The delivery was through my favoured Filemail app which allows the upload of folders.
Follow up
It is always very nice when you receive compliments from your clients. Shortly after everything was finalised the lead agency sent an email thanking me for the work stating “The images are great and everyone is very pleased indeed”
© Andrew Boschier Photography 2018
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