One of San Francisco Bay Area's top event photographers, Gene X
Hwang, has agreed to share his story and expertise on event photography.
Gene is the graduate of Auburn University and the co-founder of Orange Photography
collective. In the 15 years he's been a professional photographer, his
work has been published in numerous publication including the New York
Times, Wired, Muscle and Fitness and most recently the San Francisco
Chronicle. Gene has also been featured in Northern
California Meetings & Events.
Shooting Events, a Diverse and Rewarding Business
Shooting events is often seen as a ‘lower’ form of photography since
all of us have seen some pretty miserable event photography, but it can
be both a lucrative business and quite fun as well. I first got into
shooting events because I had a journalism background and enjoyed
covering things of all sorts from sporting events to doing reviews for
the entertainment section (restaurants and bars) as well as personality
profiles, etc. With events you never knew exactly what you might have to
cover much like a photojournalist so the diversity was a plus.
When I started out, I was shooting a lot at nightclubs just
because I used to go out dancing a lot. We had started our studio out on
digital when it was first emerging so I could do a lot more
experimentation with digital than film; well, at least it wasn’t as
expensive and you could keep trying new things off a single memory card
(I just found an old 16MB one that came with my first Canon D30, yes
that is MB not GB!).
Of course shooting at nightclubs isn’t the most lucrative
business when you are going to small mid-afternoon happy hours and
underground parties so I moved more into corporate events. Our first
corporate event was through a friend of ours who was an emerging event
planner (and now one of the top in the city!) and was at Saks Fifth
Avenue. It was a holiday themed shopping party/photobooth along with
candids. With the bubbly flowing and well-heeled guests mingling, it
allowed us a fairly low-pressure intro into event photography and we
pulled it off quite well.
When shooting events, there are certain things to be aware of as your
clients can be all over the board. It’s always important as with any
business to manage expectations and never to assume too much about what
your client may want from their event photography. Sometimes clients may
be thinking something like a step-and-repeat setup that you often see
at fashion events and movie premieres (see image on left from Twilight,
New Moon), or they could just want candid coverage. You should always
ask your client what’s most important to them so that you know what they
are looking for and don’t miss a thing.
It’s also smart to take a documentary or photojournalistic
approach to the shoot – you want to be able to tell the story of the
event which might mean getting some wide shots to establish the context,
as well as some details and/or logos and branding that’s relevant to
the event.
Another factor that’s often overlooked is making sure to know
what the dress code is. A client might assume you know that the Black and White Ball is a
fancy gala, but if you’ve never been you might be unprepared and
underdressed - which could mean the difference in getting more work or
not from that particular client. In general, of course, you should dress
up as you can’t recover if you are wearing jeans to a black tie affair.
(And um, yeah, you probably should never wear jeans unless you are
shooting an event for say, Levi’s®).
My
first time at a well known billionaire’s private party, I was told that
the theme was silver, I had silver pants and was told that I should
wear them. So I wore my shiny tight vinyl silver pants, and felt
slightly awkward since there were people in full tuxes and all, but when
I saw Larry
Harvey there (he’s a co-founder of Burning Man) I felt safe and of
course the compliments from guests helped as well, but that could have
been a disaster.
Another thing about shooting events is that you get to do a wide
variety of photography. Sometimes you may need to get food shots so it’s
a lot like editorial where you have to stay sharp on various types and
styles of photography. This of course lends itself to a lot of great
changes to learn and try new techniques. Maybe you just got a new macro
lens to use on food shots, but also a tilt-shift to get great wide
perspective-correct room shots or building exteriors.
If you read
the strobist.com blog, then
you probably have an idea of ways to leverage ‘small lights’ while on
location but for some events you’ll also be using strobes and/or
constant lighting sources. This diversity is what I like best about
shooting events. The image above was from PRIDE in San Francisco and
Levi’s® set up a free photo area and Margaret Cho stopped by. I've
gotten a chance to meet many celebrities and such that I probably would
have never met if I didn’t shoot events.
Sometimes
you do need to watch yourself as you can’t be a fan but have to be a
professional. I once met Tom Brokaw covering an event and I actually
told him “I used to want to be you” which sounds terrible since it
sounds like I didn’t any more, but I explained after the faux pas that I
meant that as a little kid I once picked “Tom Brokaw” as my career
choice, and of course here I was not in broadcasting but a photographer
instead. That’s also why I retained a Midwestern accent even though I
grew up in the South. I knew a television newscaster would have a better
shot with a more neutral accent than a Southern drawl!
As I
mentioned earlier, I think the diversity of work that you do and the
experiences that go along with them are some of the most fun aspects of
event photography. The image above was created for the San Francisco
Symphony for their marketing use. I’ve probably got to hear the Symphony
play a lot more times than I would have if I hadn’t been shooting
events!