Shooting Events!

I had the opportunity to shoot the Bolder Boulder in Boulder, CO during Memorial Day weekend. Now this is not the first time I have had the pleasure of shooting an event, but I have come to realize that shooting events is not always for the same purpose.

I have done weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, family get-togethers, art shows and bike shows. You name it, I have pretty much shot it. My most recent event being the Bolder Boulder, I was asked to do "client branding". I was originally going with the notion that I was covering the "event" though once arriving there, realized that it was going to be all about the client. (can you guess who that might be by looking at the photo?)





At any rate it was fun and I got to see the Bolder Boulder for the first time and I got to shoot for a high ranking marketing company out of NY for their client Nissan. The Nissan booth was a work of art. They had every interactive kiosk you could think of. They had a life size screen where they were interactively showing the customers their newest car (the Leaf is a 100% electric car), they had a photo booth with a green screen so you could get a photo of yourself on the cover of Runners magazine with Ryan Hall. If you don't know who Ryan Hall is, you would not be the only one. I didn't know who this man was either until he arrived for the signing (more on that later). They also had several computers up for their customers to enter to win a new Leaf. They had several cars on display and many staff passing out literature. They also had drawings for people to win prizes. All in all I was impressed with the diversity of the booth.

While I was impressed with their booth, I have to say that it wasn't my most exciting shoot. It was all about client branding where they only wanted pictures of their booth, their customers, people looking at their cars, reading their literature and anything "Nissan". It was a little more exciting the second day out because of the 10K run that was going on. I was ground floor privy with a press pass so I got to experience the very large crowd. It was unbelievable the amount of people at this event.

While shooting this event I met Ryan Hall. I had never heard of the man but in the runners world, he is an icon. His time of 2:08:41 was the fastest ever by an American at Boston. You can read more on him following the link above. It just amazes me that who appears to be an average Joe is an icon in the running world.

Anyway, my whole point in writing this is to inform photographers on the different types of event photography. This surely was a new experience for me doing "client branding" and while not one of my more fun gigs, it was a true experience in every sense of the word. So next time you photograph a gig for a client, be sure you know exactly what it is they are looking to capture.