Trials and tribulations of a true event photographer

What’s a true event photographer? Oh boy. Ohhhhh boy. Where do we start?

The thing about being an event photographer; a good one, anyway, is that you need to be all in. You need to completely immerse yourself in your client’s brand so that you can truly understand what it is that they’re trying to do. What kind of vibe do they want? What do they want their guests to do? Are underpants a must-have?

Scratch that last one. Well, not literally. But yes. As a tried and tested event photographer, underpants are a must-have. Please. Editing is hard enough as it is.

What does an event photographer in Melbourne have to deal with?

Melbourne is a beautiful city. There’s culture, music, fashion, art. It’s a great place to be if you’re in any kind of creative field.

There are some fantastic venues here, from the over-the-top to the under-the-table, that make photographing and filming an absolute pleasure. Melbourne can really turn it on in terms of weather as well, so some outdoor shoots are absolute dreams. Until the weather inevitably turns sour, of course!

While we’re an Australia wide company, there’s just something about being a Melbourne event photographer that gets the blood pumping. It’s exciting and some of the events we’ve shot have been truly spectacular.

The thing that’s not so cool, though, are the wannabes.

I’ve experienced these wannabes first hand during the busy periods when we had to find some last minute photographers to help us as second shooters at a few events.

There was the guy who turned up a bit late (glad I gave him an earlier start time then we actually needed), or the photographer who only carried one camera and it was a few clicks short of the bin. Just two examples of photographers who claimed they were experienced professionals.

Beware the NEW event photographer

We’ve been in business for nearly two decades now. That’s a lot of conferences, expos, Christmas parties and awards nights under our belt. We know the venues, we know how the light works and we know how to delivery quality.

What we don’t really know what to do, to be honest, is deal with the absolute smorgasbord of under-cutting and under-delivering competitors. It’s becoming increasingly hard to book new clients as they’re being swayed by smooth operators who promise lower numbers but end up delivering (incredibly) lower-quality products. They swoop in, schmooze you, and swoop out with your cash – in a snap!

And by that time the damage is done. You’re sour on the whole ‘event photographers’ idea now. You’ll just get Kerry from accounts to take the photos on her boyfriend’s new DLSR camera.