Pro Studies Report - How is it done now

So to look at how events in general are covered I thought it best to show two of the biggest and best marketed venues in the region. The Empire in Middlesbrough and Inside out in Darlington. Both are good examples as they run a host of different themed events with varying age groups and music styles. Both are also heavily involved with sister smaller clubs near by. The Empire with the Medicine bar ,Inside out with Seen.

Empire and Med Bar commercial events styles:-

The Que

Event name branding

Going off

Themed

Milk

Entertainment more suitable to a childs birthday party

Girls kissing

Awkward enjoyment

Crowd shot (we're busy)

Attractive person

Inside Out and Seen commercial events :-

Quirky attractive person 

Famous person

More girls kissing

Famous DJ

Attractive person doing a thing

Dj inviting some near by people to come closer

Worse for wear

Dj in a moment

Dj and crowd

Boobs

So to break it down the photos focus on a few different parts of the event. Trying to look as busy as possible with your crowd and ques images. The talent that has been brought in to entertain like DJ's dancers and acts. And finally the customers enjoying themselves..usually a little too much and drunk...Girls kissing or exposing them self to the photographer also seems a popular way to get more likes and shares.

Pro Studies Report - What is the purpose of event photography

At some point or other we have all been asked,as photographers to go along to an event whether its a friends birthday or local bands playing in a pub and "bring your camera with you if you like,to take a few snaps" This even in the age of smart phones is considered normal practice to show happenings in a better light from an apparent pro.

During many years promoting house music events around the north east i have had the pleasure of being able to hire photographers for my events. Before Facebook there was another kind of social media called Dont Stay In.com. It featured forums and group pages for parties  (across the uk and globally) where event photographers would host galleries from events. Attendees of events could then use these photos as their profile pictures and it would help spread the popularity of these events. I saw the benefits first hand, Always watermarked with DSI and later the event branding so when they were used on other platforms like myspace and eventually facebook they continued to help as promotional tools.

Little has changed since those days except it is all about facebook now. No self respecting music event can do without a photographer of some kind to cover their party with the massive catchment available through the sharing and tagging of their photographs.

Narrative and Photography - Evaluation

Dance To My Beat

Narratives are all around us every day, from what we see on the TV and in movies to our lives unfolding in front of us. Every person we come across has a history and a future after such a moment. When it is presented by a photographer it is purely from their perspective and as such has to be done with a level of integrity and honesty to be credible.

Media agencies manipulation of images, favorable angles and very secular views of a subject matter can shape a narrative in both positive and negative ends. These are rife in our world, so much so we barely question them anymore. Simply take information with caution and try as best we can to make an informed decision if it seems legitimate to us from our own perspective.  That’s the heavy end we are bombarded with every day. It will always have its place but really it is of little interest to me.

I am a people watcher and have always been fascinated by culture and habit. When we were given the narrative assignment I was genuinely excited to be able to explore looking a lot deeper than I have ever done before. It’s been quite a journey through the revision, looking into some truly remarkable photographers and artists work. I feel inspired by their work in a way I haven’t before so far at CCAD.

Initial discussions seemed to be heading towards the thinking that it had to be dark and mysterious if it was going to be interesting. I never really bought into that, there is enough of that elsewhere to get bogged down with without us adding to it. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated James Nachtwey (for his commitment to try and make change) and Nan Goldin’s gritty kitchen sink coverage of life during the aids outbreak.  Both are exceptional looks into their lives. They are just so far removed from mine I wanted something that touched me personally and positively.

For both parts I chose the setting of House music events in the north east. It’s something ive been involved with many years so felt I would be able to connect with the environment. Aiming to show it in a positive way with interesting candid shots you wouldn't associate with traditional event photography.

My Narrative is called “Dance To My Beat”, named after a famous house music accapella. The lyrics seemed best to fit as text during the presentation. It’s a positive look into the nights out of ordinary people who just want to escape from the mundane every day and dance with each other to loud music. The drugs and alcohol probably help for energy levels and to loosen inhibitions. Unlike BUZZ CLUB I wasn’t really trying to focus on this and it’s more of an undertone represented by cans of Redstripe and Bottles of Budwieser beer.

I split my efforts across two different venues in Teesside to experiment as much as possible with techniques.

 The low light and often smoke filled rooms dictated using mostly off camera flash with usually a wide aperture. This can be difficult to then focus with such a shallow depth of field. As a result of this I had to take a relatively high amount of shots (1800) in order to achieve the shots I wanted. All the images were shot in RAW and then processed through Lightroom with no manipulation in Photoshop.

Making the cut

Ive got 40 images from the 3 shoots(around 1800 shots in total before editing). I like them all and feel together they tell the story of this aspect of life im involved with within the north east of England. Thats obviously far too many to use for a presentation so I have had them all printed out on small 6x4 inch prints from a local photography firm.

Now the easy bit and get it down to between 16-20 for the slideshow...

Unapologetic out of focus HTC One image of prints

Shoot 3 - RiffRaff Back in the Dungeon

This is the 3rd and final shoot that I will be taking images from for my final Narrative selection. I've already pretty much covered the set up for this location in the shoot 1 blog,and will be doing a full run down in the evaluation. Only extra thing worth mentioning is that I had hoped to get some voice recordings in the smoking area on this night but alas it didn't work out the way I had hoped. The music from the bar area was too loud on the terrace speakers and spirits were a little too high to hold a decent conversation other than small talk. I still think it would be interesting to cover a narrative in this way,maybe ill try it in a more forgiving environment instead like the Duck Rabbit video about sandcastles we watched. It has great potential to be used to add extra context to images and can add so much when executed well.

So here are the images that made up the final cut from RiffRaff presents Crag Richards.

Some of these can be seen in full size Flickr gloriousness HERE