Event Photography ... a passion of mine

People often ask me, what kind of photography I love best ...

I struggle, in that moment, usually.  I love photography but actually, if I really had to choose one favourite, I suspect I might choose event photography.

I get to roam then, with my beloved 70-200mm lens, and capture people while they are unaware.  People being themselves.  People relaxed and happy, perhaps.

Those 3 months I spent working in Berlin ... they offered up some of the best event photography moments so far.  And weddings, or parties.  Any event that allows me to just work on capturing the soul of a person, there on their face, as they go about their day.

To capture a beautiful portrait is incredibly satisfying. 

Don't You Love It When ...

Don't you love it when your bowl of pasta arrives and it looks too small to fill you, then you begin to feel warm and satisfied, and realise ... the bowl is still 2/3's full!

Don't you love it when you stop to listen to a really good musician and you discover his name is Scott McMahon, he's Scottish, and you talk awhile.  And he tells you the most marvelous story ever ... in his (something like) Billy Connelly accent, confusing you a little because he's serious and the story is true.  He let's you photograph him as he sings.  You buy his cd.

And don't you love it when you order a small glass of the house red wine and discover it's quite a full glass, and that the wine is good.

Don't you love it when you find a million bookshops, secondhand too, just as you decide that the directions you so laboriously noted down, are too difficult to follow.

... when you find the perfect book for Miss 11.  So good that you begin reading it as you eat your pasta at the lovely restaurant that, while out of your price range really, is a great place to cheer yourself up on a grey and rainy autumn day in London.  And knowing, simply knowing, that you and Miss 11 have many many hours of skype reading pleasure ahead ... 500+ pages, no less.

Note: she talked me into reading her 3 chapters last night.  I couldn't resist.

Don't you love it when you work out how to reach the place you'd like to head to for those weekly meetings with New Zealanders.  Although, in the end, that knowledge is for future reference, on a day when you haven't walked your feet into a constant throbbing ache like you just did now, here in the unfamiliar heart of London town.

Don't you love it when you manage to navigate the London Underground, weaving in and out and all over the place, alone.

...  and when you find the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square, realise it's free, and walk the last of your feet off, exploring exquisite portraits of old heroes and heroines, and people you'd never heard of. 


And the deep pleasure in realising you can afford that bottle of water in the Gallery restaurant, after discovering a thirst that makes you feel you have just spent 2 days walking in a desert.

Don't you love it, really love it, when you realise you are free to take photographs in the National Gallery.

And there was that other golden moment too, when I understood that no one would miss me at the Ngati Ranana meeting, and so I found a train heading my way and got a seat, despite it being rush hour.

Don't you love it, when everything is new and kind of scary sometimes, but you end up finding Sublime out here in this city where you never imagined you might live. 

And arriving 'home', to a warm house, where your truly kind host has cooked up a big feed for dinner, with dessert.  It's warm there and the company is good.

Don't you love it when you realise, sometimes, that day ... it was good one.

The images ... Scott McMahon, and the London Eye.


Times, they are a-changing ...

How madly different can my life get ... ?

Here I am, nestled in really ... deep in the heart of a massive English pub somewhere in Waterloo, London.

I sold my soul slightly and handed over my 'information' in exchange for free wifi.  It's been grand, entertaining myself till Fiona arrived.

Suited-up English blokes have used my table as a resting place for their drinks, people have eyed me here at the table, hoping I'll leave soon so they can have it, and that's me, persevering.  Waiting for Fiona, that divine Irish friend from Antwerp, who is meeting me here tonight.

I was more than an hour early.  She's just arrived and is checking in. 

Mmmhmmm, how madly different can it all get.

Portrait Photography - as it should be

A friend posted the following story on my Facebook wall yesterday. It confirmed what I have always thought about portrait photography ... the photographer oftentimes photographs the relationship between themselves and their client. 

It's about mutual trust and respect but it's also about what the subject allows to be known of themselves ... the story he or she tells, the glimpses we are allowed.  That's why I prefer to take an hour or two with a portrait session.  I love to enter an environment that makes them comfortable.  I love if we have time to chat, to get to know one another in a relaxed situation.  It doesn't take long usually.

In this experiment the photographers all captured something of the person their subject presented himself as. I thought it the perfect illustration of how portrait photography should be.


Things I've Learned ...

I know of a good pub in Farnham, full of people who allow you that bar stool in the midst of their conversations and laughter.  And I found a walk I enjoyed while I was staying there.  I met Diana and Steve, and simply adored them. 

I've learned that I love thin bagels for breakfast, and that I Can live without my coffee machine.  In good news, for me, it seems I can sleep in any bed.  My back doesn't ache in mornings and I'm grateful for that.

I know where to buy the best slice of lemon & cream sponge roll in Southsea.  I found a coffee shop with good espresso con panna - for 'those'days.  I'm learning that I like to shop in Sainsburys because the staff there are unbelievably friendly.  I was introduced to the best fish & chips in the area.  And found a small space in Drift ... that bar that I like, down there in Portsmouth.

These days find me navigating the London Underground. I'm enjoying conversations with strangers.  And I almost understand that I'm living in London.  That one amuses me.  I've lived in, or visited, a few big cities, accidentally, never dreaming of going there. 

And I'm taking nothing forgranted.  I learned, in the first hour back in London, that you never ever cross against the lights because ... you might get run down.  It was only that a second car blocked the speeding car that would have hit me.

Oh, and in great news, I found that I have to pass by Carluccios almost everyday this week.  Today I discovered that their espresso is not only affordable, it's also superb.