Hi Everyone

As I approach the winter conference photography season with a conference photography commission in Edinburgh next week, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the challenges and new issues facing conference and event photographers.  I have been photographing conferences around Scotland for over 15 years and it is an aspect of corporate event photography that I really enjoy.  As conferences are mainly held indoors - you may get the occasional outdoor group shot - the development and advances in digital camera equipment is very important for photographers involved in this line of work.  I have just purchased a Canon EOS R Mirrorless camera and I cant wait to start using it at conferences.  The improved ISO performance over the years has been fantastic for conference photographers, you cant always use flash and in some cases they wont allow flash at all, so you need this facility.  One of the reasons I am looking forward to using the EOS R, is the ability to shoot without the loud shutter noise you get from DSLRs.  This is vital in conferences as the constant shutter sound can annoy delegates.  Smaller cameras are starting to show equal performance with the large DSLRs and this will also make life easier for photographers.  I often attend events where some photographers still insist on using large lenses when there is no need.  Large gear can intimidate the delegates and there is also an increased risk you could whack one the delegates on the head with your your massive telephoto lens.  Wifi enablement can be very useful at conferences and often you are asked right away for images, this can be handy and prevents the need to carry a laptop.  The improved focusing and touch screen facilities in new equipment can also be very useful for corporate event photographers.  New lighting off camera flash and more portable equipment is also a boost for event photographers.  All this means of course that more is expected of us, so you may find yourself working harder now at an event, but this is all good, as there is more scope for creativity and in some cases our job is a bit easier due to the technological improvements.

Hope all this helps, happy snapping.

Until next time.

Kind Regards

Colin

www.colinwrightphotography.co.uk

www.edinburghphotographer.com