My first event photography experience
Recently, I was asked to take photographs for the Saranay group, a Philippine cultural group in Edmonton. Their group performs in events like commemoration events, concerts, and fund raisers. I was asked to become their official photographer. I would be at their events and take photographs of their performers and their performances.
I went to my first event on Friday night March 28, 2008. The event was a fund raiser for Changing Together: A Center for Immigrant Women. Their presentation covered issues like Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, Mail-Order Brides, and Bullying. Among the performers were performers from the Saranay group, students from the University of Alberta, and people from the Changing Together group.
I brought all my equipment:
1. Camera
2. 18-55 mm lens (my only lens)
3. Speedlight
4. Tripod
5. Extra batteries
6. Extra memory cards
The location was a well-lit hall with a 3.5 to 4 foot high stage. When I went in, I was glad to see that it was very well-lit when all the lights are turned on. I walked around the seats and tried to pick my spots. I then took out my camera and took some test shots. I had a pretty good angle from the left and right of the stage. However, the middle spot was a bit of a challenge since I didn’t want to block any of the audience’s views by being in front. So I had two spots from the central view. One was in front of the stage but I had to keep my angle low so I don’t ruin anyone’s view. The other was on the far side of the hall with a decent view of the entire stage.
What I did not realize until later was that all those lights that kept the hall well-lit were turned off when the performance started. The only light I had to work with was the stage lighting. I didn’t want to use my speedlight too much because I didn’t want to interfere with the performers and the audience.
In addition to the lack of light, the performers were quite active as well. Therefore, a slow shutter speed would cause blurred images. So, in an attempt to minimize blur while capturing as much light as I could, and after trying different settings and combinations, I used shutter speeds between 1/15 and 1/30, aperture at F5.0, and sensitivity to ISO1000. I did not want to push it to ISO1000 and use such slow shutter speeds, but I had no choice because of the limitation in light. Also, because I needed to be almost unseen to the performers and the audience, I had to take my photos at a certain distance. Unfortunately, I couldn’t quite get as close as I wanted because my lens maxes out at 55mm 
Nevertheless, I still took my photos. I was able to take some good shots. However, some of my shots had either blur, or a lot of noise in the dark areas of the photos. The stage lighting was really hard to work with. I guess I was lucky that the lights are static and not those controlled lights. Having my camera hand-held a lot of the time, I did get a bit of camera shake as well with the long focal length and the slow shutter.
I did the best I could with the equipment that I had. However, I wish I had the 18-200mm lens with VR (vibration reduction). That would have allowed me to get closer shots of the performers with the longer focal length, and had less shake and blur with the VR technology. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to wait until I save up for it (the lens is $800 bucks!).
Overall, I had a lot of fun for my first time with event photography. I learned a lot about my equipment, their limitations, as well as my skills and what I need to work on in terms of my technique and methods of taking photos. I am very grateful and thankful for the opportunity that the Saranay group has given me and I hope to be better prepared and perform better in future events.