Will Robb Photography

In some ways, event photography is quite like wedding photography, you’ve got a lot to document in a short space of time and you have to supply your client with a lot of images after the event, usually within a short space of time. For a newspaper/magazine shoot I usually supply 10 good images from which the editor chooses 1 or 2, for some events I have to supply hundreds of photos (sometimes about 1000) on the same day, or within a day or two as they have to be uploaded to websites, used in press releases etc. This often means that from when when I have shot an event I barely sleep until everything is edited and sent off, so events are one of the hardest things I have to shoot. Mind you, due to the heavy workload you also get paid fairly well, some events pay enough so I can go out and buy a new L series lens, so I don’t mind the work load at all

Anyway, earlier on this year I was chief photographer for Whisky Live 2010 in Tokyo Big site in Odaiba one Sunday afternoon in late February. It was a very long day, starting at 9.30am and finishing at 7.30pm with no time for a break, only a mouthful of water here and there and a bite of sandwich whilst downloading photos from my memory card to my Macbook to sustain me, so a long tough day. There was a lot to cover, first of the whisky booths being set up by the various makers from Scotland and Japan (about 50 booths in total) in the main hall at big site, 18 tasting sessions (each one hour long, 6 happening at the same time in different rooms in Big site), covering the crowds, different whisky cocktail making sessions, live music performances, prize giving sessions, the World Whisky Awards, interviews and a whole host of other stuff. When all the different events of the day which were happening in different areas were added up, it actually came to more than 30 hours of events that were going on. Obviously, that would be impossible for me alone to cover, so I had to hire another Tokyo based photographer, Stephen Lebovits, to come along and help me out for the day. Initially I only wanted him to come in to help me out with the booths and the tasting sessions, but he was kind enough to come along for the whole day and help out. Even with two people, it was a lot of work and impossible to cover everything, so we had to divide everything into blocks of time. For example, from around 11am-midday was the first 6 tasting sessions whilst there was also music performances going on in the main hall, so what I would do is divide the tasting sessions between Stephen and I, so we had three each to cover and limit ourselves to 10 minutes in each and then get down to the main hall so one of us could cover the music, the other the crowd enjoying themselves. There was a gap of one hour between each block of tasting sessions when more events were to be covered, some required us both to be at the stage, some required one of us to go do a portrait session with V.I.Ps from the whisky world, then we both had to be in the main hall for the big events. Logistically it looked hard (and it was), but when we kept our timings tight it was manageable. For all events, timing is the key, you don’t have time to hang about waiting for special shots, you just have to stick to a strict schedule and do the best you can in a short space of time. You need to have flashes working most of the time, you need two bodies and a variety of lenses and back up batteries on you at all time. You have to anticipate moments, get the good shots that define the event, what the organizers have put time and effort into arranging and want records of as well as the random stuff that emerges from the crowds.

I’ve been doing events for nearly three years now. I started off as second photographer for some big corporate events and in hindsight I spent too much time waiting for shots and although I did get some very nice artsy shots which looked really cool, I didn’t really get “enough” images to keep the boss happy. I have memories of being told something along the lines of “these photos are very good, but it would be nice if you had double the amount.” Overtime I learned to shoot on rapid, you see something and fire off 5-10 shots and choose the best, if however it’s still life such as a bottle, then you can choose your shot more carefully, the main thing is you have to do it quickly as there is always something else to be shot.

At the end of the day I had taken about 3000 photos. More than 60GB on my full to bursting macbook. The shoot was on a Sunday and my client had given me a deadline of Wednesday to have everything edited and sent, so I started working through the photos when I got home that night, chose the best 700 or so and edited them down over the next day and a half. There’s no time to do detailed edits, so it’s very basic trimming, adding light to the shadows, tweaking the colours, taking the harshness out of spotlights etc. As a rule though, if the photo doesn’t look good before editing, I don’t waste time making them look good and losing resolution in the process. If it looks good already, make it look a bit better, if it looks nasty don’t try to save it, the flaws will show through. I had done my work by Tuesday morning and then I just had to wait for Stephen to finish his edits and send them over to me. Then when I had everything from him in the afternoon I put them into folders (tasting sessions, awards, booths) to make it easy for the client to locate and send images to participants and sent them off Tuesday night before the deadline. Job done.

If you happen to be around in Tokyo next year during the event, i suggest you get down. I wouldn’t mind attending myself as a civilian, the selection of whisky there is amazing, you really can try the best and even get to sample some not yet released drams….it was painful to look and smell, but not taste. maybe I’ll have a little drink now to wind down though….

Ayway, here are a few photos from the day to give a flavour of what’s going on. The large chap on the stage was the first foreign sumo champ, Konishiki. Apparently they had Miss Universe Japan interested in being the special guest (she is a whisky fan), but she had a prior engagement. Maybe next time….