HEAVY BAGS #4

IT’S ALIVE! WORKING/SHOOTING A LIVE EVENT

by: Pat Bagley (this is Pat’s 4th installment from his summer internship)

The Mammut Bouldering Championship raged for hours, building to this one five minute event. Hundreds of spectators draw silent as the lights fade and the PA hushes. Daniel Woods emerges from the crowd, slapping chalk between his hands. An Emmy-nominated light tech splashes the Walltopia “Prometheus” wall in colors like the aurora borealis. The PA explodes back to life. Woods grabs the first hold. I lever up a camera into the perfect angle. Woods grabs the next hold. My shutter runs like a machine gun. Woods blazes through the crux. Snap! Snap! Snap! Woods is about to win! I hold down the shutter button for the money shot… and nothing happens.

While Woods was swarmed by congratulations, Tim rushed over to me. “Did you get that shot?” he asked. “Well, no,” I tell him, “the shutter wouldn’t release.” I hand him the camera like you’d hand parents keys after you crashed their car. “Oh,” Tim says, “the memory card is full.” Needless to say, I learned a lot that night. Here a few tips for shooting live events:

The last shot before I filled the memory card:

-BE READY FOR ANYTHING: That night, my job was to be the event’s “Media Bouncer” meaning I was supposed to tell other photographers where they can—and cannot—shoot. Later that night, when it was clear that the other media were being pretty tame, Tim handed me a camera and told me to have at it. Switching gears like that isn’t always easy, but that is no excuse for remembering important details, like your memory card capacity!

-EMBRACE COMPETITION: Live events like this one are often open to any photographers. Seeing other folks stalking around with cameras can be intimidating, but don’t let it be. Chat with them, you might learn something. Also, let the swarms of other photogs nudge you into camera angles or positions you might not otherwise think to shoot. Maybe the best shot would be turning you’re back to the main event and shooting the crowd.

-SHOW ME THE MONEY(?): Climbing is a niche subject, so there is not a huge market for your photos.  For instance, Rock and Ice and Climbing/Urban Climber already had photographers at the event, so you probably wouldn’t be able to sell any photos to the country’s primary magazines. As such, Tim and I told photographers they were welcome to shoot the event, but they must be realistic as to who would buy their shots.

-LEARN YOUR LENS: This one is for the photo assistants: live events are fast paced. There are no re-dos. When you photographer asks you for a certain lens, he wants it pronto. That means you and the photog will end up practically throwing lens and lens caps at each other. It’s your job to make sure everything ends up safely in the lens bag. If you find yourself with nothing to do in a shoot, make sure the lens bag is organized and you know exactly where each lens is.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Heavy Bags, Uncategorized and tagged with Heavy Bags, Intern, Kemplemedia, Pat Bagley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.