(I occasionally use Google Android’s speech-to-text function. Pardon the mistakes.)
If you haven’t done so yet, get yourself a photo shoot doing event photography at a conference. I do a bunch of these, well I did before COVID, but now they're coming back to Honolulu and Waikiki again.
This was a big client from Japan and I’ve worked with them before. The clients, Seven Eleven Japan and Seven Eleven Hawaii are awesome. Smart and nice people and genuinely interested in getting their shoppers the finest foods. It’s always a joy seeing the same faces and continuing the conversations that happened years ago as if time stood still. I make new friends whenever I shoot these, and I just love this type of work.
It might seem boring to just stand around and capture them doing their thing, but it’s not. It’s so interesting to try and capture their thoughts, their feelings, as they go about what’s normal to them. The interactions between their busy time is priceless… it really is.
Technically, it can be challenging, but my Panasonic S1 and S1R never let me down. I just starting using the Westcott FJ80 shoe-mounted flash and they worked wonderfully. It was an 12-hour shoot in various locations and with changing environmental conditions. Little bit of rain, cold food storage locations, nice stores, and the Halekulani ballroom (crazy lighting conditions). This type of work will keep you on your technical toes. If you don’t know how to manage your cameras exposure settings quickly and accurately, it would be good to practice by using the inside and outside of your home, flipping on and off different lights in different rooms, and just forcing yourself to adjust quickly as you run from room to room.
I can’t wait to shoot with them again and experience my relationship transform from clients to old friends.