You hold an event to mark a special occasion or to promote something. Rebecca understands the importance of both of these motivations, as she has also worked in marketing and event promotions herself.

She believes event photography is all about capturing the atmosphere and the most important moments of your event. Her event photography is in a documentary and ‘candid’style and she ensures that she captures all the significant moments for you to either treasure forever, or to be used to promote your future events.

Candid styles of event photography are increasingly becoming popular in formal photographic situations. The results, when they put together with formal shots, are a wonderful blend of photos that tell a fuller story.

The best way to take spontaneous photographs is to always be ready to do so. For her event photogrpaphy, Rebecca has a DSLR which she takes on a shoot but between shoots she likes to also carry with her a quality point and shoot camera that can be whipped out at a moments notice to capture the many opportunities for a good photo that event, and life in general presents us with.

Every event has a beginning, middle, and end. Try to capture the entire story of the event Rebecca will take pictures of the empty venue and snap shots as people arrive. She will show the full scale of the event. During the main event, she will set her camera to shoot as many shots as possible. Rebecca brings many memory cards and never lets space dictate how many shots she takes for her event photography. Setting her camera to burst mode and concentrating on capturing the reaction of the audience, as well as the main action, makes for great images at your event. Reaction shots are priceless and often capture the emotion of the event better than the actual event.

Rebecca enjoys the public interaction of event photography, and has a friendly and personable manner. This means that the people being photographed at your event are relaxed and the photos are natural. Some individuals are naturally shy, so Rebecca uses a long lens as part of her event photography. The further you are away from your subject the less likely they will be to know that you’re photographing them and the more natural and relaxed they’ll act. Using a telephoto lens or long zoom enables her to shoot from outside their personal space but keep the feeling of intimacy in the shot she’s taking.

There’s nothing like a blinding flash of light in the eyes to sometimes kill a moment. If possible (and it’s not always) Rebecca willattempt to photograph without the flash when aiming for candid shots. When in lower light situations she will increase her cameras ISO setting, use a faster lens, or open up her aperture. Using one of these skills, or a combination of these helps her to blend into the background of your event a little more when needed.

When you shoot multiple images quickly of a person you can sometimes get some surprising and spontaneous shots that you may not have got if you shot just one. For her event photography Rebecca will often switch her camera to continuous shooting mode and shoot in bursts of images and in doing so increases her chances of that perfect shot at your event.

Rebecca positions herself strategically. While candid event photography is about capturing the spontaneity of a moment and getting that perfect shot at the right split second of time, Rebecca finds that if you think ahead and anticipate what is about to unfold in front of you that you can greatly increase the chances of getting some great shots. So at an event she will get to the venue early and think about what will happen during the event and where will be best for her to stand to capture each moment. She considers which way people will be facing, what they will be doing, what the light will be like. Thinking through these issues ensures that she gets the best out of her event photography and that you are happy with your final images.

Rebecca has found that in event photography, images of people doing things tend to be much more interesting than people sitting or standing passively doing nothing. For one, her subject will be focussed upon something which adds energy to a photo (and takes their focus off her as a photographer) but it also puts them in context and adds an element of story to the image.

An event is often about the interaction between people. Something very interesting happens when you photograph more than one person in an image at a time – it introduces relationship into the shot. Even if the people in the shot are not really interacting it can add depth and a sense of story into the viewing of the image. Rebecca uses this in her event photography.

Rebecca uses different angles in her event photography. She will crouch down, get up high, frame her shots on an angle, zoom in close and then quickly zoom out to a wide angle, break the rules of composition etc and adds a new perspective to her event photography shots which ensures that your event looks fresh and interesting.