My Takes and My Take! – Events and Portraits

This year my wife will be organising the evening part of the same event where we organised the rock concert party. In addition I shall be doing the photography for the business end of the event as well as the evening “letting the hair down”.

I’m really looking forward to capturing people in a complementary way and representing as I put it “the way they would probably like to be seen”. Obviously there is a business aspect but like so much the people make the mood, and in a business event this is true too. The success can only be measured in the pleasure and engagement that the attendees had, and it is my job to capture this in a complementary and aesthetic form.

In view of what’s coming, I wanted to share some of my “private portraits”. Mainly because with my travel and street photography I shy away from such direct people images, so there is little ability for others to see what I do.

Video: My Takes and My Take! – Events and Portraits

The pictures are from private family moments, parties we have held with friends and parties that we have been invited to by friends. Of course all of the images are posted with the permission of the individuals or their parents.

I often take my camera to private events and “shoot” and “shoot” and “shoot” without pause. This may seem a little strange, but there is one aspect that is a real motivator and gives me great pleasure. It is when the person or parents are really happy with the images.

Sure mobile phones capture moments, and we are probably witnessing the first generation of individuals being documented from birth to grave, but still there is a place for the artistic portrait.

We can do something for our family and friends…

As artistic photographers with friends and families we can do something to make their memories more than simply a mind trigger in the form of a snap shot. The future is bleak if most private images are forcing people’s minds to fill the gaps that the quick phone camera user failed to render. We can create a moment of beauty that helps to encapsulate the character of the person and not just their outward existence.

Your artistic feel for a person and moment, is greater than the camera and the technicalities of settings and light. It is the ability to get the inside of the subject by watching their gestures, their expressions, their mannerisms and being ready to compose at the right time.

If you aren’t already doing this I suggest you go for it. You won’t likely regret it and hopefully your repertoire will expand enormously as mine did.

Alex.,