Last week I was commissioned to take pictures at the Boat Show at Excel. For professionals in event photography it wasn’t a particularly complicated job, record the panels of a stand for the sponsors. Then as the show began to run down cover an awards ceremony and finally some reportage style images of the after awards party on the stand.
The Awards ceremony turned out to be more crowded than I expected and a few others turned up with cameras to record the event but since I was working for the organizers I took control of the posing and recording of the event in my usual bouncy fun manner which normally gets me the best cooperation from those involved.
I processed the images over night, a usual procedure these days for professionals in event, PR and Press photography and had all the images up on my web site ready for anyone involved to download at 9am. Again, all very standard stuff, for a professional.
It surprised me therefore to get a very kindly worked email a day or so later complimenting me not only on the quality of my photography but also the manner in which I had carried out the job making it so easy for everyone and finally how easy the follow up service had been for downloading the required images.
My surprise was not because everything had gone so well, I wouldn’t have expected less for a client. My surprise was that the client expected less than a professional service. Isn’t it sad that today where everyone can be a photographer so easily because technology has made it simple to produce a correctly exposed shot. Where every Tom, Dick and Harry in a marketing department will weald a camera, rather than employ a professional, that the expected quality has become so low?
20 years ago any medium size company would have employed a professional to record any event in their company’s life, a drinks reception, a new director, a stand at a show or a client facing event. But today only the most important event will justify the expense, is this a false economy?
I’m biased, so obviously I’m going to say yes. But in these days where we all need to stand out from the crowd is it worth sinking the boat for a hapenth worth of tar? Often thousands are spent on a conference, seminar or PR launch and then a company hopes to rely on the images of whatever press they can attract, who will all have their own agenda, or Dick from the marketing department to capture a few images on his phone or the low end camera in the department for all press purposes that the marketing department might have – it’s madness!
You wouldn’t let an amateur service your boiler or do heart surgery on someone you love would you? So why would you expect an amateur to produce the goods on the image you want for your next promotion? And it’s not as if it’s a large expense compared to the general budget of most events.
So, I make a plea from the heart here, if you are running a marketing department and you want to promote your company with a professional image. And you also want your clients to enjoy the experience don’t make a false economy, use professionals for imaging.
Brian Russell
Copyright Jan 2016