LPSA 2012

I've been searching through all my hard drives (I have 12 in total and range from 320GB to 2TB in memory,) looking for this set of pictures, I've wanted to share with you all since I've started this blog.

These are the pictures from my very first Paid Event, I'd been photographing events for free to gain experience since 2009, but as this was the first time I was getting paid it was like a test, to see how well I could perform with people I didn't know, in a location I was unfamiliar with.

I remember I was a little bit nervous as I arrived, but at the reception I was kindly greeted by Gurgeet, one of the pharmacy students at De Montfort University on the Pharmacy Ball Committee, she was very helpful and accommodating, she directed me to the main hall to set up.      

As soon as I set up my camera, lens and flash gun I started approaching people, I was feeling better since Gurgeet had greeted me and now I was ready. 

The group of people in the picture are the first group of people I approached for pictures, I snapped off a couple of frames and reviewed to check my focus and lighting (especially for shadows) and was horrified to see they pitch black, I checked my settings and they were all correct, I then looked up and my jaw dropped. The ceiling I was bouncing my flash off was atleast 20 ft high! no wonder the pictures  were coming out so dark, I asked them for a few more images and changed the direction of my flash and clicked!

This is the image I produced, I'm really happy with it, that was my first test. 

I'm glad that was the first problem I met that night as it made me aware of my ceilings.

I noticed as people started arriving they were stopping on the staircase just before the Ballroom, so I waited there and captured some more pictures,. This time my ceiling was very low making it very easy to light the ladies. 

In the main Ballroom, the ceiling was about 10 ft tall, I tried fiddling around with my flash gun to bounce as much light into my subjects, I'm really pleased that it worked and that the images came out bright and colourful.

Here are some more of the memories I captured on that night.

Overall, I had a great night, it was so much fun, 

I met so many new people and it was an amazing experience.  

The Pharmacy Committee loved the pictures so much they invited me back to photograph their 2013 Ball!

You can see the pictures from the 2013 Ball here.