Photography and Covid 19
It has been incredibly difficult to do any photography and Covid 19 restrictions limiting almost all aspects of taking pictures.
One area of photography that is particularly restricted is event photography. My photography colleagues from all over the world have said that they have instantly seen their incomes completely disappear. Fortunately for me I am not only a photographer, I also work as a photo editor and having this as a service I offer has helped me through this financially difficult time.
The restrictions have slowly been lifted, but I felt that event photography was a long way away from resuming. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from the director of the Adda Simfonica enquiring if I could come and take photographs of a concert that was going to be performed that weekend in the national auditorium.
Of course I accepted and got all my photography gear in order, making sure my Canon Eos had batteries that were charged. There were so many restrictions when I arrived at the auditorium. Security was high, everybody had to go through a temperature check to see if they were suffering from a Covid 19 related fever.
Photography and Covid 19
It was such a surreal experience. All the monitor screens had safety advice, 75% of the seating was closed. The auditorium has seating for around 1000 people and they had limited it to just over 200 tickets. The musicians came onto stage with face masks, there was a minute’s silence for tose affected by the covid 19 crisis and a huge applause when concert was about to commence. I was told by the staff that this was the first live concert in Spain after the lockdown, which made mine the first event photography session!
The concert only lasted an hour, I had to rush a bit with my photography as normally I have around an hour and forty minutes to take all my required photographs. I was also limited in my movement around the event, but managed to get all my photos. The client required a fast turnaround on the photo editing as they use a lot of them on social media. I edited my photos using Adobe Lightroom Classic. It is a great tool for importing and editing a large amount of photos in a short time.
Over the years I have created my own Lightroom develop presets, especially created for corporate and event photography. I cannot use my camera flash during the concert as it will distract the musicians and the audience. This means my photos have to be edited to bring out the shadows and balance the photos. I also tone the photos subtly and create black and white copies. The final photos have been edited and sent to the client.
It was a really surreal experience – photography and covid restrictions, but it was amazing to get back to doing what I really enjoy! Contact me if you have any photographic projects you want to discuss. I am happy to tailor my photography to suit your specific requirements. Remember I offer photography and retouching at no hidden extra fees.
