Why your charity event needs more than a few good photos
I recently photographed a five-day event for an amazing charity that runs an annual event working with young people.
One thing that really stuck with me was something their comms team said after I delivered the photos.
"Last year we really struggled promoting next year's event afterwards as there weren't enough images, and not enough variety."
Anyone who works in comms knows that feeling. You're looking through your image bank and find yourself using the exact same images. Day after day, week after week.
And it's not just comms that are affected. Fundraising gets it too.
When applying for grants, funders want to know who is attending your events and who is being positively impacted by them.
If you have 200 photos of one particular demographic, it's going to be pretty difficult to demonstrate your impact to a funder looking to support a different group, or one with a particular focus.
If your images don't show it, you ain't getting the funding for it.
So, what did we do differently this year?
For their five-day event, I delivered:
Daily recaps, with around 20 edited images each day
Over 1,500 edited images shortly after the event
Coverage of all their workshops and talks
A varied collection of images showcasing the diversity of the attendees
The aim was to give their team a bank of images they could actually use throughout the year, whether that was for social media, future event promotion, fundraising applications or reporting back to funders.
The tricky part? Pretty much every workshop and talk was happening simultaneously, so I had to be in several places at once to make sure nothing was missed.
That meant a lot of planning, moving quickly between sessions and probably 20,000+ steps a day.
Oh, and did I mention I was filming video clips too and brought out the drone? 😆
The point is, event photography isn't just about getting a few nice shots on the day. It's about giving your team the content they need to communicate their work, demonstrate their impact and secure future funding.
This is what their team said after the event: “Joachim was exactly what we were looking for to photograph our Catholic event, he was professional, respectful and reverent in the liturgical moments, but also captured the joy. He took the brief on board, and went above and beyond what we asked and expected. His photographs were fantastic and were edited and delivered much faster than we expected! Thanks Joachim!”
So, in summary...
Hire a photographer who can be in several places at once.
I'm still working on the actual teleportation, though.
