A Tale of Two Attendees
In my best Kevin Malone voice, “No, it’s not Charles Dickens. It’s Dave Litterio.”
It was the best of times, it was the, well not the, worst of times, but it was the not-so-great moment of the times. This short story is about little moments that can have an impact on people in general, but more specifically, two attendees of separate events I photographed.
Now, let me preface this and say that part of an event photographer’s job is to be a ninja shooting from the shadows. Or at least not intrusive to the guests. Aside from asking to get those posed group shots, or just overall being a decent human and saying hello if eye contact is made.
Sometimes, a photographer is approached for different reasons by attendees. Some ask for group shots, some just make chit-chat or quick anecdotes if I’m nearby. That should be roughly the amount of interaction we make. So most of the time interactions are innocuous, fun, and positive.
Of course, there’s a BUT.
Which brings me to Attendee #1. While I was at the side of the smallish ballroom at the Old Post Office in Chicago, I was getting shots of the speaker. There were a lot of open seats and not many audience members. This audience member was sitting at the very end of a row where I was shooting out of the way. I noticed, she got up and moved a couple rows behind her. Then did it again. When I brought my camera down to look around we made eye contact and she whispered “That’s just really annoying.”. She was referring to my camera mirror flapping as DSLR’s do. That’s the clap you’ll hear. I can get into the operation of a DSLR in another post or if you want to sign up for 1:1 photography coaching. But anyway.
I don’t really remember what my facial reaction was, but I think it was a slightly nervous smile. Took a few more shots, but ultimately moved to the other side of the room. So that’s about it for the incident.
But internally, it threw me off my game. It shouldn’t, but at the time it did. Now I’m in my head thinking a number of things. “Crap, is she going to complain to my client contact.” “That was kind of rude.” “Well, now I need to get a mirrorless camera.” “Just let it go, Dave.”
I’m even a bit nervous walking and crouching in the aisles during a presentation. But I need to shoot from many angles to provide a versatile set of images for your event.
This event had multiple areas, so I went over to the booths to recompose and get some shots there. So, in my head, I may have overreacted, but the point is, little things like that could have an impact beyond what you see. Photographers try their best to be that unobtrusive ninja and still get stellar images for the client. But things like this is rare and most people are usually indifferent, don’t vocalize their annoyance, or are friendly.
Now, here’s the fun part and attendee #2.
This event was at the Renaissance Chicago. A venue I’ve shot many a conference. This moment came maybe around the 3/4 mark of the day. After a presentation track finished up, the usual “networking” break started, so I was outside the ballroom scoping the people. A few moments later. I see an attendee come up to me. I hear…
“You’re really passionate about photography aren’t you?”
I got thrown off once again, but it was more surprising to hear that out of the blue.
”Haha oh thanks, yea, it’s pretty fun.” (or something like that)
I can’t remember the exact conversation, but it was a nice exchange. He mentioned he ran the Spartan Race and suggested that I’d probably have fun photographing those. It’s not that he’s part of that organization, he just ran in it.
I have photographed the Warrior Dash about 8 years ago and yes, that was fun.
Back to the conference event and attendee #2. So after a couple minute chit chat, we went our separate ways and I continued shooting. But this time, I felt good.
And so, it is a far, far better thing to do, when friendliness is extended from conference attendees to its operational staff (and vice versa); it is a far, far better result that I create for the client I have ever known.
