The past weekend has seen get going with the photography side of my volunteer role for MiF. Saturday afternoon started with the opening of the Music Boxes at Media City – a wonderful production from MiF and Cbeebies for children 6 months to 7 years old. My purpose here was to photograph the children (and sometimes parents!) playing with the creative array of ‘musical instruments’. I think if you’d told me before hand that I was going to spend almost 3 hours photographing children, I may have run a mile. But I’m always willing to be proven wrong and I was – I had such an amazing time as the kids were so obviously enjoying themselves and looked so happy, combine this with the gorgeously sunny day that meant not having to get the flash out, meaning I could just wander around reasonably unnoticed to get some great candid shots.
After a quick stint home to grab some lunch I was back at the Quays to photograph a party for staff of the Music Boxes along with BBC & MiF Festival Staff. Quite the contrast to the afternoon’s relaxed shoot, this involved photographing the guests chatting to each other whilst eating & drinking! some candid, some posed, all with a flash gun (which behaved itself incredibly for once). Before I started I was given a brief run down of who’s who and the ‘must have’ list of folks to photograph. I think this point was when the nerves really set in, although there was no need to worry. Everyone was so lovely and polite and no one seemed to mind being semi blinded by my flash mid conversation.
After I had all the shots I needed, it was time again to head home for the really scary part. I’m just learning a whole new work flow using Lightroom after having used Photoshop for at least 6 years for the digital darkroom, I’m still fumbling my way around somewhat, but I’ve seen the greatest benefit for these assignments with the ability to create a new export for each batch size requirement with virtually a few clicks and a more structured cataloging system going on, although I’ve still got a way to go before I’m entirely organised.
Here’s a couple of photos from the day
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