Photographing Groups So All Are Seen - including the photographer

How do you photograph a group so everybody can be seen, with VIPs in the middle?

First take the VIPs or prize winners alone. Then the committee. Then photograph the whole group.

You can't ask visitors or ordinary members to stand at the sides. But you can ask the VIP such as the mayor or president, or visiting speaker to stand in the middle.

You can't tell one person to move back. You can ask the smaller people to stand at the front. Or ask the VIPS or prize winners to sit on chairs at the front holding their trophies.

Sometimes the VIP or President is the person keen to have a photographic memento and also the person with the clever camera or the camera kept handy. In order to get them in the photo, somebody else should swap places with the photographer to take another photo including whoever took the first photo.

An alternative is to use a tripod and a time lapse. The photographer then sets up the camera, on time lapse, makes sure there is a place to stand in the group, warns the group the countdown and dashes into place - reminding everybody to smile.

If you are planning to do this for the first time, practise taking time lapse photos of a group of chairs and rushing into place.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.