Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.
Look at this picture of Harrovian Speakers. I like it because it makes a change from the usual standing still pictures.
I could chop the distracting chair on the right. Sometimes foreground objects and people are a distraction. At other times they help create a feeling of depth.
I could remove the blank floor in front to make people bigger. If I make the people bigger, if it's taken just on a smartphone, not with a professional camera on a tripod, I might find too few pixels (dots) and blurry faces. Removing the blank floor is what I usually do. However, in this instance, I left it because cropping made the picture look too crowded and busy. You can slide a piece of white paper or even your forefinger over the photo to see how cropping will affect the composition.
Sometimes a club requires you to submit all your photo to the President or video master or whoever manages the club website. They might put up all your photos unedited. Or select only the winners of competitions.
The video master might be away on holiday or busy with work. Meanwhile, club members are phoning you and asking, Where can I see my photo?
This involves you in chasing and hassling the video master. It wastes your time.
An alternative is to send each photo individually to the video master and the subject. You might do this with half a dozen excellent photos, such as the VIP of the evening (the secretary might forward this attached to the thank you to the mayor).
Sending Individual Photos
You might send the carbon copy to a member of your family who is a speaker. You might send yourself a copy, in addition to the sent file, to keep track of what has been sent if you have to send photos intermittently.
Sending Photos In Bulk
Some recipients won't want to be sent photos one by one, because this clutters up their email inbox. They will want the whole lot together, such as in Dropbox.
Audience Photos
If there's a lull in proceedings, for example, whilst a speaker is trying to set up the projector, you can fill the time, save time later, and keep the audience entertained by taking audience photos.
First picture. Too many front seat gaps. One person in front row looking down at notes
On the other side of the aisle, I have vacated the seat on the right but somebody has leaped in to fill it. But we have a gap.
I could crop the photo to cut out the empty seat in the front row - but we would lose the lady on the far left. Maybe we can crop the photo to make a picture just of her. Let's tidy up those bags on the floor. Push them back and make them parallel to the chairs.
The left is perfect. The centre is perfect.
We have an empty chair on the right, but lovely smile from the girl, Satya, behind the empty chair.
Now I am back in my chair and somebody else is taking the photo.
Next time I shall make sure the entire front row is filled, or ask the person sitting on the far left to move to fill the empty seat.
I don't have a wide angle lens, so I have to take a photo first of the audience on the left, then on the right, finally the centre to catch those in the centre aisle and get a duplicate of some members of the audience.
Filling Front Rows
I have lots of audience photos which look like gappy teeth. Seats in front are empty. People at the back are too far to be seen. The members of the audience look small. Better to have people at the back come forward.
Why do people sit at the back? Those guarding the door may need to leap up to welcome latecomers. Anybody who needs to leave early might choose to sit near an exit at the back. Some people are just shy.
If there's an empty chair in the from row, such as the one you have vacated, ask somebody on stage to step down and take the chair. Or ask somebody behind to take the seat in front.
The more you communicate with the subjects of photos and the club, the more you can keep everybody happy and learn new ways to take even better photos to please more people.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
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