It is a curious thing happened to me right now. I have a degree in photography. It is a fact or I would not be here writing this article. I hold a job that is unrelated to photography. Occasionally, I endorse unofficial photographer of my cap to accommodate for lack of time, the unavailability of the photographer or the tender is not ... etc, to take some photographs and my service to organization.
As everyone knows that right now, everyone tighten their belts and budgets not related to the basic functions have narrowed to a trickle. It happened to me so surprising that request not to call on professionals to take official photographs but with people within the organization, among other things myself because no one else has more to skill to get this task.
This feature official photographer implies a certain ease in placement inside the subjects, taking the moment, controlling the lights settings. And he must have good equipment to reduce the importance of the constraint. What I am not and did not have.
Yes, this request is accompanied by the use of personal equipment. Photos must be perfect because they are highly symbolic official events that will be archived forever. I am not allowed to miss a shot ... I am thinking about official shacking hands which is a basic but not the easiest thing to achieve when you are surrounded by officials, VIP and so on ... I am not yet at this level to offer this skill. I am used to be very discreet in nature. The role of photographer covering an event implies that we must slide into the corners and at the ready for action. It is not given to everyone to do this while controlling his photography boxes.
I do not know if one of you has faced this situation? And what is the decision that was taken? What do you think? Should I accept it as a challenge? Or just deny it? What is certain is that I want to keep that passion as a pleasure and not an obligation.
To conclude my post, I should say that this is a new additional task in my job description and I have to perform it with the existing tasks.
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Virgilxxn
Every problem is oportunity in discuise, good luck my friend !
Digikhmer
Thanks Egomezta, Julia161, Gmargittai and Adeliepenguin for taking to comment my post. In this kind of demand from your employer sounds like an order with only one acceptable answer which is "yes". I will try to sort out the issues of equipments, working time, copyright of my production etc... although I am not in the condition do dictate anything but only border my new task.
Adeliepenguin
I have been asked to "volunteer" my services to nonprofit organizations, and to companies I have been employed by, to photograph events. Like you, I am not as experienced in event photography. And although I might get nervous that I might miss a shot, I don't let my fears get to me, and have always looked at it as a means to improve and broaden my skills and meet new people. I usually have fun. And I find that people today are use to having cameras "in their face", so I don't worry about being "discreet" and always in the background. At first, try it with smaller groups and not so important events, and see how you do. You might find that like me, it is actually fun and not as scary as you thought.
Gmargittai
You make too much of it. As a photographer I understand your quest for perfection and sense of responsibility but the truth of the matter is that nobody will really scrutinize your photos like they do here at DT.
As you say everybody is tightening their belts and you are able to save some money to your company and become more indispensable. Good for you. It can be also lots of fun. You will learn something on top of it. Make them buy you some equipment if this turns out to be a longer term.
Julia161
It's actually quite a usual reporting work, nothing frightening. Noone will demand from you a masterpiece each minute, and noone demands from a report studio quality. Some images will be greate, of course, some average, some will go to rubbish - as always. Postprocessing of a report is minimal - sharpness and color correction, because it's the document. Just do your job as good as you can, show the event and don't worry about the rest. Take it if the money is apropriate. You have a wonderful portfolio and no doubt will manage. Good luck!
Egomezta
Opportunities like this one are not very common, so I would take it. Don't worry about your capabilities, you'll do great. You'll learn, relate to more people, earn money, etc.