Visual variety, regardless of the room...

Regardless of the rooms in which you train…

…you still need an image portfolio of diverse and compelling photos that captures the energy of the room.

Recently, I photographed a 2-day training. 

The location was a typical boardroom setup - one long table, a couple windows, white board space everywhere, and a monitor for slides. 

The walls, table and ceiling is white. While the visual palette was clean, it was also very plain and not too exciting. 

Fortunately, I wasn’t simply shooting interiors of the boardroom - there were 18 people - participants and instructors - seated at the table, as they were: 

• Engaging fellow participants in conversation

• Taking notes

• Reading through the workbook

• Asking questions

• Reacting to the conversation in the room 

• Role playing

• Shifting their body posture in their chair

• Smiling

• Thinking

Regardless of the blank palette workspace in which this event occurred, this dynamic amongst everyone at the table offered options when photographing the energy and activity in the room. 

And it kept me plenty busy finding those moments that can turn into visual assets that help promote the next training. 

In total, I shot over 3000 photos - I delivered about a third of the total. 

So yeah, that’s a lot of pictures :) 

After the event concluded and the photos were delivered to the client, and participants had a chance to peek at them, one of the experts sitting at the table came over to chat with me. 

She mentioned she often runs trainings like this - one room, several days, the same people, engaging in the same activities over and over again - and the photos she receives leaves much to be desired. 

Or, in her words, the photos are usually ehhhhh.

However, when she took a look at the photos from this event, she found it fascinating that each photo was unique, told a story, and felt different from one to the other. 

And the reason for that is simple. 

When your photographer understands the importance of creating visual variety and emotion from a wealth of vantage points in wide, medium and close-up frames, that creates the opportunity for a massive image portfolio of valuable visual assets that can be used across your entire online presence…

…without them feeling like they’re looking at the same shots over and over again. 

The next time that you conduct an in-person training, workshop or other facilitation that involves multiple people in the same room for multiple days, be sure to qualify potential photographers to make sure they understand this very important objective.

As part of this qualification process, I suggest that you don’t simply look at their website galleries. Request to see an entire event album of photos from a similar event. 

Skim through the shots and assess whether or not this photographer has the ability to create variety from shot-to-shot, consistently, from the beginning of the first day, until the last minute of the event, regardless of the state of the room or the fact that everyone is engaging in the same activities the whole time. 

That way, you’ll have the confidence in knowing that the person behind the camera will make the most of the moment…and your investment in the creation of the photos.