Never Say No!

I was photographing at a corporate meeting this morning doing my usual thing of running around and getting everyone to smile for me, while also blending in and being as unobtrusive as possible. Everything was going very smoothly.

As part of our normal preparation process when going to take photos at a corporate event, we ask clients in advance if they will need any photographs for social media, and if so, when. In this case, they said later in the afternoon would be fine for us to deliver photos for them to use on their social media. Based on that, I didn’t bring my MacBook Pro with me.

Well, you know what happened, right?

Keynote speaker photos requested for use during corporate event

Somewhere in between the keynote and the next speaker, their PR person flagged me down and asked if there was any possible way to obtain a photo of the keynote speaker now, since they were creating a press release to send out shortly. I thought for a moment – ok, I don’t have my laptop with me to download any images onto, now what do I do?

I politely explained that my client had said they would not need any social media photos onsite, so I didn’t have a laptop with me, but that I would send them images as soon as I arrived back at the office immediately after the event.

It was the best answer I could give at that moment. They said they’ll just take something with their phone and hope for the best…

Ugh. As a very experienced corporate event photographer, I have a rule, I never ever let a client down…OK David, think, think, how can I provide a photo for immediate use on their social media?

Getting the client “live” photos for their social media posts during the event

Normally, there are a USB card reader and flash drives in my bag, but today I was in a high security building and I had lightened up my bag because I knew it had to go through an X-ray machine like at the airport.

The first thing I thought of is, well, would my client have a laptop with a SD card slot that I could possibly download images into? I asked, but they did not have one.

Then it dawned on me, my Canon R3 pro camera is wireless – was it possible to connect my camera to my iPhone 14 Pro and send images to it? I use my iPad in this manner and it allows me to review images coming off the camera with clients for headshot selection during portrait sessions. I hadn’t thought of using my iPhone for this because the screen is small, but an option exists to download images directly to my iPhone, which I could then send by email.

When you’re thrown a curve ball, you have to literally think on your feet and…
pull a rabbit out of your hat!

Keynote speaker photos delivered by this experienced corporate event photographer!

Well, I presented my clients with an image of the keynote speaker at the podium on my phone ready for emailing. That put a huge smile on their faces. They sent the image directly to the PR person who forwarded it to the person who was writing the press release, all while the conference was still happening live, pretty cool, huh?

My clients are appreciating the value of hiring an experienced corporate event photographer.

To be a true professional: always expect the unexpected, and be well prepared to figure out a way to make it happen – it’s all about keeping that smile on your client’s face.