Shooting a conference has its own unique sets of challenges: and as one of the few photographers in the country who specializes in conference photography I thought I would I would take the opportunity to to show you guys my workflow. I’ve got a three day conference starting tomorrow so this provides a great opportunity to give you an insight to how I work.
Tomorrow is the first day of the conference so I’ve spent quite a bit of today just getting my gear ready. So far eight AA batteries and six camera batteries have all had their turn in the charger. I’ve dutifully checked each of my memory cards to make sure the images on them have been backed up: then I’ve formatted them. I’ve set each of my cameras to their default settings based on the venue (I checked it out this afternoon whilst meeting with the organizers) and I set a couple of the custom user settings to my “flash default” in case I need to switch in a hurry.
This is the gear I’ll be taking with me:
For those interested in the technical details: I’m taking two camera bodies, my Canon 5D Classic (aka as “The Beauty”), and my Canon 7D (aka as “The Beast.”) I will be using the 70-200mm L on the Classic, and the 17-55mm 2.8 on the 7D as well as the 580exII flash and Rouge Flashbender. I have a couple of spare lenses in my kit bag in case I damage something, and if something catastrophic were to happen I have this guy on speed dial. 
Also coming with me tomorrow will be my Thinkpad X220T laptop: and tomorrow I will run through how I use that whilst shooting an event. In the meantime I’m using it to enter the final details for the conference into my Studio Software: VINCENT. Here’s a screenshot:
I spent a lot of time looking for a suitable software option for my business but I didn’t find one: so I decided to write my own! Based on Filemaker: I use VINCENT to track my contacts and photoshoots, and generally to make my life easier.
As you can see from the screenshot: every Job and every Photoshoot gets its own unique “tag.” Those tags are how I keep track of every shoot throughout all the other applications I use: the tags go on the invoices and folders and online galleries as well as being appended to every image that I import into the computer.
So the time now is just after midnight: and I’ve just finished checking off my checklists and packing the last of my gear. The alarm is set for six in the morning and I’m getting ready for bed: ready for a ten hour day of shooting tomorrow.
TOMORROW: DAY ONE OF THE CONFERENCE.
