05 Nov Emergency Food Network
Got an email from Helen McGovern, executive director of the EFN, checking my availability for their “Abundance” fundraiser. She had attended the Tacoma Community House fundraising event I worked a few weeks back, also saw the pictures I captured there, and asked if I could do the same for her organization. But of course! 😉
That was a busy Saturday. I was (and still am) in the middle of shooting the Smokin’ Hot Espresso calendar. That day I had two months scheduled to shoot, and I threw this event right on top of that. Piece of cake, right? Maybe if I wasn’t still in the middle of a horse pasture wrapping my last calendar shoot for the day, an hour out of town, and needing to be present and clicking at the fundraiser 30 minutes from then! Let’s just say I had a “vision problem” and I couldn’t quite accurately make out the speed limit signs on the way back into town. Made the event just as things started to ramp up. phew!
“Abundance,” a live and silent auction event, had quite a turnout, which is always great to see for such a giving organization like this one. They had Pat Cashman, remember the show ‘Almost Live,’ up on stage as the live auctioneer. Pretty funny guy, great voice. Also had a couple performers making their way around the venue. One being a juggler, performed halfway through the auction.
Gotta love event lighting. The dark, moody lighting looks really cool and sets a great feel, but man… a photographic nightmare almost every time! And if you want your pictures to look anything halfway decent, you don’t use that dreaded on-camera flash…. ew. I’ll sacrifice and have a little grain in my pictures before I give a client a disc full of pictures where the people look like they been blasted with a shotgun full of flashlights.
This venue threw an additional challenge my way. The very large room was very dark lighting, and then in the center of the room they had the stage, where a very bright spotlight was blinding the poor saps that had to make there way up there. This unfortunate lighting combo meant that if I properly exposed the stage, the rest of the room went dark. If I exposed for the room, the stage area was so bright it looked like a super nova just went off. Not a deal breaker by any means, just meant my fingers were busy on the dials.
All in all, it was a very nice event, even down to the foods served via the catering company. They raised a lot of money for what I have no doubt are many hungry people out there. Keep up the good work EFN!