Highlight: After four years doing this event this is first year I did not feel intimidated by the cultured crowd....
Lowlight: ...although I still felt illiterate...
Fill in: The cream of the poetry set is crammed into one powder blue, chandaliered, mirrored drawing room of the Saville Club. It is all very sophisticated then there's me, with orders to get anyone that goes through the door, blocking the way at the top of a sweeping staircase, brandishing my camera and with a visual expression that says 'Your picture or your life'. Most are too refined to say no, either that or they know I am the only thing standing between them and a free drink. As well as quick snap portraits, I have to get the speeches, presentations and general event.
Poets are for me the last bastion of the Arts World resisting the celebrity culture that is insidious in all the other arts. All are individually eccentric/shy/tortured/exuberant or all of the above and interested in everything. Getting in conversation is the biggest hazard of this job. I don't have much time to get documentary photos as the room fills up very quickly. I spent a long time this year with the delightful Allison McVety who just happened to be the winner this year.
The best perk of this job is listening to the poets read their work even though it all goes straight over my head.
Tech Spec: Getting a good spot to do the headshots is key. I took a chance doing them on the double staircase as it was easy to bypass me by going up the opposite side, but people generally follow each other and once a flow was going it was quite straight forward. The light was great here and the background nicely out of focus once I'd slapped on the 85mm F1.4. Using a prime lens ensured I kept all the shots consistent.
The presentations for this one are particularly tricky as the poets don't do anything so vulgar as posing for a shot. They slink up modestly, take their prize quickly and evaporate barely looking up so you have to be quick to spot where they are coming from in the crowd and set your focus as the auto focus is not quick enough.
The group shots also need a lot of manipulation as immediately after the presentations, the key people tend to melt into the crowd so it usually takes at least two of us to round the up and prevent them getting into too deep a conversation otherwise they do not get done or you don't get any other work done just waiting for it to happen.
I keep a short zoom on for most of the event, set a fairly high ISO - 1600 and use fill in flash.
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