Uninteresting event / Interesting Pictures?

[abarickman]

Hey all,

I shoot for my church a lot and tonight I am going to be shooting a missionary potluck at a church members house. I expect that the evening will consist of eating, talking and a missionary sharing their experiences abroad. Although I am interested in the content as a photographer I am worried about making boring images.

Does anyone have any tips or suggestions on things I should focus on to make interesting pictures? BTW I don't mean technically (ie. shoot wide open etc) I mean artistically.

Thanks

[teaking]

Maybe for the missionary looking for interesting light contrast between light and dark. In a situation where your trying to emphasize power in this case of religion a photo may work well in black and a white. Its the best guess I could think of before my evening coffee kicks in lol

[wulf]

How about shooting everything at the wide end of your 24-70mm lens? You'll be able to get a lot in even when close up and will get some fascinating distortion effects. That's just one example of the "restriction" technique for squeezing out inspiration - pick a restriction and then work with it.

Wulf

[abarickman]

Thanks you for your ideas.

Well I went and shot and got 24 images that were worth passing along to my church. It turned out to be a very small group and very difficult conditions. I ended up converting to B&W because the color in the photos was uninspiring.

None of the shots really thrill me but here are the two that I like the most.
The missionaries who have spent 35 years in Africa


They are currently in the Sudan. This is a traditional sword from the region.