Meet up Photography techniques.

I take all sorts of photos at meet-ups and I always end up taking photos of the venue, especially at outdoor ones... however, I rarely post them here.

A lot of the time it's because the doll is obviously not the main focus... which really isn't the point of meet-up threads (you'll often see the more artistic meet-up shoots in the gallery rather than the meet-up threads), other times because people are in them and I don't want to bother getting everyones' permission to post them and other times I just want to showcase the photos I like best.

Most people who take meet-ups photos usually get A LOT and can't be bothered editing and posting them all so will choose a select few of the doll photos they really like and maybe one of everyone in the venue if it shows the set up nicely.

From my experience, it's not that people don't take photos of the venue, it's just that if they're posting the photos here, you're unlikely to see them. The threads from outdoor meets on my local forum are usually crawling with pictures of trees, flowers, waterfalls, rocks and ruins.

 

I find that if I want photos of the venue, I'll just go there to take photos, since most meetups are within a comfy driving distance for me. If I'm going to a meetup and hauling dolls in, I'm going to focus on taking photos of the dolls - all the dolls. Some of them might be of the doll with the environment there, but many might be just closeups. I don't want to post photos with people in them without permission, and closeups eliminate that. If I do take "interacting with the environment" photos, they're likely to be all of my doll, and I wouldn't want to go filling up a meetup photo thread with a ton of pics of just my doll - so that would likely end up in a separate gallery thread.

Also, most meetups I've been to are not in interesting enough environments for there to be any reason to take photos like that. Many are in restaurants, for example. The one I went to at the botanical garden of course had opportunities for that... but it's minutes from my house, I used to work there, had visited with a doll before, AND took my sister's wedding portraits there, so it was not a huge deal to me. Hanging out with people and seeing dolls I hadn't seen before took priority. I enjoy seeing dolls in pretty environments, but most meetups are more along the lines of "OMG so many dolls!"

 

i'm agreeing with Amy that meet ups aren't always the most interesting places.

We meet at parks, restaurants, houses, etc.
For one thing, if we had a meet up at my house, I know I wouldn't want a panoramic shot of my living room online. That's just creepy.

Also, photos of the venue would most likely violate the gallery rules that photos must include (on topic) dolls and not have people's faces in the photos.

 

I'll have to third what Amy said. Most meetups that I have gone to are uninteresting places. If I go to larger meetups, I might have a more scene inclusive photo to show people interacting with the dolls, but that is very rare. Even the outdoor meets that I have gone to are pretty uninteresting.

 

the place where the meet i go to usually occurs just isn't photogenic in ANY way. if i could, i'd bring backdrops and proper lighting props with me, but i'm not able to (i have no car so i'm barely able to take 1 doll + my camera and other equipment). sometimes people do bring little props but all my meet-up photos tend to focus extremely on details and portraits because including the background doesn't add anything to the photo, and having people in it detracts from it.

 

Locally we organize either meetups or so called "photo tours".

The usual meetups aren't in the most flattering locations, and lighting isn't the best either - teahouses, someone's home and such. Even on outdoor meetups we just bring blankets, sit around and there is no way to take good pictures without someone, or someone's food, or some blanket being in the way. Not to mention that a lot of people don't want their face caught on camera, so no 'full group' shots either...

However when we organize a "photo tour" the goal is to actually go somewhere really nice and to include the location in the pictures, too. Mostly it's visiting castles, and they seem to be harder to organize (arranging transportation for everyone), but the resulting pics are a healthy mix of location pics, dolly closeups and everything inbetween. Sometimes even little photostories are born.

 

It's not that common that we have locations that are both worth including and practical to get in the shot. Lighting usually doesn't help either. Having a fast wide lens and a good camera body helps, and a tripod isn't the worst idea in some situations either, since it lets you carefully line up the shot.

Here's one from a recent meet I was at. This is about as much of the location as I could include before I'd start getting people and other stuff in the shot.


DSC_6092.jpg by otakushots, on Flickr

 

A lot of the meets I've been to haven't exactly been to the most exciting of places. The last few years, I've mostly been to meets at a library, and there really isn't anything overly interesting in the rooms we meet in. The town is lovely, but we don't usually ramble, either. However, I have been to some meets where the place was as interesting as the group I was with. In those cases, part of the fun was getting pictures of my dolls in the place. We went to a "castle" once, and part of the fun was dressing my dolls in medieval wear and take pictures of them throughout the grounds. I wasn't the only one; the group of us was all over this place. lol It culminated in the most awesome tree ever...



If only dolls actually grew on trees...

But generally if I take pictures of just the venue, I don't post them on the forum.