When I work I give everything 100% ... from the preparation before hand, getting to know you, getting to know the venue and the event shoot itself.

 

A function shoot can easily be 8 hours or more.   From travel to arrival. Set up for portraits and then the party and the journey home.  I've long wondered what sort of distance I cover on foot during that time and have previously used a pedometer to at least count the steps.

 

For me bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings and parties are once in a life time functions and need to be treated just like that.  During those 8 or so hours I barely take a break.  There is always something going on somewhere that needs to be captured.  Not only that but some venues are large and need you to have one eye over your shoulder and a sprint at the ready.

 

So how far do I walk ... 

 

I got a phone upgrade over the last few months and the fitness apps on the new one are incredible.  After a trial at the last function  of 2017 I decided to properly GPS track a full night, fingers crossed the battery would make it through the night.

 

Here's the track ...

Gander PhotographyGander Photography Blog GPSTrack

If you want to know it's roughly 15000 steps and just short of 5 miles.  Not only do I cover all that distance but I do it with 2 cameras, lenses and flashes hanging off each shoulder.

 

According to the app I used roughly 2500 calories during that session.  It's no wonder I've lost roughly a stone since becoming a full time photographer.

 

But more over the bigger question is why am I telling you this ... why do I think you maybe even remotely interested.  Well I think it's important for you, and come to think of it me, to understand what it means to me to be a function photographer.  I'm one of those people that likes to party hard ... and I like to do it with you.  So I'm not that photographer that stands on a ladder in the middle of a dance floor and shoots pictures like a sniper shoots at a target.  I wear out a pair of trainers every 3 months.  There is a additional benefit.  If I am part of the party then it's easier to edit ... I take roughly 2000 pictures on the night... I aim to deliver 600 hundred or so of these.  You might think that's easy ... but once you remove the bad ones, and there are always bad ones. The ones where the focus isn't right, the flash didn't fire, the subject isn't in the frame or people blink, those ones. Once they are out of the way then it's about choosing the meaningful images. The ones that tell the story. The ones that matter. 

 

Above everything else I'm a story teller ... grabbing the bits you know about and those that happen that you don't see.  I'm capturing this once in a lifetime event for you, for now and forever.  Some of my own previous pictures are not of the events I was at, or even of people I know but rather of generations before me.  The window on that world is a treasure trove of connection, knowledge and stories told by those who were there.

 

So I don't care how long I stand for, it's interesting to know how far I walked but if you asked me to do it for twice as long over treble the distance I'd do it in a heartbeat.