Optimal Aging

Capture Better Photos for Your Gym Events, with Jenni Girtman

• Jay Croft

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In this episode of The Optimal Aging Podcast, host Jay Croft is joined by veteran photojournalist Jenni Girtman, who shares practical, low-tech strategies for taking better photos at gym events. If you're running a fitness business and working with clients over 50, you know how powerful visuals can be — but most gyms miss the mark.

Jenni breaks down how to prep for events, what to shoot, and how to edit photos so they tell a story and elevate your brand. Even if all you have is a smartphone, her tips can help you create compelling images that attract and retain more clients.

From creating a shot list to simple editing tricks, this conversation is packed with actionable tips anyone can use — whether you're shooting a gym anniversary party or a 5K event.

👤 Guest Name: Jenni Girtman

Bio:
Jenni Girtman is a professional photographer with decades of experience, including photojournalism at major newspapers and corporate event coverage. She runs two Atlanta-based photography businesses — Atlanta Event Photography and Life on Film Photography — specializing in everything from Fortune 500 events to bar and bat mitzvahs.

Links:

  • Website: https://atlantaeventphotography.com

  • Life on Film Photography: https://lifeonfilmphotography.com

🎯 Episode Outline

Planning Photos That Help Your Business

  • Why visuals matter for fitness marketing
  • Why most gyms fall short with event photography

Pre-Event Strategy: Assign, Plan, Scout

  • Assigning a photographer
  • Building a basic shot list
  • Understanding your venue and light

How to Shoot Like a Pro (Without Being One)

  • Three pillars: fill the frame, clean background, strong subject
  • Beginning-middle-end storytelling
  • Tips for better smartphone settings

Editing and Posting for Impact

  • Simple edits you can do on your phone
  • Cropping and filters to enhance usability
  • Matching photo format to platform (IG, FB, website)

Bonus: Jenni's Live Photo Review

  • Real-time examples of good and bad shots
  • What to fix and how to fix it

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Why photos are crucial for gym marketing
 01:15 – Meet Jenni Girtman
 04:50 – Common photo fails at gym events
 06:45 – How to prep: assign, list, scout
 09:45 – Capturing beginning, middle, and end of events
 13:20 – 3 keys to better composition
 20:10 – Smartphone camera settings for quality
 28:00 – Easy editing tips for non-photographers
 30:00 – Live photo examples from Jenni’s work
 36:45 – Connect with Jenni online

🎤 Host: Jay Croft
Helping fitness professionals grow with content that connects to the over-50 market.

🌐 Podcast Website: https://primefitcontent.com

📬 Calls to Action:

💡 Loved this episode? Share it with a fellow fitness pro or tag us on socials using #OptimalAgingPodcast

SPEAKER_00:

You know, the digital age has made photographers out of all of us. And so I want to talk today about how we can take better photographs to promote our businesses, specifically how we can take better photographs at events to promote our gyms and fitness centers to more people over 50. Hi, I'm Jay Croft, host of Optimal Aging, the show for fitness and health and well-being professionals who want to grow their businesses with more people over 50. And in my business, Prime Fit Content, I create and provide content, photographs, articles, graphics, things like this, to help gyms market themselves in email newsletters, on social media, on their websites, that kind of thing. And so I see a lot of photographs that gyms take, and a lot of times the photos that gyms provide well, I want to be polite about this, but they're just not uh very good. Either the technical quality is poor or the composition is off, or there's some other common mistake that I think can be cleared up with just a little education and a little mindfulness. With all this in mind, I decided to invite a friend of mine on the show this week who is a professional photographer of many years. She's been a photojournalist, she's uh photographed countless events at large corporations. She's photographed a lot of personal events as well. She's been doing this for many years, and she knows all the ins and outs of how to photograph an event to make people see the photos and think, oh wow, that looks really neat. I wish I could have been there. Her name is Jenny Kirkman. We worked together years ago at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and then later at a couple of multi-billion dollar corporations here in Atlanta after the newspaper industry kind of dried up. So she brings a lot of variety and a lot of diversity of experience to the conversation. And I always enjoyed working with her, and I always enjoyed watching her work, the way she interacted with people when she was photographing these events. She has a big heart and she's curious and she is always watching and evaluating what's going on. It's fascinating. Now I'm not suggesting you have to develop her skills or her uh level of sensitivity or awareness, but I am absolutely suggesting that the tips that she provides in this conversation will help you take better photographs at your next gym event or even at your next family event or day in the park or anywhere. There are just some really smart tools that you can use that will improve the quality of your photographs and thereby improve the quality of your marketing and grow your business. That's why I'm here. So enjoy this conversation and this lesson, really, from a great photographer, good friend of mine, Jenny Gertman. Hello, Jenny, my friend. How are you today?

SPEAKER_01:

I am very well. How are you?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm good. It's so nice to see your face. It's been a minute.

SPEAKER_01:

It's been a minute. It's great to see you. You look amazing.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, thank you. So do you. Here we are at the end of another year. It's just amazing, isn't it? It's wild, actually. Well, listen, I want to just dive right in because we talked a little bit the other day in preparation for this interview, and you have pulled some photographs to illustrate some of these points. The reason this came up is because a lot of the gyms I work with will send me photographs from events that they've had, and the photos just frankly aren't good enough to use. And I know that's a that sounds like a mean thing to say, but it's not as mean as it would be to publish photos that that just aren't good enough. And so we're going to talk about what we mean when we say they're not good enough, and but more importantly, we're going to talk about with this professional photographer's years and years of experience, how to get better photos at events. Anything from your open houses to your anniversary parties to your Toys for Tots drives, whatever you've got going on, it's really easy to take much better photos, especially these days when we have these incredible devices in our hands. So that's kind of what we're here to talk about, right, Jenny? That's right. And you go to a lot of events. Tell the folks a little bit about the breadth of the events that you go to. I know a lot of them are really big events, but you do small events sometimes too. So just a little bit about a day in the life of Jenny Gertman, life on film photography.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. Well, I have actually two businesses, Atlanta Event Photography and Life on Film. Atlanta Event is really geared more towards corporate events. We really run the gamut. And then Life on Film Photography is a second business that is really geared towards bar and bot mitzvah's. We have an entire service line for those folks. And we've been doing this kind of work since 1998. So we've done quite a few and we love it. And we're very blessed to have amazing clients who come back to us year after year, week after week. And so I would love to share a little bit about what I've learned over all these years.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, absolutely. That's why I called you. I th I thought of you uh for this when some recently when a client sent in some photos from their anniversary party, and we had promoted their anniversary party. One year in business, isn't that great? Everybody come look celebrate with us. We're gonna have this, we're gonna have that. We can't wait to see you. And then they basically kind of forgot to take any pictures, and so they sent me some video screen grabs, which were just not I could not use them. And I'm not being a snob here, I'm saying that they they just the the technical quality of them was such that you couldn't use them on Facebook or in an email newsletter or anything. And it was too bad because this was a great event and I wanted to tell people about it.

SPEAKER_01:

So one of the things I want to mention when I've thought about this is that you guys have to think about how much you've spent on getting this party together, the food, the invitations, the you know, the effort that you've put into putting this together, the decorations, all of that. You know, the only thing that lasts is the photos. So, you know, do put somebody in charge and and give them a job, if you will, because you know, it is an opportunity that if you miss out on, it's gone forever. And yeah, it's it's really, you know, you've promoted it, you've put in your blood, sweat, and tears to make this business work for a year. Show it off. Yeah, but show it off in a way that's gonna make people be like, oh, this was really fun. I'm sorry I missed it. And and that really is gonna give you leverage in terms of your social. So it's just a great opportunity. You don't want to let it go by without giving it some extra attention.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. And so you just said, I think the most important thing, which is assign it to someone. So I think first let's talk about some like big picture things, like maybe just a minute of planning in advance, like assign it to someone and and kind of envision how it's going to go. And maybe if it's not at your studio or your gym to go to the place and see what you're kind of looking at, is the is the wallpaper some hideous floral print and is you know that kind of thing that you want to avoid. So you want to make sure you've got a good background, just little basic things like that.

SPEAKER_01:

So then a shot list isn't a bad idea either. Yes, you know, having someone who's not going to be taking the photos really think through, okay, I definitely want a picture of the owner and our first customer together at this party. Or, you know, we definitely want to make sure we take some pictures of the food because we want to give the caterer a shout out. You know, like be mindful on the front end before you just get to the event and you're like, oh, you know, trying to get everything. If you have a list, oftentimes it helps you, whoever's assigned, to kind of, you know, orient yourself before you even get there. I call it getting your head in the game. So I like to get my head in the game the day before and have a shot list, review it, look at the venue, whether even if that's just online, that's helpful too. So you at least, again, have your head in the game before you actually arrive. And then when you get there, you've got a plan of attack, you know what you're walking into, and it just gives you a lot more, you know, just background to get you to where you want to be in the at the end.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So pre pre pre-game event, pre-game strategy here is number one, assign someone to be in charge of this.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct.

SPEAKER_00:

And and then uh number two is uh have that person make a shot list of what is needed.

SPEAKER_01:

Or have someone else make the shot list. Maybe the owner makes the shot list and hands it to the photographer because you know, you just want to make sure that again, if there's specific groups that you want, you want the owner and the first customer together. Well, that's something you have to actively create. So you need to make sure that that's on your list. So or if there are investors, for example, you want all the investors with the owner. That makes a great takeaway at the end where you could actually print that photograph, put it in a frame, and mail it to the investors. And there you go. You have a very inexpensive, but very personalized. Thank you so much for coming. We love your support. You know, it's these are easy things to do, but you just have to think about them ahead of time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What else do you need to think about ahead of time as far as the big picture? We're later, we're going to talk about specific shots and how to set up your camera to take the better pictures. But, you know, what are just some of the like I like what you said the other day about the beginning in the middle of an end of a thing because you're not just throwing up a bunch of pictures. I mean, sometimes that's what we do, and sometimes that's fine, but sometimes there's an opportunity to have a beginning and a middle and an end to an event. So tell me what you mean about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So the storytelling aspect is really great. And, you know, I my background is journalism. So everything that I look at is storytelling, and you you want to show the entire space perfect. You know, the the flowers are where they're supposed to be, the food is in place, and you get a nice overall shot of everything. Number one, it's a great introduction photo. But the other thing that I like to think about too is that if you guys are planning, let's say, another party in a year, it's not a terrible idea to have a reference for how did you do it last year? What were the tablecloths? What flowers did you use? Do you want to mix it up for the next year and make sure you use different colored tablecloths? I found a lot of event planners who use those photographs as reference. And then they have a catalog of what they've done, but then they also it gives you guys an idea of what you can do next year. For example, if you serve salmon this year, you might want to do beef next year. So those kinds of things are a nice reference just as a archive, as a legitimate archive. But the beginning, the middle, and the end is the storytelling. And you know, the beginning is, you know, everything is clean and fresh, and you know, nothing's been destroyed in terms of party downtime. And then the other beginnings are people coming in and saying hello and hugging each other and those kinds of moments that are going to happen only at the beginning of the event. You know, you you are gonna want to make sure that you're ready for that and that you're capturing that so that you have somewhere to go, if you will. And if you can post a uh, you know, an Instagram or something where it has three images, then you can do that beginning, middle, and end. And then the middle photograph is maybe the entire room full of people and showing the crowd and showing, you know, the DJ or showing, you know, it fully involved in the height of the party. And then perhaps the end of the party is, you know, shoes that are in a chair because people dance their shoes off and they're just exhausted. And, you know, that's a nice good detail that shows you it was a good party. I oftentimes like to take pictures of tables after the a party has been going on for a long time because you get, you know, just glue of, and I have examples of these, but you know, the decor is still there, but you've all stick on it and like, okay, this is how the party wrapped up. It was clearly a good time because look at the those kinds of way. And then in addition to beginning, middle, and end, you can also think about like a detail, you know, and a and a and a mid-range shot that has a moment. Maybe it's people laughing together or some sort of emotion going on. And then again, a wide shot that shows action and and it just gives you variety when you're trying to put your stories the same focal length, if you will, or the same perspective in every image you have gives you story.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, are you a fitness professional trying to grow your business with people over 50? If you are, then you need to know how to communicate with them, how to market to them, and how to get them to trust you with their fitness, well-being, and money. We're talking about millions of people who are a little older than the typical market that the fitness industry usually pursues. They have more money, more time, and better motivation to make the best long-term fitness consumers you'll find anywhere. If you're not focusing on them, you should be.content.com. That's prime, like prime of your life, fitcontent.com. Back to the show. I like what you said just now about the storytelling, and and you're not talking about Spielberg level of investment in character development and lighting and angles and everything. You're just saying, give me a little momentum so that I'm engaged more. This is this will make people be more likely to spend time and to have some kind of emotional connection to what's in the photos, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. It just needs to be, you know, three images, something that's really, you know, inviting initially, and then, you know, a moment and then a closer that says this party was really great. Right. So it can be very simple.

SPEAKER_00:

And a lot of these, you know, my clients tend to be gyms, and a lot of them are gonna have little 5Ks that go with part of the uh part of the celebration or a workout for kids, or a lot of my gyms work with older people. So maybe they're gonna have uh some sort of exercise program going on, and so you're gonna have great shots of 70-year-old people exercising, which, you know, these are these are great different things to plan for, but you just have to be a little bit aware of them, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Right. But again, the the older people coming to work out, you know, you get them as they're walking in, you know, they're fresh, they look great, they're on their way, and then they're actually doing it, and you can see the inks in their face, and they're like, Oh my gosh, I gotta keep going. And you know, they got the towel around their neck and they're exhausted, and they're like, Oh, that was so much fun. So there are all these things that happen just naturally. And if you're mindful enough, you can capture the different moments, which will give you this story that really will resonate.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I want to talk get into some specific shots, advice on on actually taking pictures. Before we do those, is there anything else that we want to talk about pre-game? We we said you need to assign someone and you need to put a little thought into what the venue is going to look like and you need to think about a beginning, middle, and an end. What else?

SPEAKER_01:

The other thing that I would definitely have people make sure that they look at before they get started is the file size that their camera is capturing.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

All of our cell phones are amazing. Their cameras, I don't even care what version you have, are really good these days. You know, so go into the settings inside your inside your phone and look for your photo settings. And you want to capture in high-res, the largest file size that the camera or the phone will allow you to take, because your camera is going to default to a smaller file size just because it's going to end up saving space when you're taking 100 pictures on your vacation, which is awesome if you're just going to post online. But if you want to put it in a newsletter or if you want to actually make a print of it, you really need to go ahead and just for the event, just capture in the highest file size possible.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's what I meant when I said the photos weren't good enough that someone sent me, that they they often send me, is because they haven't made this very simple adjustment. They just open their can, their, their, their iPhone, or whatever phone settings and go to the camera and set it to be to the highest quality, highest resolution possible, because usually it's the smaller one, and you know, they just then the they're just tiny, especially if you're if you're shooting. Sometimes people are afraid to get up close to the person they're photographing, and it'll be a little bitty head way across the room. It's like, I can't, you know, I can't use this. So we're gonna talk about that. Set the set the camera up right before the event starts, and then don't be afraid to to ask people, could you move over just a little bit or let me get closer to you so I can get a better photo, right? Because people are gonna wanna want to help you get a good usable photo.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, the reality is that you know, you need to fill the frame. That's one of the basic three. I've been doing this for a really long time. And back in journalism college, these three items or these three kind of parameters were ones that really kind of have always stuck with me.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Filling the frame is a big one. So being able to get close, and you don't even need to ask. Believe me, you're gonna feel the energy if the person doesn't want you close to them. So, you know, and or if you're feeling the vibe, walk away after you take that first picture. You know, like just feel the room. I mean, you can ask if you want to, but in most cases, in my experience, you know, you just go ahead and invade space. That's fine. You're you're not you're not, you know, touching anybody, you're not, you know, really causing trouble. You're just getting close enough to get a good photo. So, and that's gonna help with your quality too, because you need to fill that frame. And the other the other two items are have a clean background and have a strong center of interest. So those three items are kind of something that I still use every day in my work is strong center of interest, fill the frame, and a clean background.

SPEAKER_00:

So by fill the frame, you you tell people what you mean. I I I know what you mean because you know, I've worked with photographers my whole life. I know what that is, but tell people out there who have no idea what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

So, fill the frame is getting close enough that the the subject or the content that you're trying to convey is filling the frame. You're not ending up with all this extra space on the outside that isn't giving you information. You know, if there's information on the outside that's either clutter or it is other people talking in the background or somebody, I mean, God forbid, sneezing in the background or whatever, just get close enough that you're getting rid of all that noise, if you will, on the outside and you're filling the frame. It doesn't mean that you just need a face always in the frame. You can fill the frame with a crowd, but if the crowd is, you know, here and when you back, there's empty space on the sides. That doesn't look as much as a crowd at that point. It starts to make people think in their head, why is all that space empty on the edges? It's not as big of a party as they said it was.

SPEAKER_00:

What do you mean by strong center of interest?

SPEAKER_01:

So a strong center of interest would be something that catches your eye immediately when you look at the photograph. So again, if you're in a crowd, it could be two people in the foreground who are dancing and having a good time and laughing, where you see that as your center of interest, but the entire picture is really the dance floor and the DJ in the background, and it's, you know, showing again that's storytelling and you're layering up your information. You've got people having a good time, there's a lot of people here, and there's entertainment. So you can give a lot of information in one photograph, but that strong center of interest is going to be what draws the person's interest into the photograph in the first place.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And there's almost always when you're shooting something, there's probably going to be an apparent strong center of interest. I don't want people to think they've got to have some monumental killer image going on. It's just the thing that people, when you look at the photo, you look at though. This is Mrs. Johnson. There she is. She's smiling. I see her.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. I mean, or people talking or laughing, or I mean, even if it's a detail, the center of interest is the chat that's on top of the decor.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You used to do such a great job with that when we were at the when Jenny and I worked at the newspaper together, we did a lot of nightlife photography. And so she would go to these fabulous parties and she would do this. And I said, I know exactly what she's talking about. And she would get the the the glorious, beautiful, glamorous nightclub and people dancing and looking fabulous. And then she would get a woo uh the a hand of a woman holding up her Louutons because her feet were so tired from dancing all night. And then that was the photo was a female hand holding her shoes. That's what you're talking about, right? Just those little things.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's storytelling too, exactly. And that says, you know, I partied my shoes off, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

That's crazy. And then finally, the third item is the so the first one is fill the frame. The second one is make sure there's a strong center of interest. And the third one is have a clean background. So tell us what you mean by that.

SPEAKER_01:

So you don't want things coming out of people's heads, you don't want, you know, a lot of busyness going on in the background. And sometimes it just means turning a quarter of a turn, and you know, you might get a nice clean white wall. And keep in mind it doesn't have to be, you know, crystal clear every single time, right? But you have to be mindful of your background and you want to put your subject on a spot in the background where it's cleaner.

SPEAKER_00:

I went hiking a couple of months ago. I was in Colorado for a little college reunion, and uh a friend of mine and I were hiking in the mountains, and so we stopped to take a picture, and I got a selfie, and there's a giant tree growing right out of her head because the tree was behind her. So here's this beautiful day, beautiful memory. And you can't use the photo because you've got a tree growing out of her. You don't think about these things until someone points them out to you. And so now, everyone listening to this, now that Jenny has pointed these out to you, next time you're at your gym party or your event, just think about this. Heck, it could be at your family party. I don't care, it could be your kid's birthday party, it's the same thing. So, Jenny, there's another thing I want you to address, and that is uh the idea of the shape of the photo that you're talking about. You know, if you're doing something that's that's on Facebook, it might want to be a slight rectangle. If you're doing something that's, you know, on Instagram, a lot of time those those are very sharp verticals or squares. So, you know, you can you can play with that a little bit, but sometimes people will send me something to use for Instagram, and there's just no way I can make a screen, uh a square out of it. So address that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's just something to be mindful of when you're shooting, because when you crop your photo, especially, especially if you are looking for an Instagram photo and you want that square format, you need to make sure that you do leave room on either side. And I would I would suggest that everybody take photos horizontally and vertically because it's gonna give you more choices at the end of the day. And honestly, you when you're culling and you're looking through all of your images at the end, you're gonna want things that look different from each other. So having a horizontal image of the same thing that you have a vertical image of can oftentimes relay a very different message. So, you know, think about that, but also think about where you're gonna end up putting these photos at the end of the day, because those photos are going to be needed to be that square format or the horizontal. Yep. And it's just something to keep in mind as you're doing the as you're doing the shoot.

SPEAKER_00:

So that takes us through the shoot. We talked about before the shoot, we've talked about doing the shoot. Now we're talking about after the shooting. There's another step you got to do.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

And that is editing. Sometimes that's an intimidating word. So tell them in the non-intimidating version of what we mean when we say, Did you edit your photos?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Well, first and foremost, I would suggest that you look at everything that you photographed and anything that is out of focus, eyes are closed, just isn't gonna work, go ahead and delete it. Because that is, I mean, I'll tell you right now, after doing this for 27 years, I delete about half of everything I photograph. So don't be afraid, don't feel embarrassed. Look, I'm a pro and I delete 50% of everything I photograph. So, you know, that also brings us back during the event. Shoot the heck out of it because you want to have choices and you want to have options. But at the back end, you'll go through, you'll get rid of all the crap, if you will, and then you will go and let's say your very first image, it is needing, it's got a little bit on the extra on the left, and you want to get rid of that. Well, just crop it in so that you clean it up a little bit. And then the other aspects of editing would be where you and your phone has all of these features in it. So don't feel like you have to get software or you have to take it to your laptop or your desktop or whatever. You can do all of this on your phone. There are incredible possibilities in your phone these days. You you can and and you can just edit it straight in your photo gallery. If you wanted to get fancy, you could get Lightroom on your phone or Photoshop on your phone. But in your phone, you can change the brightness or you can change the contrast. You can slide the color vibrance. You know, maybe it's looking a little dull. You just add a little vibrance pin. You're just trying to refine what you captured in camera. And it's it shouldn't be very complicated. I will tell you, it is time consuming, but that's one of the reasons why you want to cull out all that crap on the front end and go ahead and just give time and energy to the ones that you really like. So just explore what your phone has to offer and go ahead and take those pictures in there and give them some love. At the end of the day, it's going to make a difference because your photos are going to stand out more than someone who just posts straight from their camera.

SPEAKER_00:

It makes all the difference. And and your level of photo editing is many times more elaborate and sophisticated than what I'm talking about for a lot of my small businesses, because they just, you know, I know what you can do. It's amazing. But they can, the people listening or watching, if they will just crop their photos, which is really easy to do on their phones. And if there's a shadow in the way, play with the play with the tools that Jenny was talking about a little bit to light, lighten that shadow a little bit, or if something's got an orange tint to it, you can just play with the that the heat setting, I think it is. It's blue or it's too much blue or too much red. It's very common.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And what you do is you salvage a crappy photo and you turn it into a good one, and it it it's to play with the thing, like Jenny said, play with it with on your own and just see what you can do with it. And then the next time you get a photo and you think, Oh, why is that guy sneezing in the background? Like you said, there's always someone sneezing in the background. Crop them out. It takes two seconds.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's easy, it just takes time and it takes attention and focus. So, you know, just again from the very beginning, assign somebody who is mindful and who has the time to do this and give them the time to do it because it is, you know, it does take an hour or two to go through and look and make the changes and all of that. So, you know, be patient with yourself and have fun with it. That's the whole point. You know, if you're having fun with it as a photographer, then at the end of the day, the customer and the viewer is gonna enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's a big difference, too.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right. And you know, we're the the people I'm working with are changing people's lives. They're they're working with clients who are working really hard to improve their health and their vitality and their mobility. And it's just great positive energy coming out of this. So it's not gonna hurt you to say, oh, let me get one more. Or actually, could you hold on just a second? I want to make sure that this is right. You're gonna end up being making everybody so much happier if you just take that little bit of time to do it right. Jenny, please show us the photos that you brought to show us today. We have show and tell.

SPEAKER_01:

I would love to. Okay. So that's an example of a photograph that has no center of interest. There is nothing that really catches your eye. The subject is turned away, you know, there's other stuff going on in the background. Now, if you just look here, your center of interest completely changes and you actually have a reason to look at the photograph. So this is a strong center of interest example where it goes from no center of interest to a center of interest.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So, and this just requires standing there, taking a second or third photograph and waiting for the moment to happen.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So this is an example of as we were talking about beginning, middle, and end. This is the beginning. People are just arriving to the party. So you see the decor, you see the people starting to come into the party. Everything is still clean and fresh. There is no food everywhere. That's an easy beginning shot. So again, this would be one where you would want to pair it with a middle and an end. So this is just a nice intro to the event. And then, okay, so this is just a basic photograph. The good thing here is you've got nothing coming out of heads versus this one where it's a nice little moment, but this is totally distracting. So I well One is a little bit less emotional. I still think I would prefer it because that is so distracting that I'd rather do you know something like this where you see faces and it's not as distracting. Now, this is an example. There is something coming out of her head which is annoying, and this is kind of cleaning up the background, like we talked about earlier. You see so much going on in the background, she's actually facing out. You can't see his face. So sometimes it's a good idea just to move to the other side. So, for example, this cleans quite a bit. So you've got, you know, a cleaner background, nothing's coming out of her head. You've got some moments and emotion going on, you can see his face, and and that's like an easy how to clean up the frame. And sometimes it just means going to the other side of the subject, and and then you're gonna get a definite, you know, a cleaner option. These examples, this is one where we didn't talk about this, but using logos and using branding, it's not a bad idea to pay attention to where that is and then wait for a moment to happen in front of it in a subtle, you know, background. It doesn't need to be bang over your head. In fact, you want it to be subtle because you don't want people to feel like, oh, all you're doing is, you know, pushing your brand and all of that. You want it to be in the background or somewhat subtle, but it's it's a nice, easy way to play with the graphics that have been provided to you. This is another one thing coming out of text is this one. You just again move to you just move to your right a little bit, and you're gonna get a whole bunch of different content, and you're gonna clean this up a little bit by moving from here to here. And then now, this is one where I just walked up, I didn't say anything, and then I said, come with your beautiful baby boy. And this image is so much more emotional, so much more interesting than this one. This is kind of the middle of the party, but you still have a center of interest. So this is like you saw the beginning, which is just kind of people streaming into the party. This is more of the middle, the dance floor is filled out, people are having fun, but you still have a center of interest, and this is the same thing. This is the middle of the party. Clearly, there's a center of interest, but you see the crowd, you see the venue being used, you know, it's it's the middle of the story. So uh those are great moments to start. Same thing here. Uh, center of interest, but storytelling and that the party is still going on. So those are all three examples of middle of the party. So here's details that I was talking about, where the glass of wine is, you know, halfway down. We've got the the glow sticks that are part of the giveaways, and then we've still got this beautiful decor. And that's storytelling. People are having fun, they're drinking, they're playing with, you know, glow sticks, and and yet it's still beautiful, glamorous party. So, you know, one of those mixed in with a beginning and a middle would work really nicely. It's part of a larger story. It's probably not one you would really want to put on its own unless you were trying to show off the decor or, you know, something of that nature. This is an end photo where it's just, you know, these particular events, they have giveaways, and this is the uh sweatshirt that she was giving away to her friends. So it's a nice ender that shows how the party culminates and what kind of the takeaways are. And, you know, she's got her little hat on. Now, this is an example of literally stepping from there's something coming out of the head, there's a bounce of my flash going off here. You got this kind of going on that's just a little bit messy. And then if you look here, I took a step to the left, nothing out of noggin, no flash now, and this is a little. So yeah, it's easier to just again take a step to the left, but you have to be mindful and pay attention to what's going on behind your faces, which is one of the reasons why I always would say take three or four pictures. This is an example of a detail, which is great because it's also a middle of the party event. You've got the reserve sign that's no longer standing up, it's been flopped down, party's in full effect. You've got your ice cream, your glow sticks, you've got the still the decor, it's gorgeous. You want to show storytelling without even having a face in the camera. So sometimes those kinds of things you just again have to look for them. But this illustrates the middle of the party.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

This is an ender, it's a closer. The guy's the poor little one's tired. He's been playing all day and he's like tanked. He's ready to go. This is, I mean, and they don't have to be super smiley all the time. You know, again, emotion is emotion. Now, this is an example of taking more than one photograph and waiting. You've got this coming right through his head. So if you wait and you do another frame later, look, it cleans it up. Again, paying attention to where those things are falling, and then you can come up with a much better frame by just taking another couple of pictures or just waiting till that thing that's annoying you is gone. This is another closer, end of the party, people loving on each other, things are starting to wind down. You get that feeling from the picture. So the the beginning, middle, and end is what we're kind of illustrating here. This is also a closer. It's the end of the party. You know, party favors are getting left behind, the decor is still beautiful, but you can tell the party has happened. So those are kind of a quick set of examples that I pulled from a bot mitzvah that I did a couple weeks ago.

SPEAKER_00:

Fantastic. Well, though you know, the the those are great because these events are all they're they're often very similar. And whether it's a bot mitzvah or a Jim's anniversary party, you're still gonna have people coming and you're gonna have logos. And I'm glad you mentioned that. You know, you want to get your business logo in there somewhere without it looking like an advertisement. And I'm glad you mentioned taking multiple pictures. It's just as easy to take five four or five pictures as one. Please do it. You know, don't be shy about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, the chances of you getting a closed eye if you only take one is pretty high. Like it's just Murphy's Law. So take four, be the cheerleader, buy in, because if you buy in, the rest of the crowd will buy in.

SPEAKER_00:

Jenny, this has been a masterclass. I hope people appreciate the uh wealth of information that you were giving. I really just wanted, you know, just three little please take better pictures. That's all I wanted. This is so much more. This is really helpful. And and if all you need to do is take better pictures for Instagram, then you've given the folks out there some some really useful tips. And if they want to do a little bit more, then you've given them a lot to go on as well. So I want to thank you for sharing your expertise with uh with all of us.

SPEAKER_01:

Happy to do it anytime.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you very, very much. And tell people where they can go online to learn more about you.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. So my business is Atlanta Event Photography, www.atlantaeventphotography.com. And if you go on there, you'll see tons of examples of the work. You'll see the services that we offer. And if you ever have a really big party where you have a really big budget, just give us a call and we'll do all of this for you. And you won't have to worry about it yourself. And we'll be able to provide you with the kinds of images we're talking about. I do have a second business. This photo set that I just gave you is from that second business, which is called Life on Film Photography. And Life on Film is really a specialty business for bar and but mitzvahs where we provide still photography, video, album creation. We can do montages and signing books and signing boards and all kinds of other photography services. We do on-site printing, we can print four by sixes or strips. So we have a whole line of services that are available for bar and butt mitzvahs. But for the Atlanta event photography side of things, we also do video and we're certainly more than happy to talk about whatever it is that you guys are looking for, whatever you need. But if if nothing else, just visit us online and take a look at the pictures. So maybe you can get some inspiration.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And you know, I called you because I love the way you work. I used to love watching you work. And I worked, well, you and I worked together at a top 20 daily newspaper, which is one kind of photography. And then you and I work together at multi-billion dollar corporations, which is a whole different kind of photography. And so I couldn't have thought of someone more qualified to offer advice on this. And I can't think of anyone more qualified to recommend for for people out there looking for a photographer for their event. So give Jenny a call.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Well, you guys are doing great things. Keep up the great work and you know, keep pushing everybody to do better with their health. That's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, thanks, Jenny.

SPEAKER_01:

So going to the gym today.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. Good for you. Thank you. Well, happy Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_01:

Happy Thanksgiving. Take care, and I'll see you real soon.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Bye.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Bye.

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Jay Croft

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