On photographing launch parties and events

When I'm not tooling around in the garden or the forest, I spend my time gainfully employed as a pre-sales consultant, working with, or writing about computer networking technology. I also get involved in new business development, web content management and design, tender responses and bid management, social media integration, graphic design, electronic marketing... the joys of a private company with a flat organisational structure and matrix management!
 
One of my business verticals is Media, and in particular TV Broadcast and Film post-production editing. Consequently, I spend much of my time at customer and partner meetings in Soho. I've usually got at least one of my cameras with me (for case studies and promotional material), and over time began to get asked to attend various events - launch parties, shows, interviews etc - and record the proceedings in stills photography (it also helped that as a company, we have supported various independent projects, such as ELBA's London Legacy 2020, and Amo Production's "Makers Our Story", a documentary on the British Independent Film Industry - see brief trailer below).

This has led to one of the more interesting facets of my photographic work - not only capturing the interview, or the pose, but also the unguarded moments. The laughter, the spontaneous arguments, the wardrobe malfunctions, the storming-out-because-my-rider's-not-been-met, the superstar's stretch limo being clamped, it's all there, ready to be snapped.

There's been a wealth of interesting moments, ranging from covering the Renderyard Film Festival in Rioja, watching the passion and animation of Leee John (ex-"Imagination") talking about his new projects as a director, to the frankly bizarre experience of listening to Patrick Murray (Mickey Pearce in "Only Fools and Horses") plugging his book on the history and proliferation of the Giant Hogweed.

  The most recent event was the FMF Show back in November, held at Archer Street, a cocktail bar and club in, wait for it... Archer Street in Soho. A celebration of fashion, media and film making, it featured a set by Chris Jones (brother of Grace), millinery from Philip Treacy, works from artist and photographer Glenn Bracke, as well as jewellery and clothing from various British designers, and worn by the FMF models.

 
Guest of honour was Grace Jones herself, along to support her brother and to perform a few songs. Fashionably late, she arrived with Philip Treacy and his entourage in a gleaming white stretch limo (and yes, that's the limo driver being ticketed in the first collage, above).

Below is a collage of various photos I took at the event - models, designers, celebs, organisers.

This type of informal snapping is probably my favourite form of people photography - just milling around, chatting, putting people at their ease, composing, framing and shooting on the fly, and every so often, getting that unguarded or unexpected moment (I always regret not having a camera at the launch of "Who's Not! 1987: The Alternative Who's Who", where I found Jeanette Charles - HR Queen Elizabeth II lookalike and impersonator - in her underwear in the coat room at Worksop Town Hall).