Event Photo Essays

Event photo essays are pretty self-explanatory. They document some sort of event: A soccer game, a wedding, even a car accident. Again, with event photo essays there is no specific sequence. The most important part of an event photo essay is that it covers the critical event parts. Think of your photo essay as a news story. If a reporter is writing about a house fire, but never tells you where the fire was, he’s missed a critical element of that story. If a weatherman tells you it’s going to rain, but doesn’t tell you when, again, he has missed a critical element to the story. Just as you don’t want to walk around all week with an umbrella, the person looking at your essay doesn’t want to wonder where the rest of the story is.

A great way to test your event photo essay skills would be to take photos at a birthday party. Take photos of the person celebrating their birthday, photos of their cake before it gets cut, the presents sitting neatly on the table, and so on. Make sure to take photos of all the important elements. To make it easier, try making a list of the important parts of the event. You wouldn’t want to look at the photos later and realize you don’t have any photos of the birthday girl or boy blowing out the candles!

If you don’t have any birthday parties coming up, you can document an event such as cooking dinner. Take photos of the clean dishes, the table being set, and the food cooking on the stove. Think outside of the box when it comes to the word "event." It doesn't need to be a clear cut obvious event. Driving to the store, while menial to some people, is still an event. With a little bit of brain storming I’m sure you can think of other events to document.