Last week the Sweet Adelines came back to town for their annual Region 35 convention and once again I was official Dunedin photographer.
The job itself is much like any Conference photography job, a mix of candid action shooting and posed groups. For me, the weekend comes in three parts: Getting competition and awards pictures from in the performance venue; Getting posed shots of the quartets just after they compete and candid photos of the Afterglow social function.
Day one of the competition sees the quartets performing. My second shooter Melanie took the performance shots on a long lens from up in the circle while I was outside the performance hall, ready to take the posed shots against a backdrop. Nothing says class quite like black velvet
The teams come off stage quite pumped and sometimes a little overwhelmed (note for next time: bring a box of tissues) so it’s a great time to take their pictures. It was so cool to see fresh young quartets like Heist and Zeal do well this year
And of course it was great to catch up with old my friends Red.
Saturday, I got to sit in the circle and shoot the larger choruses, getting a few wide shots, lots of closer shots so everybody has a nice memento of themselves, and some of the final pose.
I just love Greater Auckland’s final zombie pose!
The afterglow party is my favourite part of the job. I do a little running and gunning at the party, but I much prefer dragging everyone out to a good spot to pose them and get them looking their very best in their costumes, that most go to quite an effort of making.
I’ve got to hand it to the Sweet Adelines, they really get into the spirit of the theme. This year it was the Gold Miner’s Ball and there was no shortage of miners, gold nuggets, gold fingers and gold diggers. But however they dress, I like to capture the same thing in my photographs: Strong, beautiful women.
Go Adelines!