Journal

As before this photoshoot was in the middle of Cardiff City Centre, I had already worked a plan of how long it would take to get there and what I may need as far as equipment was needed. I took two camera bodies, lenses, a tripod, a flash unit, a light meter, cards that were formatted and a set of flat shoes! This time it was pre-arranged to take a mobile studio and suitable lighting to take portraits of the drag artists. The main photo shoot was to be inside the venue so again I took my flash unit if I needed it.

Arriving at the agreed time in the venue, the staff remembered me from the previous shoot and told me to go straight upstairs as before.  

This was a different type of photoshoot than previously as it was an event known as Hey Mary, Twm organised this event each month within Mary’s with various drag artists.

Twm was already there, welcoming as before and had a laptop on a table sorting out the music for the performance of all the drag acts. Both the front dressing room and the back dressing room were set up with tables, mirrors and lights waiting for the drag acts to arrive.  Over the next hour they arrived, some already for stage others not despite Twm asking if they could get ready at Mary’s due to being told I was there to take their photographs.  It was extremely busy, with makeup everywhere over the tables, outfits and shoes in suitcases along with preoccupied drag artists trying to get ready in time for their own individual sets on the stage.

As it was pretty dark despite the main light in the room being left on, I felt the use of flash could be needed.  As before I also used the additional light. During the few hours, all the acts transformed into drag. I was there to capture images, but I did not manage to get everyone as I could not be everywhere at the same time. I did what I could. 

 I took images, trying different settings on my camera. Some worked whilst others did not.  I managed to speak to acts individually and ask for their telephone numbers to forward on any images I had taken.  At 22:00 The Hey Mary Event began and following them downstairs I stood back and watched as they took the stage.   The atmosphere was incredible, it was buzzing and the crowd was bigger and better than before, very happy to be there.  It was Hey Mary’s sixth birthday party, there were balloons, a cake had been made and the lighting was flashing on and off most of the night.  Each of the drag acts went on the stage individually to do their act.  With each of them, I captured images using a variety of settings on my camera.

After around an hour, there was a break and then it continued until just after midnight.  

I collected my belongings after having both selfies and taking a photograph of all the drag acts then left for home.

 It definitely challenged me and I found it very difficult to capture images on this night. I have learnt an awful lot about event photography, I am looking on purchasing a quicker lens to help with low light conditions in the future.