We’ve been lucky enough to have two sunny weekends in a row here, and while the weekend just gone was the nicer of the two, the previous weekend saw the sun shine on Dublin’s Iveagh Gardens for an event to mark Africa Day 2010, which occurs on May 25th each year (i.e. tomorrow). The family day out at the Iveagh Gardens was a real treat, so much so that there were huge queues to get into the gardens from about 3 o’clock as the 4,000-strong crowd inside meant that the gates had to be closed. I was there from 2pm in a working capacity, hired to photograph the event for the Lesotho Embassy.
My brief was to photograph in and around the Lesotho Embassy stand for an hour from 2pm to 3pm. At 2.10pm there would be a performance of music and dance on the main stage that I had to photograph, and the Minister for State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Peter Power TD, was due to visit the stand at 2.30pm to meet the Ambassador, Ms. Mannete M. Ramaili. Or at least that was the plan. And in photography, not everything goes to plan.
I arrived early at the stand so that there was time to introduce myself, set up my equipment (not much) and take a few test shots before I was officially “on the clock”. First thing I was happy to see was both the set up and position of the stand. It was a bright sunny day, but the Lesotho Embassy stand was positioned beneath a covering of trees in probably the most shaded area of the Iveagh Gardens. Shade = diffused light. And if that wasn’t enough, it was covered by white tarpaulin which gave an extra layer of diffusion to the light, making it easy to control. Much easier than if the stand was in direct sunlight. The white tarpaulin cover also gave me something to bounce light off if I needed to add some using flash.
It might seem a contradiction that I was happy about the stand being in shade, and also happy about having something to bounce flash off – you might think that sunshine would make for nicer photos than bounced flash. But actually it was better for me to have a low level of soft light around the stand that I could add to with flash rather than trying to deal with very contrasty harsh light from the sun. It’s nearly always possible to add light, but much more difficult to take it away.
All went well in terms of the photography – and I hope to show one or two more from the day here in the near future – but not all went to plan. Particularly when at 2.30 there was no sign of the Minister or the Ambassador. In fact, both were to be found at Speaker’s Corner where a debate on Ireland’s relationship with Africa was just starting, chaired by Bryan Dobson from RTÉ. I returned to the stand and did some portraits of the staff and off a couple of visitors to the stand, and by 3pm was ready to wrap up, but bothered by the fact that I had been unable to get one of the key shots (of the Ambassador with the Minister).
I left my mobile number at the stand in case they arrived back before I left the gardens – I was hoping to enjoy some of the sunshine myself before heading home – and as it turned out, when I went on a quick walkabout an hour later I spotted the Minister on his way around the stands. That gave me the opportunity to head back to the Lesotho stand, inform them of his impending arrival, and wait for a few minutes to photograph it.
When he did arrive I documented his brief visit with photographs like that you see above, and before he left asked him to stand for a quick photograph with the Ambassador. The day therefore finished successfully with me getting all the photographs I was asked to get and the embassy were happy with the images when I passed them on last week, so everyone was happy.
For me it was an interesting experience to photograph an event like this, and to get to mix many styles of photography – documentary, portraiture (environmental and formal), street-type photography and even some detail still-life type stuff – in one hour (plus a few extra minutes at the end).
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