Fashion Event Photography for Miss Universe Kerry

The Miss Universe Kerry beauty pageant will be held in Tralee this coming weekend in The Brandon Hotel in the center of town. The set-up will be much like the fashion event photography I did for a New York style fashion show before with a stage and runway. As always with these types of fashion events stage lighting and low room light can pose some challenges but they are the sort of challenges I like. Here is a photo of the event I did in Castle Island – the true fashion capital of Ireland with the one of a kind Brendan Courtney on the mic.

I’ll be there providing the fashion event photography and also offering portrait shots of the girls with their friends and family. I have a very handy pop-up studio which I bring to some events to allow me to work on the move. I’ll take some shots with it at the Miss Universe pageant to let you know how it works, it’s a handy little set-up. I can take studio quality portraits pretty much anywhere I go, and the results are fantastic – like this one of Melissa from a while back.

Fashion Event Photography for Miss Universe Kerry

Roz Purcell is one of 5 judges at the Miss Universe event so there will be plenty more opportunities to take her photo. She makes it look easy and the girls will certainly learn a lot from her. Taking her photo was a joy last weekend at The Glam Pod 1st Birthday party in Tralee. Fiona O’Donoghue must have been thrilled at the turn out for the celebrations.

Often when I travel to an event the interior lighting can be so low and I’m forced to use slow shutter speeds, high flash and high ISO settings and I’m not a fan of the results of such a combination. However The Brandon has a huge function room, and the ceiling is far enough away that a big bounce on the flash will allow me to expose shots nicely. When shooting an event like this, where the subjects are women and girls in lots of make-up, hair coiffed and wearing sparkly gúnas, the results can be great…but flash is not kind to them – Swarovski crystal is great but too much of it can make life difficult for an event photographer.

So, what will I do? Well, low light conditions means I can bring out the big guns! The Canon 70-200mm F/w.8L IS USM II lens gets it’s first outing this weekend. Horray! I am beyond excited so I will do a comparison after the event and let you know how it affected my work.
I have never shot with a F2.8 handheld before so that should be interesting. Especially since the lens alone weighs nearly 2kg! Well 1.69kg or something – but who’s counting. I will be taking really good care with my shots since this lens is worth more than my car (times 2!). That’s crazy!

So glitz, twinkly lights, lots of glitter, powder, lipstick and glamour, all in a night for a fashion event photographer – I can’t wait. Stay tuned for updates!