Thanks for volunteering to be part of our official photography team!
This is a costume convention. Our goal is to have at least one photo of every costume which is quite a task considering that there are potentially several thousand costumes that will be worn over the weekend.
Take a picture of our clock with your digital camera(s). We'll make sure our computer can read your memory cards. If your camera clock is off by more than a few minutes we'll determine how to adjust your timestamps. If you decide to correct your clock right then, take another picture and we'll re-read the memory card to make sure it's all working correctly.
Pick out a set of stickers. You'll probably also want to take a clipboard full of release forms, which will include a sheet of snowman stickers.
We would like you to tell us where you're going to be shooting, so we can track it on our master schedule. Sign up for photography assignments, or at least tell us where you'll be roaming around. We're trying to cover the whole convention, so too much overlap is not desirable if it means a lack of coverage elsewhere.
We know that some people will be putting on costumes specifically for a particular panel. Therefore we'd like to make sure that someone is taking pictures at every single program item.
Some of the fans will not be rearranging their day to accommodate us. They may pause for a photo if we see them in the halls or after a panel, but they don't plan to spend a lot of time posing at our backdrops. One of the assignments will be "hang out near the elevator" (or the pool) to catch people as they come down from their rooms. Watch for their body language -- if they're in a hurry, don't get in their way.
Catalog Key Project. One class of assignment will be to shoot photos for the Catalog Key. We'd like to be able to match up photos to names, so we'd like some of the photographers taking one or two pictures of each costume. Take a picture of the whole thing, take a close-up shot of their badge so we have their name, and move on.
Photographers have different styles -- for some people, the Catalog Key is perfect because they want to shoot every costume anyway. Others are more likely to shoot twenty shots of a single subject at a time. Or you may just be looking for candids to get the mood of the crowd. We'll take what we can get!
Stop by the Photography Office, return the leftover stickers you used yesterday and pick a new set for today. If you run out of stickers mid-day, please come back and get another set -- we have plenty.
We'd like people to be able to come by our office to get a print of a photo that's been taken of them. The stickers will help us figure out which photographer(s) shot them that day, so we can find theirs among the thousands that we expect to have. For example, a little teddy bear might mean Chaz shot them on Sunday.
Some people will have "do not photograph me" buttons. Everyone else, when they've signed the release form we'll give them a snowman/snowflake sticker for their badge. Some people may prefer to wear it on the back of their badge. We hope to have most people sign the forms early on, near Registration, but it would be helpful for you to carry around some of the release forms on the first day.
When you do take someone's picture, it would be extremely helpful if you can make a note of their name. We can give you a little notebok for that purpose. We may be able to spare someone to follow you around and take notes. Or you can zoom in on their badge and snap a shot of that.
Offer the subject a sticker for their badge, if practical. Please do this each day. If you take a second photo of someone on the same day, it's up to the two of you whether they get a second sticker. (Many sticker sets are assortments, so they might take a different sticker from the same set.) If you take another photo of them the next day, you'll have a different set of stickers and we'd like them to get one of those.
Note that some people may decline the sticker, or put it on the back of their badge.
Come by the Photography Office and give us your camera's memory card. We can copy the new photos onto our computer while you wait, or if you have a spare you can just leave it and come back for it later. We will not be deleting your photos from your card. You can copy them onto your own computer as well, or you can just delete them when you get your card back.
If you're carrying around signed release forms, please drop them off so we can file them.
We will display them during the convention. We will be archiving the photos, and putting reduced images on the website. Your photos can be burned onto CD-ROM or DVD-ROM for you. During the convention, prints will be available for sale (about $3 to $10 depending on size). As the photographer, you will get a percentage of that.