Christmas may be well in the rear view mirror now we're into February but I am still thinking about some of the awesome jobs I got to cover over the festive period. The final shoot of 2022 was the Peter Corry Productions annual Christmas show, traditionally held in St. Anne's Cathedral Belfast.
To describe this annual show as a musical concert is doing it a massive disservice. It is truly a musical extravaganza featuring a wide variety of performers and acts from Northern Ireland and beyond. I covered this Christmas concert in 2021 but as we were still in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic the audience numbers and acts on stage were reduced significantly. Thankfully for 2022 it was all guns blazing and it was a sold out gig.
St. Anne's Cathedral is a tricky building to photograph in. As this was a Christmas concert the exterior and interior temperatures were low. The heat lamps in the Cathedral had to be turned on which meant the interior was bathed in a fairly harsh red light, very difficult for cameras and photographers. Thankfully due to fairly punchy stage lighting, enough light was cast onto the stage and around the inside of the Cathedral to balance out the red (a bit!).
I've worked a lot in this space over the last couple years since the Cathedral has opened up its internal areas for hire. As a result of working in St. Anne's I've gained extensive knowledge of this internal space so I know how to get the best from the images taken. I think this is something people don't consider when hiring photographers to cover their event. Does the person you're hiring know the building, know the room, know the lighting conditions? All these things take time to learn and if you're hiring someone who doesn't understand these things they're going to be wasting time learning and not getting you the footage you need.
Thank you!