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abovelifesize
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11-03-12, 08:47 AM
#1

Met Police Photographic Society

Hi,

Back in late 2010 i was approached by the society and asked if i would travel down to London and give a talk and presentation to a mixture of professional and amateur photographers at their lecture hall.

After doing some research and seeing the calibre of some previous speakers,
to say i felt a bit out of my depth would be an understatement. At the time i had only been taking macro images for just over a year and really did wonder what i would talk about. However due to some personal issues at home and the unfortunate loss of nealy 9,000 images due to a corupt harddrive (nearly everything since i started shooting) i was unable to take them up on the offer.

Just this morning i was going through an old email and found one from the society from late last year saying they are still keen for me to come and talk.
Part of me is very keen as i am immensley proud of the images i take and enjoy sharing my work but i am also terrified of trying to put together a presentation that would appeal to the mixture of people attending.

I dont have any experience of talking infront of a large audience and think this is where most of my fear lies and i also dont consider myself to have a great understanding of the technical side. Everything i have learnt that has enabled me to take the images i do has been trial and error and if someone asked me to explain why my lighting set up works i would struggle

I know the exposure could well lead to new opportunities but where do i start. I know this is a personal decision but if i do get back in contact i dont want to let them down and chicken out. How would you approach this and has anyone had any experience of doing something like this? What would you/they expect to come away with?

Alistair.


     
Bazza
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11-03-12, 09:12 AM
#2

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

There is a trick to everything including public speaking. I was taught not to try and talk to everyone in the room as it is impossible. Instead pick out one person in the audience and just aim your lecture to them in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. I have suggested this to several who have spoken at weddings etc and each one has come back and thanked me for making the job easier.

As for the actual lecture break it down into sections - introduction- main topic- summing up,then again break down each section to what you want to put into it First section is introducing yourself obviously - what you are going to talk about, be it - how you got into photography and your first efforts (and failures, most important to break the ice, funny incidents) - your first bit of gear and so forth

Second section what photography is all about and what can be specialised in ie fashion photography -landscape etc you get the idea-methods you use- what your aims are.

Third section summing up what the audience can achieve, finally questions and answers.


make plenty of notes to fall back on

Hope this may help as a very rough idea on how to go about it.

Bazza


     
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11-03-12, 11:57 AM
#3

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

You should definitely do it if you can - I think it would be a massive boost for you, both personally and professionally, and I think you're more than capable of holding an audiences interest. I know I'd love to see you do a lecture, and I think you'd have a good many people enthralled.

One tip - for the people like me out there, who can't use an MPe-65 because they don't have Canon gear etc, do a fair bit of stuff about how to do Macro with a normal macro lens, or even with a fifty (not true macro I know, but there will be some there who don't even have macro lenses I'm sure).

Anyway - whatever you do - all the best I know how scary it is, I have a talk on the 15th myself, it's not to a huge audience (I hope) but probably around 40 at a guess. Mine is on the birding year in West Cork 2011... which is fine, but it involves a lot of my photos, some of which I'm not happy with but they are the only shots I got to record the species seen. Bleh.

xx
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11-03-12, 06:07 PM
#4

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Hi Alistair,

I can't offer much, as I would feel exactly the same as you. But we have quite a lot of visiting speakers at my place of work and most use a Ms-powerpoint presentation to help them to get there points across along with keeping things in order.

Personally I think you should bite the bullet and go for it, you'll be so nerves before the event, but after the event you will be buzzing

Good luck with your decision.
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11-03-12, 10:19 PM
#5

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Haven't been around this forum for a while but popped in and the title caught my eye... know a bit about public speaking and police photography

I hadn't seen your pictures before but I just had a look and think the macro shots were excellent. Presumably that is what lead to the invitation? I think I'd be inclined to find out so as to be sure you are on the right track with the images you take. Also, it's important to find out the numbers in the audience, the format for the lecture and the layout so you can plan your positioning, best media for your images and timing. Most club photography lecturers tend to turn up with mounted prints although a few connect their own laptop, some have it already on a USB stick (always have a CD backup), just one or two still have slides! If you go for digital projection, you will need to create an album or something to control running order, ensure all are formatted to the right size and colour profile. Prints are ok if it is a relatively small and compact audience.

Most photo speakers tend to be quite informal but know their stuff with a proven record of achievement. Your images look excellent to me, so rather than dithering and suggesting a lot of it is by accident, you are best to be confident with how you did it, but always acknowledge with shumility 'some experimentation'. In a way, you need to consider what image you expect to project of yourself and leave them with. I wouldn't be that impressed if I felt someone wasn't ahead of the game and didn't teach me something. That's not to say come over high and mighty, rather quietly capable and relaxed confident.

Your audience as a broad generalisation will be serving and retired police officers, mostly well travelled and generally financially secure so I'd guess a fair amount of good equipment. Most will be very attentiive and inquisitive and ready to be informed - so keep it interesting but I'd guess 45 mins as a max before a break. Grab the opportunity to get your presentation prepared to the best of your ability and quality, and go and tell them something, they will love it. If you aren't ready yet, book it in for their next season.

Re Kens point above, although Powerpoint is a good business tool used sparingly, it's not a good format for quality images... your images need to be spot on for a photo club.

Oh, and consider this just an opinion, nothing more.

PS. Public speaking, one of peoples worse fears generally... up there with flying, spiders and dying. Mostly all unfounded and if you have a confidence about what you do, you'll be fine.
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totalnovice
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12-03-12, 09:59 AM
#6

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Public speaking can be scary. If its a subject your passionate about though, once you get started and get formalities out the way, it'll be no problem

Do you need to hit a met criteria within the talk? Or could you base (part of) your talk around the fact that trial and error in itself can be a good thing as thats how got your images, different learning styles etc

It might help to prepare a hand out for attendees that you can refer to if you think you may trip up on technicalities/finer details/techy stuff. A power point presentation is good as it can be as much a prompt for you as info for the audience.

As long as your prepared you'll be fine!
I had a.script for an hour once before having to speak...wouldnt accept that again!
If you get the chance to do a little speaking to groups before the event, take it. Just remember to conciously speak slowly too. (you'll speak faster naturally)
Remember, no matter how little you think you know, they have something to learn from you.
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12-03-12, 10:03 AM
#7

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Remember you can have two windows/programmes running. So you can use PP for bullet points and then show the images which don't necessarily need to be running through power point.
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13-03-12, 01:20 AM
#8

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Just do a spoken version of your fab magazine article!

xx
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Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8
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Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM
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abovelifesize
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20-03-12, 10:31 AM
#9

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Thank you all for the comments and advice on how to approach this. After much deliberation ive decided to go ahead and do it, im going to work through the year on building my portfolio back up and put together a presentation and go from there.


     
totalnovice
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20-03-12, 01:46 PM
#10

Re: Met Police Photographic Society

Good luck and enjoy!
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