Conference photography at Something Digital
- Hugh Whitehouse
- May 19
- 2 min read
Client: Something Fest
Location: Brisbane, Queensland
The heart of Something Digital is an array of mind-blowing content and speakers. The program is focused on strengthening digital capabilities, fostering thought leadership, and showcasing the great digital innovations found right here in Brisbane. And I got to photograph the Something Digital conference.
It may seem odd... But there's something about shooting conference photography that kicks my engagement and memory of the content in to overdrive. For example, I remember the stories about how NASA creates their content schedule, or engages in structured content partnerships. I remember how a minigame in Borderlands 3 crowdsourced hundreds of thousands of hours of community science discovery. I remember how Bluey generated over $2 billion... Yet the sound designer (and other below-the-line crew) needed to more work once the show was finished production for each season. Weirdly, it doesn't happen when i'm producing single or multi-cam video. Maybe i'm more focussed on the framing and the mix. But with stills, it's magic.
This was also my first time using the Lumix S5iix and Samyang 35-150 L Mount lens combination (which now holds both the A and B cam positions in my everyday, hybrid shooting kit).
The speed and ease of use were a revalation over the original Lumix S5 which lacked solid or workable autofucus performance in anything by broad daylight. Here the S5iix performed in mixed and uncontrolled lighting with the snappiness you'd expect from a Sony Alpha body.
I also feel the Samyang is an often overlooked addition to the L Mount Alliance but the 35-150 2/2.8 is a really lovely lens. It's not outrageously heavy. It sits in the hand well. Plus it has this creaminess to the midtones that helps soften portraiture just enough to be complimentary to those of us with more fine lines or wrinkles (especially under stage lighting) when used wide open.
Having a simple, handheld setup let me get in and amongst the crowd with minimal impact or interruption and shooting JPG straight out of camera meant I could offload the photos to social media literally as each presenter was presenting - creating a rolling photo montage (or PhotoStream TM) of the conference activities across the day.
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