Last Saturday I had the privilege of photographing portraits at the Macdill Air Force Ball at the Hilton in downtown Tampa.
Start-to-finish it was a fantastic experience. First, the people who were in charge of the event were fantastic. Jason met me there on Thursday to check the room we would be working in and Clarence checked on us all night to make sure we had everything we needed to keep it running smoothly. I’ve never felt so well-managed.
The ball was great. Over 900 tickets sold so there were a lot of portraits. We set up two portrait stations and I was lucky enough to be able to get the best people I know to help me out. Kevin, Eve and Melissa are all good friends and fellow members of the Tampa Area Professional Photographers Association. Having them there made it so easy. We had a big push of people in the first hour and everything ran smoothly. Once everyone went in for dinner, we had some “down” time. Naturally, we couldn’t resist the chance to take some self-portraits of the team:
The portraits came out great! Some of the credit goes to the guests, who were all dressed like movie stars and treated us with respect and kindness the whole night. That’s one thing you learn quickly when photographing the military: Everyone is is nice, well-mannered and friendly. They are the dream clients for us. I hope we get this gig again next year because it was a blast!