Primrose Hospice Masked Ball 2023

I was lucky enough to be asked to photograph the Primrose Hospice masquerade ball at Kings Norton Golf Club last month. It was an amazing event and the Hospice raised over £27,000.

If you've not been to the Golf Club before I suggest you go it's lovely, more like a country hotel than a golf club. The lighting conditions however were not so lovely. More on that later.

I was also photographing with my friend Tony Slade and we aimed to divide and conquer to capture all the action. There was an extremely impressive raffle,  I'm pretty sure everyone won a prize of some kind, some were more impressive than others if I'm to be honest.

The event also had a comedian, DJ and of course lots of food and drink. I definitely recommend people sign up next year as it was a cracking event and clearly a brilliant course.

Now on to the lighting, bearing in mind photography is all about light the absence of it does provide one or two challenges. I've never really been a fan of Flash which can be a bit intrusive and also pretty difficult to get right. I spoke to a colleague at a recent event who used a light wand. She was getting fantastic images using a continuous light which looks very much like something from a Star Wars movie. The child inside me was transported back to the 1970s and the original Star Wars so I knew I had to have one.

Following some online research I came across the perfect light sabre (light wand!). It's a bit of a risk-changing strategy on the day of an event because I want things to be perfect for the client. However, once I figured out how to switch it on and had a practice I bumped into two lovely ladies outside having a breath of fresh air and asked them if I could have a practice.

Thankfully they agreed and I was surprised at how well the light wand worked in what was almost pitch black and also how easy it was to use. Feedback from people at the event was great and I was really happy with the results as was the Hospice which goes to show that having the right tools/toys makes all the difference.

You can see some of the pictures in the gallery.