Professional Photography for Elevated Events
- Lynette Locken, CPP
- Dec 22, 2025
- 2 min read
Hiring a professional photographer is essential to elevating your event. Choose someone skilled in challenging lighting conditions, adept at capturing human interactions, and experienced in low-light action photography. Whether for weddings, sports, or corporate events, a professional photographer guarantees outstanding results.
The list of applications is endless but here are some guidelines for business events. Will your event:
•Market on social media to a wide audience
•Be covered by local or national news
•Be a significant event that occurs once a year or is unique in nature
•Be presenting awards
•Express appreciation to multiple individuals
•Be an annual business event featuring speakers.
•Have collected donations and donors will be acknowledged
I always recommend gathering the family members of those highlighted and taking a family photo. Everyone loves a good picture, and it can also be framed as a thoughtful gift for the family.
When seeking funding for a photographer, encourage sponsors to contribute donations. You might also ask the photographer to provide some or all services pro bono for nonprofit events, not “for exposure” but supporting a meaningful cause and opening doors to future paid opportunities. Additionally, consider retaining a photographer on a regular basis to ensure dependable availability and valuable recommendations.
I recommend creating a template for your event and then sticking to it, while regularly reviewing which strategies worked well and what could be improved. Share the itinerary with your photographer, since they'll need to be in different spots at specific times. This way, they can plan the best angles and figure out how to move around the room with minimal disruption.
Be sure to provide your professional photographer with an image list before the event. Begin with the essential shots—the first five items—and then prioritize the remaining photos by importance. This way, if something is overlooked, your marketing plan can still move forward smoothly. Keep in mind, there may be some images your photographer couldn't capture for various reasons.
Capturing family and individual photos before the event usually works best, unless it's a surprise. Once the presentation concludes, things can become a bit hectic, so it's helpful to make an announcement that for the next 15 minutes, the news crew and photographers can get what they need. After that, participants can proceed with their celebrations. Cutting the cake can also be left to a volunteer during this time, ideally after a quick photo. Fewer people should leave early to keep things running smoothly.
Hope this is helpful as your plan 2026 and beyond social event and award presentations.
What to do after the event with all the wonderful images your professional photographer has captured? Stay tuned, that's for another post.
Featured: 2025 Stark County Spirit of Excellence Award-Seth O’Donnell
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