To write. I think that's it. I did promise the "Beginner's Guide to Selecting a Digital Single Reflex Lens Camera". I'll be working on that very soon, I swear. I've been busy with trying to work out two paid shoots (Yes! Real money!) and they haven't been going well so far. Any ways, those are stories for another time.
The Capital Photography sponsored Strobist lighting workshop is coming up quick, this weekend in fact. So far the weather looks to be some what cooperating, except with the fact that the forecast only calls for a high of 41 degrees. Poor, poor, modeling victims. We have 12 people lined up so far, a place to meet and places to shoot at. Follow the link below to see the blood and guts of successfully organizing a meet(read: organizing, not running).
Step 1 - People must be interested. That was my biggest fear at that point in time. OK, I can have this awesome meet up planned and it'll be cool for me and the only other guy that shows. Trying to plan a meet will not work if you don't have people to show up. Parties for one are not fun.
Step 2 - You need a place. The second hardest part. You need a place to have the meet. This really coincides with step 3, which could also be step two. If you don't have a place for a meet and have people interested and wanting to show up, then you're going to be in trouble. After this experience, I'd like to make sure I arrange meet times and location starting a month or two in advance. Pressure doesn't always suck, but in this case, it does. If you have a location in mind, try and lock it down as soon as possible. Another very bad thing to do is switch meet locations at the last second. I won't get into those bad experiences...
Step 3 - Time & Date. This is essential. Nail down a date an time as soon as possible. Having people interested for the event and a location is almost useless without a time & date. Waiting until the last moments to set these can cut the number of interested parties in half. Not every one will be able to make it. Remember this. Meet ups for photography groups usually serve a function that can include learning and making business connections. They're not always fun. You know the old saying, you can please some of the people...
Step 4 - Make your meet up serve a purpose. This applies for any meet up in general. Even if you're having a meetup to goof off, it's serving it's purpose properly. You don't want attendees to show up and either be walking around with nothing to do or running around in chaos. It's almost like writing a book. Pick a topic. Stick to it. If you're writing a book about photography, you don't want to go off on wild tangents of how egg mcmuffins give you explosive diarrhea when you eat them. A photography meet up needs to have more of a purpose. Why are you there? To take pictures? Of what? What are you planning on learning or teaching? Make sure you know before hand.
Step 5 - Plan the event. Another step that goes hand in hand with the one above it. If you're having a meetup and you have the purpose, you need to plan the event. For the Strobist meet, I put together an itinerary of what we're supposed to be doing and when we're supposed to be doing it. People are paying money for this. It's all going to the models, but I know that if I were to show up and pay for anything, I expect something in return. I could get one of my friend's to stand around in the freezing cold and take pictures of them for free. I don't need to pay to do this. Make sure your people show up and have something to do and know when to do it.
Step 6 - Accomplish your goal. This is the closure of the event. Make sure you accomplished your goal of the meet up. Make sure that people have learned what you wanted them to or did what was planned. Try and meet their expectations as much as possible without straying too far from what's feasible as far as your schedule and the activities of the event. Make sure every one enjoyed the event as much as possible. It's not your job to make people happy, but unhappy people will not come back. Get feed back on the event as well. Did it go as planned? What were people's expectations and did you meet or exceed them?
That's about it. Not bad from writing off the top of my head I guess. Now, hopefully the meet up this Saturday will work out smoothly and go as planned. I know that's probably not the case, but we can always hope for the best.
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