Two Days, Hundreds of Cupcakes... and Not One for Me.
There are worse ways to spend a weekend than surrounded by cupcakes. A LOT of cupcakes. Like more cupcakes than I have ever seen in my life.
And I should probably get this confession out of the way now....I photographed an entire cupcake festival for two days and somehow did not eat a single cupcake. I'm still not entirely sure how that happened, and frankly, I consider it one of my greatest professional failures to date. And it's borderline criminal.
Cupcake tragedy aside, I had the chance to photograph the West Virginia Cupcake Festival this year at Valley Park in Hurricane. I spent time there Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and let me tell you, there was absolutely no shortage of things happening in front of my camera.
More Than Just the Cupcakes
As delicious as everything looked (and believe me, photographing cupcakes without eating all of them should count as a professional skill), the food wasn't really what I found myself watching.
It was the people. That's hands down my favorite part of photographing an event.
The big moments are fun, but I love looking around the edges for the little things happening in between. The laughs, reactions, conversations, tiny details and moments people may not even realize are happening.
Those are the photographs I always end up loving the most.
Two Days, Two Completely Different Experiences
Photographing the festival over two days gave me the chance to capture more than just a few highlights. Friday evening had its own energy as everything got underway, while Saturday brought the full festival experience with more people, more activity and something happening pretty much everywhere I turned.
And that's one of my favorite challenges with event photography. Nothing waits for you. There isn't a "Can you do that again?" button.
You watch. You anticipate. You move. And when something happens, you're ready for it.
At least that's the plan.
Telling the Whole Story
When I photograph an event, I don't want to come home with 100 versions of the same photograph. I want the gallery to actually feel like being there.
That means the wide shots showing the crowd and atmosphere matter just as much as the close-up details. The performers matter. The vendors matter. The signs, decorations and, yes, the cupcakes matter.
But so do those little moments happening between people. Put them all together and you don't just have photographs of an event, you have the story of it.
And the West Virginia Cupcake Festival gave me one heck of a colorful story to tell. There was a car show, power wheel races, cupcake eating contests, Best Cupcake contests, cutest pet contest, bands, entertainment, vendors, food and so much more. And the best part? It was all to benefit a great cause, Backpack Buddies.
Why I Love Photographing Local Events
One of my favorite things about growing Lori Green Creative has been getting the opportunity to photograph more of the people, businesses and events happening right here in West Virginia.
These events become part of our communities. They're places where people run into old friends, families make traditions, local businesses get to show off what they do, and a whole lot of memories get made without anybody necessarily thinking about them as "memories" yet.
That's exactly the stuff I want to photograph. Because life doesn't only happen during perfectly planned portrait sessions. Sometimes it happens at Valley Park in the middle of a crowd...
with frosting on their face.
And I'm pretty happy to be there with a camera when it does.
Oh, and next year, though? I'm getting a darn cupcake!
Thank you to everyone involved with the West Virginia Cupcake Festival for letting me spend the weekend documenting all the fun.
And if you're planning a festival, community event, celebration or something else worth remembering, I'd love to help tell its story.
Let's talk about your event.
