Hi I'm Thea and today I'm at photo 24 in London with MPB the name probably gives it away but photo
24 is a day-long photography Festival packed with a range of activities such as photo walks
workshops and portrait sessions there's 23 themes one per hour starting today at 1 pm and ending
24 hours later the overall three best images win a 500 pound MPV voucher so yeah I'm gonna
participate in some fun challenges learn some new things meet some cool people so let's go
it's 11 21 we just got at the daily hotel where everything is happening so let's go inside Gareth
and I just got here by the way Garrett is filming today for me there's quite a lot of merch here
we have a mpb Bomb Bag let's see what's inside Sunglasses if you have the glasses and you also
need to clean them but also the lenses oh that's so cool we have sunscreen hand sanitizer plaster
you never know what happens then we have a screen cleaner this is so cool and then earplugs today
oh I see there's 200 participants and some of them are sleeping here because they're doing the
whole 24 hours so now I know why you need earplugs afterwards more and more people started turning up
mostly between the ages of 40 and 60 which I found very refreshing as it reminded me that photography
has no age I also had the chance to speak to photography news editor and photo 24 founder
will Chung who told us what he was most looking forward to for the event having an organizer
thing is basically everything working we were dead worried obviously with the strike so we thought
we'd lose everybody but we've got a hardcore audience my main thing at the moment is that
we're here the mpb team is here as long as all the readers arrive I'm happy a few days ago I actually
bought some of the photo 24 videos on YouTube and one of them was this guy Matt who's here behind me
so we're gonna say hi to him have you ever done 24 hours yeah this is my first photo 24 but it's one
tip that you give to me or anyone may be watching that comes next year don't bring tons of equipment
a camera maybe a zoom lens because whatever you're happy with mostly just enjoy yourself
photography news just posted on their Instagram the first challenge which actually started at
1pm now it's 1 52 but we still have eight minutes so the first challenge is street
life I'm going to use the 24 to 70 2.8 mpb actually landed me this lens for today's
challenges let's have fun I like it here because there's cool people doing cool things unique a
lot of cultures I love convenience stores so people like in front of the convenience stores
yep and he's lighting a cigarette that's the one yep we got it we definitely got it
so now it's 2 p.m and we're actually going back to the HQ or the daily hotel we have some portrait
sessions there I have no idea what to expect but I'm really excited speaking of portraits
this is a very iconic portrait spot one thing that I'm really looking forward to is learning
more about light now the reason I said lighting is because I mostly shoot outside I really like
natural light but shooting in the studio is such a cool thing and I definitely want to do it more
in the future also these beam bags are super comfortable very much enjoying being here our
portrait session was led by Colleen [ __ ] an award-winning and an in-house Eurovision
photographer who gave us amazing tips regarding the camera settings lighting setup and even
guided us through the process of taking photos and then kind of like look up a bit yeah I love that
what is one tip you would give to someone that comes into the studio let's say for the first
time and wants to live with decent results my top tip is just to not be afraid to mess around start
with one light and build from there Gareth and I also met this lovely woman Hillary who shot in
the studio for the first time and her photos were absolutely astonishing oh that's lovely
have you been here before 2 photo 24 no I really got to challenge myself I'm over 70 and it's time
to get cracking to switch things up I traveled East to shortage and was ready to tackle the
next challenge which was two wheels you think I'm gonna get a shot of someone riding a bike
and I think someone just chilling there might be cool so why not my settings ISO at 100 I always
try and keep it as low as possible because the higher the iso the more grain in the image there
is then we have aperture 2.8 which means blurry background and more light and then I have a
shutter speed at 1 over 500 because if I have it lower there's too much light in my image this is
gonna be really nice the only thing is we can't see two wheels here so I need to go here awesome
let's go to Wheels done while we're here I actually wanted to tell you a bit about the
camera that I'm using today for filming Sony a7s3 and mpb was kind enough to let me borrow it for
the day two things that I absolutely adore about this camera it works insanely well in
low light you can put your ISO up to 12 800 and it basically goes back to zero which means that
you have zero grain in the image and the second thing that I really love flip screen which is
great for events like this and just vlogging in general okay so the next challenge is time
we're currently at Liverpool Street Station we're going to be using the 70 to 200 which
is a great lens because of course it has a big Zoom the higher the number the more zoomed in
it is to get a bit more creative with this shot we're gonna have the time in Focus but
the people blurred to do that we need to lower our shutter speed we have it at 0.5 seconds and
then we're also using the ND filter which helps minimize the light that we have in the frame very
important thing here is to keep your hands really steady because the lower the shutter
the more blur it is I'm just gonna rest it here on this is and then we need to make sure that
we have the time in Focus we're going to put the iso to a hundred I don't think I'm really
the fan of the ad that is playing right now so let's just wait for something nicer maybe this
let's go for the next challenge food and drink I went to different locations around shortage
so we need a food and drink shot boys and girls that's the perfect place let's go okay
this is really cool I love this shot I just got a really cool portrait couldn't drink
some smoke there oh this is nice oh yeah I was very much really hyped about the 70 to
200 mil lens this lens is incredible it's so cool because you can get so close by being so
far I love this lens but it is definitely very heavy and I wouldn't use it every day
that I really love about photo 24 is that sometimes we all feel a bit demotivated and so
having challenges every hour pushes you to go out and get creative not only that but you also get to
meet new people and discover maybe certain parts of London that you haven't visited yet at 10 pm
I joined the light painting photo walk hosted by Dan Clark from UK Spinners it was truly remarkable
to see some of the participants still going strong after 10 hours of shooting that makes me so happy
just look at that if I'm honest I don't shoot at night but with all the great tips that Dan
had given us I had to give it a go before leaving then let us know his favorite lens for shooting
long exposures and gave us his number one tip for shooting those as well I use a 1.435 Mil lens you
get fantastic bokeh and great depth of field and also you keep those lights nice and vibrant if
I was to give you one tip for light painting or long exposures get yourself a decent tripod
and personally wireless remote really helps for me I can go out on my own stand 100 meters away
and I can still control the camera okay everyone so that's it for today I had a
really good day I met some really cool people and I'll catch you tomorrow for the closing ceremony
hey everyone it's day two and I just got to the closing ceremony I'm really excited to speak
some people about their experience at photo 24 and especially to those who stay for the whole
24 hours it was fun of course but the last the last kind of 10 hours were the sunrise shoots
we were all dying by then freezing cold as well but it was but it was fun yeah you know how many
and last thing everyone mpb and photography news were kind enough to give me a T-shirt
and with that being said thank you so much to photography news for putting on such a unique
event and to mpb for Lending me all the equipment to make this possible if you're
looking to meet new people challenge yourself step out of your comfort zone
and perhaps learn new things photo 24 is for you make sure you subscribe to mpb's
YouTube channel and check out their website where you can buy sell or trade use photo
and video kit and feel free to find me on Instagram and YouTube at the Alicia where
I make videos all about photography videography freelance business and self-development foreign