TL;DR Chris Marr Speaking
Photographing Chris Marr speaking at Marketed.Live in Nottingham focused on capturing the energy he brings to the stage. Chris wanted powerful images that showed him engaging directly with the audience rather than standing still behind a podium. Working inside the dramatic concrete space at Nottingham Contemporary created a technical challenge due to very low light, but it also produced striking results. The final photographs give Chris strong visual assets he can use to support his authority as a professional speaker across social media, marketing materials, and future projects.
Watch This Episode About Capturing Chris Marr Speaking at Marketed.Live
If you’re interested in building up your speaker reel with captivating stills as well as video to showcase how you command the attention of the room, take a closer look at the bespoke photography I created for dynamic speaker Chris Marr at Marketed.Live in Nottingham, is not only a great way to come up with some inspiring ideas, but it’s also a great way to learn more about how this sort of service works.
About This Custom Photography Case Study For Chris Marr Speaking
Meeting Chris!
I met Chris in 2016. He came down to Newcastle from Scotland to talk about the Content Marketing Academy and to share news of one of his many live events. I felt like a right knob, because as I was talking to him my quiff fell out, so I had to shake his hand and keep flicking my hair.
Shoot forward then to 2017, I went up to Scotland to my very first CMA Live event and I loved it. I loved the vibe there; I learnt so much about content marketing and it was great to see the community that Chris had created.
Having agreed then to be the official photographer at the 2019 Marketed Live, I was thrilled to see that Chris was on the speaker line-up. After reaching out to him, he shared that he did need some up-to-date speaker photography and he had some cool ideas about what he wanted to be captured.
Chris Marr Speaking at Marketed.Live
As a professional speaker, Chris is passionate about interacting with his crowd. So, he wanted me to be out in the crowd, ducking and diving and following him as he talked to people in the audience. With the microphone in his hand. Maybe this is something you should consider if you plan to level up your professional speaker portfolio and reel.
Let’s Go Back to Shoot Day
Let’s take a look at the results from Chris’ Speaker Photography session.
Scale shots remain a crucial crop to have in your speaker photography portfolio. It shows the size of the crowd that you can command. What I love about this, though, is the powerful lighting. Your eyes go straight to Chris on stage.
Chris Marr Speaking Photography Results
Now how rockstar are these photographs? I love them!
This dramatic lighting has created a lot of powerful space. I can see Chris getting a lot of use out of this shot because of that black background, you can go wild with text overlays.
With Special Thanks to
Marketed.Live
Thanks to Paul Ince – founder of the annual Marketed.Live Conference. Get some details for this year (or catch up on previous years). Head to MarketEd.Live and you’ll be able to find all of the information you need to buy your tickets.
Nottingham Contemporary
Thanks to Nottingham Contemporary. A great big thank you to the guys who are on the event team over at Nottingham Contemporary. You are such a pleasure to work with. Thank you so much for being so accommodating.
Technical Stretching Reflections
When I first arrived at Nottingham Contemporary I was a little shocked. The conference would be taking place inside a giant concrete room. There was next to no lighting. For a conference this creates drama and intrigue.
From a photographic standpoint it’s different. This created a wonderful technical challenge to push my equipment as far as it could go. At the same time, test my agility in maintaining “ISO push” whilst leaping around (in silence) to achieve the final visual effect Chris had requested.
To date, this remains to be one of the most technically complex Customised Photography bookings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do professional speakers need speaker photography?
Speaker photography captures the reality of how you perform on stage. Instead of relying on posed portraits, these images show you presenting, interacting with the audience, and commanding attention. This helps potential event organisers quickly understand your presence and style as a speaker.
What makes great speaker photography?
Great speaker photography focuses on energy, interaction, and atmosphere. Strong images often include audience engagement, expressive moments during the talk, and wide shots that reveal the scale of the event. These details help communicate the impact you have when presenting live.
How can speaker photography support a personal brand?
Speaker photography gives you visual proof of your expertise in action. When used on websites, social media, and speaker pages, these images show that you are actively presenting at events. This strengthens credibility and makes it easier for organisers to picture you on their stage.
What should speakers consider before hiring a Speaker photographer?
Speakers should think about the story they want their images to tell. This includes how they move on stage, how they interact with the audience, and what type of atmosphere the event creates. Sharing this vision with the photographer helps capture images that support your speaking brand.
How can speakers use event photos after the event?
Speaker photos can support many parts of a speaker’s marketing. They work well for social media posts, website banners, speaker profiles, and press features. Many speakers also use these images in presentations, books, or promotional material to reinforce their authority and experience. See this guide on Speaker Photography.
Isn't this just the same as Event Photography?
No! An event photographer is booked by an event organiser to showcase their event. They invest in this service to sell more tickets to the next event. This means that photographer is given a tough task. They need to capture the event from as many angles as possible to document the event for the organiser. This often means they are running around the space on a loop for the duration of the event.
If you’re the speaker that means they will pop by to quickly catch a few shots of you on stage before moving to the next place on their route.
A Speaker Photographer is there for the duration of your talk. This makes catching the highlights of your session on stage a lot more likely. Relying on just the Event Photographer is a gamble.
Fancy a chat to find out more? Book a call now.
If you’d like to chat about how to expand or elevate your Personal Branding with appearances like this, then let’s chat. Perhaps you are aspiring to be like Chris and want some guidance on how to get started?
