Only a few days after photographing at MPTS I was back shooting another conference. This time, for the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. The three-day event, called IPPPRI25, is an important event that brings together the highest profile national and international speakers dedicated to tackling the global challenge of sexual abuse of children online.

Now in its eighth year, the conference provides an opportunity for practitioners, policymakers, academia and subject matter experts to come together to look at how multi-agency responses can be improved.

Known worldwide as one the most important conferences focussing on online harms, IPPPRI25 brought together leading international and national speakers, in the fields of academia and public protection, to demonstrate the influence of academic research in informing real world change.

The conference offered a range of sessions including case studies, workshops and plenary presentations.

Cranefield, R. (2025) ‘Jess Philips Speaking at IPPPRI25’

MP Jess Philips presented the first session of the conference, and there was a need to publish pictures of her giving her speech, along with a prepared press release, as soon as she’d made her announcement.

In order for this to happen, I created the client gallery - the private online space every client gets access to - before the conference started. Doing this meant that the Events Team and Social Media Managers could access all of the processed images as soon as they were ready. The gallery platform I use allows for downloads in a variety of sizes or posting images directly to social media.

As most conference sessions last for about half an hour it is possible, with the right preparation and backend media workflow, to get all the requisite shots of a speaker, select and process them, and then return to the conference to catch the last part of the session whilst the first images automatically upload to the client gallery.

With this system put in place for the first session of the day, it made sense to maintain the workflow for the rest of the three-day conference.

As a result of this fast-turnaround workflow the Social Media Team were able to post photographs and a short summary of each session to LinkedIn and other social media before each presenter had left the stage.

IPPPRI LinkedIn Feed

In my previous career I’ve designed complex media workflows for broadcasters, so I am adept at adapting to the needs of a particular customer and their required outputs.

In this case, yy media workflow meant that multiple Social Media managers had access to photographic content as it was produced, even when they were offsite. The fast-turnaround of content continued on Day 2 of the event, even when there were often three breakout sessions happening concurrently.

Event photography has many challenges: capturing a panel discussion without anyone blinking; getting good photos of speakers without unflattering expressions; and making sparsely populated rooms look full.

The latter challenge often isn’t a reflection of the event’s popularity but rather a logistical quirk. Most conferences begin with a large keynote speech before breaking into smaller sessions, leaving the main room looking emptier as the audience disperses.

This is why I often use a telephoto lens, even in relatively small venues. A telephoto lens allows me to take close-cropped shots while working from a distance. This not only keeps me out of the way but also creates perspective compression—an effect that visually shortens the distance between foreground and background.

By using this technique and finding an area where the audience is clustered along a line, I can create images of speakers that appear in front of a seemingly dense crowd.

For me it’s this kind of attention to detail and understanding of photographic techniques that makes hiring a professional event photographer so valuable. As a skilled photographer I can turn a small audience into packed crowd in a way you won’t achieve on an iPhone.

IPPPRI25. Fast turnaround event shooting