A ribbon cutting has a fairly obvious photograph built into it. People line up. Somebody produces scissors large enough to suggest they were purchased with a municipal infrastructure grant. Everyone looks toward the cameras, the ribbon gets cut, and there’s your picture.
At the Etna Center for Community celebration on October 17, we did that several times. Etna Community Organization (ECO) board members, local elected officials, community leaders, and eventually everyone in attendance had opportunities to be represented. After years of work to bring this project to life, there were plenty of people who deserved a place in those photographs.
Getting those pictures was the one specific expectation for my coverage. The rest was largely left to me.
And the rest included two bands, bouncy houses, street hockey, soccer, and a small delegation of mascots. Elsewhere in the neighborhood, there was pumpkin carving and a sandwich called “The Library Pastrami.”
So, yes. There was plenty going on.
A Library Celebration That Spilled into the Neighborhood
The Etna Center for Community occupies historic Ochse Hall on Butler Street. With construction nearing completion and the library’s regular public opening anticipated in November, the October 17 ribbon-cutting event brought people together to celebrate how far the project had come and get a look at what was ahead. And that celebration extended well beyond the building.
Kids bounced, played, and made use of a temporary field for street hockey or soccer. Right down the street, CoStar Brewing hosted pumpkin carving and painting. Several local businesses joined in, including Reno’s Deli across the street, which offered “The Library Pastrami,” a special sandwich created by Etna Mayor Robert Tuñón.
His wife, Megan, is Executive Director of the ECO. Between the two of them, that’s a considerable investment in both the civic and sandwich infrastructure of Etna.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it over to photograph the pumpkin carving or the sandwich. Even with all that happening nearby, the laws of physics stubbornly limited me occupy only one location at a time. I did, however, snag some images of a presentation by Shaler Hampton EMS, which donated a “LightSaving Manikin” named Big Red so community members could learn and practice lifesaving techniques.
Throughout the day, Clara Kitongo, the Eagleburger Band, and the Kenny Stockard Trio supplied live music. The Pirate Parrot, Kenny Kangaroo, the Shaler Titan, Andrew CARDnegie, and ALCOSAN’s Frankie the Fish interacted with attendees. Andrew CARDnegie was particularly well qualified for a library event, although I assume everyone else’s references checked out, too.
For me, the photographic priority was pretty straightforward: smiling people enjoying their day.
That sounds simple, and in a lot of ways, it is. The work is in paying attention while everything happens at once. It’s about recognizing an interaction, finding a clear view, making the photograph, and staying aware of what’s happening nearby.
What Goes on an Event Photography Shot List?
If you’re planning photography for an event, start by identifying the moments that absolutely need to be documented. Then consider the people, activities, setting, and details that will help someone understand the experience as a whole. The photos need to convey the feeling of the day.
At this celebration, the ribbon cuttings were the required photographs. Beyond that, the ECO trusted me to follow the day and decide what to capture. We’d worked together before, including at Be My Neighbor Day, which I wrote about in Looking Back at 2025—Part 2: From Dead Air to Overdrive. Having that familiarity gave me room to move through the celebration, watch for interactions, and build the coverage around what was happening.
That freedom matters when several things are happening at once. A schedule can tell you when a band starts or a presentation begins, but it generally does a pretty terrible job of predicting when somebody will have an excellent interaction with a kangaroo or an oversized parrot in a baseball jersey.
You need to know what’s planned and keep watching what develops around it.
That’s where the rest of the coverage came from: people enjoying the activities, musicians performing, mascots meeting attendees, and residents signing up for Etna library cards. Each offered a different piece of the day.
A useful shot list gives the photographer priorities. It also needs to leave enough room for moments nobody could have scheduled.
It Takes the Whole Batch
When I think back through the photographs, I don’t have one particular interaction or frame that sums up the entire celebration. It truly takes the whole batch.
The ribbon-cutting photographs show the occasion and the people connected to making it possible. The performances and activities show the range of the celebration. The photographs of attendees bring in the expressions and interactions that made it feel like a day people were enjoying.
That’s part of what I’m considering while I photograph. I’m looking for individual pictures that work, of course, but I’m also building a collection. If every photograph contributes essentially the same information, you can have a large gallery and still leave a lot of the event untold.
The variety has a purpose. The presentation, the soccer game, the library card signups, and the mascot encounters all belonged to the same celebration. My job was to pay attention across that range that work together to tell the story.
A Place with History and plenty More Ahead
The formal program also connected the center to people whose work helped bring it this far. The Rengers Courtyard honors former Mayor Tom Rengers and his family, while the great room was dedicated to former Council President Pete Ramage and his wife, Mary Ellen, Etna’s Borough Manager.
I have my own connections to it, too. My wife, Melanie, serves on the ECO board, I’ve photographed for ECO before, and Etna is our community. In Conversations Between the Tables: Photographing Etna Heart & Soul, I wrote about an evening when residents shared memories and ideas about the borough’s future. Photographing this celebration was another opportunity to document people taking part in that future.
October 17 also happened to be Melanie’s birthday. During an interactive storytelling presentation by Miss Ing and Mrs. Millard from Shaler North Hills Library, the crowd broke into an impromptu “Happy Birthday.” Later that evening, a cake recognized both her birthday and another board member’s nearby birthday. After all the planning and preparation she’d put into the celebration, I suspect seeing people enjoy the day was about as good a birthday present as she could have asked for. The cake was a sensible addition.
I’m looking forward to using the center myself. I see myself spending time there with the kids and occasionally bringing a laptop to work remotely. As much as I enjoy having a camera in my hands, I’m also interested in having somewhere nearby to sit with my family. Or answer emails in a different chair. A change of chair is an underrated business strategy.
I had plenty to photograph that day, from the formal recognition to people simply having a good time, and the full gallery is what tells that story for me. The ribbon-cutting pictures are in there, as requested, but so are the kangaroo, musicians, and the people getting their library cards.
Now try to imagine someone telling you this story without all of those things.
I’ll bet you can’t.
