Hackathon and developer event photography
Hackathons, demo days and developer events - dark, editorial, and the anchor of a sponsor deck.
Hackathons photograph badly by default. The lighting is quirky and flat, all the action happens sporadically throughout the event, and the awards end up in front of a projector screen - making the team winners look washed out and unflattering.
So, I shoot them the way they are. True to nature, a little gritty, and with an emphasis on using the available light. No ring light, staged high-fives, no asking a team to pretend to point at a laptop. The mood and vibe is there - you just need someone who knows how to bring the most out of the event.
That is where I come in.
What a hackathon edit has to do
- Give organisers a recap they can publish the same weekend
- Give the sponsor something worth pointing at for the next one
- Give participants photos to proudly remember their time at the event
- Hold up in a deck, a press release and on a wall
Sponsor branding in the frame, not on it
A logo dropped into a corner in post is obvious and it ages badly. Branding belongs in the composition: the wordmark on the backdrop, the stage colour, the signage moving people through the building. Built into the frame it reads as documentary, and it survives being cropped for social.
This was the approach for the Claude Builder Club Spring 2026 hackathon at Northumbria University, sponsored by Anthropic and built around Claude. Three days, sixty-eight hero frames, delivered as a sequence that tells the story of the weekend.
Beyond Newcastle
The conference work is Newcastle-anchored. Hackathons are a different matter, because there are only so many in any one city and the ones worth covering are wherever the community is. I travel for them, and for multi-day events I would rather quote travel and accommodation honestly than pad the day rate.
Running a hackathon?
Tell me the dates, the venue and whether there is a sponsor whose brand needs to read in the pictures, and I will put together what the coverage should look like.
contact@harbium.studio