Audemars Piguet Watches Service Center Clearwater Grand Opening

A grand opening only happens once. The ribbon gets cut once. The room fills once. There's no "let's run that one again" — and that's exactly why it's one of my favorite things to photograph.

This is the Audemars Piguet service center grand opening in Clearwater — One of my favorite events I've covered. I got to work on this one with my good friend Luke Johnson.  All the work that appears here is mine. 

The day had three movements: interviews, speeches, and the after party.

The interviews and speeches are the bones of the day. They have to be clean, and they have to be right the first time — no reshoots, no second takes. These are the frames that matter when the client looks back.

The after party is where the day breathes. That's the part most event coverage skips, and it's the part that makes the set feel like being there — real people, real reactions, mid-toast, mid-conversation. People don't remember a grand opening as a schedule of events. They remember it as a room full of people. That's what I shot.

And the details: blue shoe covers for the service-center tour, a gold AP lapel pin, a green Audemars Piguet cap. Nobody hires a photographer for the shoe covers — but ten years later, these are the frames that make you feel the day. Details are what turn coverage into memory.

That's the whole approach: shoot the event like the people who were there will remember it, and like the people who weren't there wish they had been.

Planning a grand opening, ribbon cutting, or launch in Tampa Bay? Book a call — jrpmedia.com.