Celebrating films from home and abroad, Bolton Film Festival acts as an amplifier of emerging and established talent. Through its industry talks, masterclasses and networking sessions it aims to break open the door to a creative industry that many people find difficult to access and navigate. The festival is a BIFA and BAFTA Qualifying short film festival and a Creative England CE50, it has been consistently voted a "Top 100 reviewed" festival from over 10000+ worldwide on FilmFreeway since inception. Event photography by Mike Beard

My second year photographing the Independent Film Cooperative End of Year Screening. A film festival and awards night to see off the end of the year! Brilliant short films & then meet the filmmakers! Event photographer: Mike Beard

Following on from their sell out screening in 2019 and first audience-voted 'Best Film' award, Independent Film Cooperative hosted their 'End Of Year Screening 2023' at the Odeon, in Central Manchester. There was audience voting and the 'Best Film' award was presented at the After Party, at 53Two. Event photographer: Mike Beard

Kinofilm™ has a unique reputation for showcasing the best short films and debut features from around the world and is renowned for seeking out diverse, challenging and ground-breaking new films. The first festival took place in 1995 and has produced 30 annual film festivals to date, with the 20th anniversary of the Manchester Short Film Festival taking place in 2025. Event photographer: Mike Beard

A fascinating assignment to photograph an art exhibition for Cotton On MCR.

I am very pleased to say that my event photography services were requested again at the second Greater Manchester Green Summit. Event photographer: Mike Beard #gmgreencity

This event photography assignment flew by! I was supporting the PR team's regular tweeting throughout the day by shooting, editing, and sending them great photographs during each presentation. They were often tweeting before the end of each talk! The event was organised by the Greater Manchester Natural Capital Group. Event photographer: Mike Beard

It was great fun when I was selected to join a team of photographers providing Manchester City Council with photographs of Manchester Day 2018. Event photographer: Mike Beard

Manchester City Council were keen to have publicity photos of the volunteers and community groups creating their floats and costumes for Manchester Day, assisted by professional artists. Event photographer: Mike Beard

What an exciting assignment to be asked to photograph the first Greater Manchester Green Summit and capture so many important moments. Event photographer: Mike Beard #GMGreenCity

I managed to grab a front row seat at a discussion event about robotics that was part of the Museum of Science and Industry's Robots exhibition. I also took some photographs of the exhibition itself. Event photographer: Mike Beard

It was a pleasure to return to photograph this event for the organisers, following my successful coverage last year. There were a lot of participation activities because the conference also served as a listening event as part of the lead up to the GM Green Summit. Event photographer: Mike Beard

Not so easy to get good photographs from amidst the crowd, but I like to think that I can get high quality photographs out of most situations. Event photographer: Mike Beard

I was delighted to photograph the Greater Manchester Natural Capital Conference in February 2017. My ability to almost immediately email photographs to the organisers during the day enabled the creation of very timely social media content with engaging images. My pictures were also used on web sites and press releases, and I received third party requests for my photographs of the VIPs as well. Event photographer: Mike Beard