Lesson learnt….hopefully.

I have been doing a bit of work for an old friend from school who runs a stage production company, Showcase Productions NI.  He puts on several plays throughout the year all over Northern Ireland covering local writers and West End inspired works.  He asked me along originally to do head shots of the cast and shoot some of the shows and dress rehearsals.   This has all been going well and Simon has been delighted with the results.  At the start of the week I received a text from him asking me to drop round to rehearsal a few days later to take one shot of the host for the Cancer Charity to advertise in the weekend papers.   I agreed to this without hesitation once I checked my dairy and went along without really giving it another thought.  Perhaps I am getting too comfortable doing this work for Simon.  I think in my head it was just a shot of 2 people.  I was nearly going to head down on my motorbike with just my camera.  In the end I chose to take the car and just threw all my gear in the boot just encase! 

Anyway I get there and it turns out the host is a local TV presenter and there are to be 4 cast member in the shot too.  Aaahhh!  I hadn’t thought this one through.  The TV presenter Paul had who I assume was his PA with him.  Thankfully she had an idea about what she wanted but she did ask me at one stage.  I had quickly to get all my speedlights and umbrellas out and then run round the building looking for a blank wall as the backdrop I had brought wasn’t big enough.  What had started out to be very laid back for me was quickly getting me stressed out.  I like to plan my photo shoots.  I like the sit with books and magazines and use pinterest to pull together ideas so that I go along knowing at the end of the shoot what I hope to come away with.  I like to be in control.  All it takes in one bad shot and that could put an end to all this work and ruin other possibilities.

Thankfully I got some shots and was really pleased with the results but next time I will make sure I go to every shoot with a plan and know exactly what my client is actually asking for.