Testing, Testing…

We’ve all heard the guy with the microphone testing the system before he speaks. Preparedness limits problems, or so the philosophy goes, so know your environment before you enter it. A musician always practices before a performance and so must a photographer for a shoot.

I had an idea for a creative image and went out to capture the effect I had envisioned. My first few attempts did not give me the result I was looking for. The materials just weren’t cooperating and the location was not at all what I had expected! But fortunately for me I wasn’t with a client. 

The day of the shoot is not the time to experiment with new ideas. Had we taken a client out in an attempt to do this on the spot it would have made us look like amateurs and lessened their confidence in our abilities to produce quality images.

Moving forward, as we do, we learned from what had happened and set about to solve other issues with our environment like lighting and composition. Our new Co-op student Madison was with us, as acting model, and we ended up with some fun shots anyways. But I can’t stress enough the importance of practicing before you perform!