Pre-Shoot Location Check

I have been planning a client shoot for about a week and finalizing the location a day or go, today's task was to scope out the site to make sure it would suit our needs. I had shot on this particular site once before but that was in the dull, dark days of winter so I needed to be sure about the light.

I packed a basic kit of gear, hopped on my bike and pedalled to the location. After snapping a few general pics I decided that I may as well get a bit more serious and try some of the actual shots I am planning to make. I was shooting at just past midday so the sun was full on and the shadows were thick. The shadows I love but the overpowering light I could do without, especially for the kind of shots I wanted to make. I cranked up the shutter speed to my max sync (1/200th) to kill as much ambient as I could it was not quite enough so I had to close down my aperture too. I wanted to shoot more wide open but gear has limits so I had to make concessions. I ended up with an exposure of 1/200th, f/11 at ISO 100. I only had one flash so f/11 was about all I could push. I would have liked to cut ambient by another stop but again, I was at the limits of my gear. Oh well, I was getting some good shots so I kept going.

After a while a father and his young son arrived in the same space where I was shooting. As it turns out he was in a wedding on the weekend, which took shots in the same location and he thought it would be a great place to get some shots of his young son. He was an amateur shooter, so he asked me for a couple of tips along the way. I was happy to oblige. As I was getting ready to wrap up he asked me if I wouldn't mind taking a shot of him and his son. I tried to but I'm a Canon guy and he had an older Nikon and to me the Nikon menus, button placement, etc are really foreign so I deferred and ask him if he wanted to jump in on my set up instead. He was for it and I snapped a bunch of pictures for them. As it turns out I managed to grab some great shots, which was fantastic because it gave me even more of a chance to play a bit more. It is always so hard being a photographer and the subject.



With the location check done, I packed up my gear and headed for home. Pulling the images on the computer I was really pleased with the shots and especially the ones of the father and his son. I sent him a few shots and he was happy too. Win win.

Keep shooting.