Tricks & treats while organising a photoshoot – how to handle inner “I don’t know” when everything seems to fail in very last moment
The closer we were getting to another Meetup, the more it was raining. The rainier it was, the more nervous I was, even hysterical at some point. As I like to mention to everyone quite often, its good to have a plan B.
We had no plan B…
I am often thinking how the right communication between a booker and a model should look like; how that person should know all the details about the shoot, that he/she should be a creative person, meteorologist, visionary, driver, cook, ATM…
But we are just a human beings. No one can handle everything 100% and if they can, I would like to meet them.
I am writing this for all those, who might be concerned about photoshoot organisation or how far can it actually go. I would like to mention, that I was crazy enough to stay at home on the balcony at 4am on the day of photo event and was praying loudly to stop raining. Model was supposed to wake up at 5am to get to the location and in next 3 hours many things can happen, like the sun can actually start shining, right? You never know.
The evening before the shoot I texted all attendants that unless there will be an actual storm in the morning, the event is still on, and added that if the Universe will keep ignoring me and it will be still raining, I will give a refund for the second hour the shoot because we have to try it nonetheless. And then I realised – if it’s still raining, we will have to shoot somewhere under cover. The only option was to hide in a “half-cave” right behind the waterfall, where it’s dark.
Very dark…
Which means that if there would be someone not skilled enough to set camera manually, the photos would suck.
Therefore I googled everything about how to deal with a shutter speed, ISO and aperture. In a meanwhile the birds started singing and my mind schizophrenically kept thinking if I gave the model all important info.. and I felt like both my brain and my IQ are in some offline mode chilling under my bed.
I drove to the location along with all props and snacks half an hour earlier – I was really worried that the spot might be flooded. As I reached the destination (and even though I stepped into the pool when left a car) I saw a fog and clouds disappearing in the distance, I inhaled the super clear fresh air and… no rain at all.
It was like that for all the shoot. Fog disappeared completely, Elilith model was awesome as well as all guys there and surprisingly one hour later the sun started shining, which created the perfect condition for a rock pool reflection shoot. I was totally exhausted, but happy. And grateful. Very grateful.
Sometimes it’s the weather conditions, sometimes a group of people running at your location while you are shooting (previous article) and sometimes it’s just the small details which can stress you enough to just sit and think that you have no idea how are you going to make it all happen.
If you do it because you love it; because you are looking forward to it.. give it a chance and try it. It will happen somehow.