Making The Most Of A Tricky Photography Situation

I felt it was worth writing a blog post on this subject, as I think people often see a final image and have no idea of what has gone into creating it. It is often assumed that I have been shooting in some amazing location, which appears like a film set. Whilst in some cases, I am blessed with some pretty amazing locations, it is often pretty mundane, run down places I choose to be creative in, and use my imagination and creativity, to turn this into something entirely different.

So, this brings me to the shoot I did this weekend. Now, I had no idea, despite being a huge Batman fan, that the planes used in the opening scenes of The Dark Knight Rises, were just sitting in some woods, a few miles from my door. I had fairly recently become aware of these planes, but was totally oblivious to where they had come from. In my head, as soon as I was aware of the planes, I wanted to find them for a shoot, but had no urgency, until I found out they were from one of my favourite movies.

It took a load of messaging back and forth with people who had seen them, to figure out how to get there, but eventually I set off to locate them. Without success. It turned out they had been moved a week or two prior to my arrival. Unbelievable, as they had been there for years, and I was now missing out by a matter of a few weeks. I was then fortunate enough to be given some information on where to find one of them, and even more fortunate to be given permission to come back a week later to do a shoot there.

Make up artist and model booked, outfits planned, and it all started to fall into place nicely. On the morning of the shoot, I joked “imagine if we do all this work, drive up there, and the plane is gone”. Oh was I to regret this throwaway joke. Myself and Steph eventually arrived at the secret location, only to find that there was no batman plane to be seen. A digger sat on the exact spot I had taken a selfie at with the plane just 9 days previously.

My nightmare scenario had come to life, and I was now more than a little bit disappointed. However. I ws fortunate again, and was told where I could find the latest hiding place for the plane. Eventually, some time later that day, photographer, and very patient model, arrived at location number three, but it was a bit disappointing, as the plane was not well positioned for a photoshoot. Not at all. I wasn’t giving up now, after all the effort I had gone to, so I got my thinking cap on while Steph got ready. It was blowing a gale, looked like wind, there were sheds all around, another plane right beside it, wrapped in bright green tarpaulin, but here’s the thing….. If you know your lighting, and what you can do in a situation, you can create something which looks entirely different.

So this was what I turned up to see…..

Not very inspiring right?

Add some lights, modifiers, light meter, and a bit of imagination, and this is what we ended up with….

This is the difference between using a professional photographer, and an amateur, and using good people as models and make up artists. I see so many shoots pop up on social media recently,which have had no thought put into lighting, posing, even the basic camera exposures. You could take the same images with a phone, and possibly get better results.

Conclusion: Train your eyes to see beyond the obvious. And book an experienced professional for the job.