Adapting to Unplanned Events at Your Photo Shoots

Posted by Alyn on Mar 7th, 2011 in Featured, Photography | 1 comment

I think that Murphy guy was right when he said, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong! It seemed to be true in a recent photo shoot of mine anyway. I had been planning a photo shoot for several months. A casting was posted on LACastings.com for two actors to play a mature/senior adult couple on a hiking trip; the theme was active adults for my stock photo portfolio. I had an overwhelming amount of actors respond; over 550 individual actors! After culling through the head shots and reading their experience and hours of discussion with my coordinator, I settled on two African American adults who appeared to look like they where in their early 50s; a market I was trying to reach. Several emails of confirmation, directions, call times, locations where sent, received, and confirmed. Excellent, I thought. My casting is complete and now on to other facets of the shoot.

I had researched hiking gear and invested in new, matching backpacks, down to the colors as well as similar color walking poles. I Explained to the actors what colors to wear and how to dress; I was very specific on wardrobe. I had scouted the location numerous times and took reference photos. I even sat down and listed the various shots I wanted, drew my stick figure story board sketches (I’m not much of a freehand artist) and made sure I had plenty of shots planned for a 6 hour shoot. Let’s just say I was excited for the day to arrive and to do this photo shoot. Heck, I even purchased additional lighting equipment!

Shoot day has arrived! But wait! What’s this? The wilderness park I had scouted was closed due to rain the day before, it was never closed in the past due to rain. My first thoughts where to panic since my talent would not know where to go. I quickly called the both of them and left a message to meet me in an alternative location as I drove around trying to find a different entrance to the park. Bingo! The south side of the park was open and people where pouring in to the park. But my talent had no clue where to park or go; no worries, I thought. We can meet at the new location I told them about and then caravan to the new spot. The only down side was that my shots where designed for the north side of the park, the lighting and slopes where ideal there. But that’s okay, I thought. I’m adaptable and can quickly scope out the area, check the lighting and make adjustments to my shot plans.

I headed back to the new meeting spot where I had sent one of my assistants. He was there and had greeted one of the actors, but where was the guy? The man who would play the counterpart as the “husband” in the photo shoot? I thought maybe he was trying to find an entrance to the park, so I called him again, but received no answer. I left another message. Fifteen minutes elapsed, then 20 minutes and I was growing impatient, especially since I was paying the talent for the day and I was now burning daylight. The female talent was poised and patient, chatting with both of my photo assistants. I turned to her and apologized and explained that I never have issues like this. Then the gentleman called and explained that he was just a few minutes away and would be arriving soon, I was relieved and hung up. I began giving the female talent my break down for the shoot and where we will be going and my expectations for the day. Forty minutes had elapsed and still no sign of the gentleman actor when was just moments away, according to him. I again called him and he said he was nearing the exit, but after a few minutes of conversation, I realized he was in a different city with a same named street exit. I was having an internal melt down at this point. Staying calm, I told him I had to move on and to call me when he was in the right city.

If I where an inexperienced photographer, I would have probably crumbled and called off the shoot. Good thing I’m not inexperienced. I quickly adapted and explained the situation to my only available talent and decided to take her to a local park, a few miles down the road, and change the shot plans until (or if) the gentleman arrived. I quickly adapted the shoot to an active senior in the park theme. It wasn’t 15 minutes in to taking photos when the gentleman arrives in a suit! A suit? Are you kidding me? This was suppose to be a hike in a wilderness park, not a business shoot! Of course I’m calm and collected, so I explained to him that he needed to change in to his “hiking” clothes, which he did. Street shoes? Now he was wearing street shoes. What happened to the hiking boots? Or even a pear of sneakers? This was getting worse by the second. Here I have two individuals in a park, when we should have been on a hiking path, and one in a pair of street shoes. And to add to it all, the shirt he was wearing was stained, which I had to remove the spots in post production using Adobe Photoshop. Needless to say, we spent about an hour in the park shooting and then headed to the wilderness park to finish up the shoot.

One of the key traits which got me through the day and the shoot was being adaptable. I was able to think quickly and make necessary arrangements at the last minute in order to save my photo shoot. I know had things gone as planned, shooting at the north end of the park, the park being opened, an actor who was serious about the shoot, the photo shoot would have yielded a lot more photos than it did. But I have to say that despite all of the issues, I was still able to produce some good quality photos.

Learning from my experience, I have put together some tips for avoiding, or minimizing your frustration in a similar situation. If you have any suggestions of your own, feel free to add it to the comment section below.

Be adaptable – I can’t stress this enough. Being adaptable or flexible is critical and a valued trait amongst photographers.

Have a back-up plan - As I learned, have a back-up plan or location in mind. Luckily, I had a local park. In the end, it all worked out and I was able to shoot in the wilderness park, but you just never know if your primary location suddenly becomes unavailable. Having an alternative location or two wouldn’t hurt.

Make multiple shot plans – If you have a back-up location, then sketch or write some possible shots down for the back-up location. You may even be able to use it as a second shooting location if your schedule allows.

Meet with your talent prior to the scheduled shoot – If you are casting talent or models online, make it appoint to meet them prior to the shoot. Do a test shoot with them. See if they look anything like their head shots and if they will work with your shot plans and photo theme.

Set clear expectations – Although I did set clear expectations, continue to stress them via emails and phone. Some models or talent just don’t get it, but you need to let them know what you expect from them.

Give them examples of what to wear – If you are not going to be purchasing their wardrobe for them, send them picture samples of clothing you wold like them to wear. The gentleman I was using didn’t have hiking boots. I would have purchased them for him had he communicated that to me. I even offered him my pair of hiking boots, but his shoe size was larger than mine.

Adapt your shot plans to single individual shots - It’s certainly logical, but if you prepare for it, it will be less stressful; if you’re using more than one person for a shoot, make sure you include shots in your shot plan for individual shots. If you find yourself with missing talent, you won;t have to scramble at the last minute to come up with photo ideas. You will already planned the shots.

Chances are your photo shoots will go off without a hitch. However, you just never know when a model doesn’t show up or a location becomes non-accessible. The above is just a small list of ideas to help prepare for the worst case on a shoot. If you have any additional tips, I would certainly like to hear about them. Post them in the comments.