Last week I posted the ‘Run for Alfie’ picture here on the blog along with an overview as to what the picture was for and why it simply had to be done.
Now, if you’ve read the story of little Alfie you’ll understand why it was so important to me that we created something that was kind of impactive and had the desired effect of making people who saw it, stop and want to know more; however the shoot itself proved quite a challenge…
The day of the Shoot
A few days prior to the shoot all was in order; a suitable location had been sourced, everyone involved knew where and when to meet, I knew the shot we were going to be working on and perfect weather conditions were forecast; needless to say I was pretty darned excited
But come the morning of the shoot, the 4 solid weeks of glorious weather we’d been having decided to take a turn for the worst as we woke to torrential rain, high winds and a grey featureless sky…gutted!
The Shoot
Those who know me will be aware that photographing in bad weather is something I’ve become accustomed to; however today was different as it wasn’t just me, an assistant and a couple of models I had to consider. Today I’d be photographing children as well as adults and because of the weather this changed things alot.
As we started shooting the weather just seemed to be getting worse by the minute and if I’m honest, I was beginning to think we weren’t going to get the shot. But the thing is I had to get the shot because there just weren’t any other days coming up when everyone would be available at the same time plus the photo had to be in circulation asap to start making people aware of the upcoming event ‘Run for Alfie’
With the rain pouring down on us I took as many shots as I reasonably could; kit and V.A.L’s (Voice activated Light Stands) braving the elements but a few minutes into it we just had to call it a day and go with what we’d managed to take. Don’t ask me why though but at the end I did my usual of ‘Just a couple more shots and we’re done’ and took a couple of very quick portrait shots…one of the guys who would be running, and one of Alfie and his parents; this decision turned out to be a life saver…
Lighting Set Up
Lighting diagrams I had in my head all went down the drain (literally) thanks to the weather, which meant I had to work real quick which in turn meant keeping it simple and it doesn’t get much simpler than one Nikon SB800 Speedlight and a shoot-thru umbrella:
Where there’s a will, there’s Photoshop
Once we’d packed everything up and said our goodbye’s I just didn’t feel 100% about how things had worked out. I found myself feeling annoyed and quite angry about the whole situation. I’m usually someone who goes round very positive about things and life in general; I’m definitely a glass is half full kind of guy but today I was struggling. All I kept thinking was ‘why today?’. We’d had 4 weeks of fantastic weather and then wallop! … on the day we’re working on a photograph that is to be used to raise money in order to make the life of one very sick little boy a little easier, the weather turns on us. It just didn’t seem fair!
Still, fair or not there had to be a photograph and this leads me on to what I said earlier about taking the two quick portrait shots at the end and how they turned out to be a life saver. Check out the video below to see what I mean:
So it was the last two very quick portrait shots that saved the day; two shots I could have very easily not taken so a BIG lesson was learned:
Keep going regardless of circumstance and just when you think you’ve finished…take a couple more shots for good measure!
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Next week I’ll be posting up a series of videos I’ve recorded along with walk-throughs going through the editing process step by step but in the meantime,
Enjoy
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by Glyn
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