Are You Prepared?

Harms, Marlin. Windy Cove. ND.

Greetings fellow shooters! Tuesday Ambassador Stanley here introducing you to another Tuesday. First off, I want to apologize to my readers for last week’s absent blog as there was much on my mind and my plate and I think everything should be back in tune. Should be! So in my adventures last week I had the opportunity to shoot an editorial portrait of a local retired wildlife photographer Marlin Harms of Morro Bay, California. While my approach to this assignment was almost everything short, I saw this as an opportunity to learn and reflect not just only on the mistakes I had made through the shoot, but to also soak in what I had learned from Mr. Harms as a photographer. And being that most of my passion lies in and around nature as a whole, some of the lessons and teachings with that particular shoot will stick with me for what I hope is a long time to come.

I seem to run into photographers that have either been taking photographs professionally for twenty years, or have been retired after twenty years of shooting. I hope this is not a trend I run into for as long as I shoot. So where are these young guns at? Perhaps they are out and about doing their own thing to make a name for themselves just like we should be doing, or at least will be doing by graduation. I guess the lesson that I had learned and want to write to you guys is that we need be fully aware and always prepared… for anything.

I bet you are asking what being fully aware and prepared have anything to do with what I had already written. Going back on my approach to the photo shoot I mentioned that almost everything was short and being fully aware and prepared had much to do with the majority of my downfall with the shoot. You may remember my post a while back when I talked about testing your equipment the day you receive it to make sure that everything is working as intended so as to not risk dropping a class until you are fully equipped. Now I would like to add to that and say that not only should you test your equipment when you receive it but test them on a continuous basis. You will not believe what it is like to be left with depleted back up batteries as well as equipped batteries that only have five test fires left. That is what happens when you hardly use your portable flash unit.

This particular event led me to discover that I was unaware and unprepared for the shoot. However, being photographers we are constantly dealt with change, learn to adapt to it and go on as if nothing had ever happened to begin with. Despite some less significant errors in the shoot I wanted to point out awareness and preparation as being keys to any successful shoot. If you really think about it they both complement each other and if they are not in sync, therein lies more mistakes and errors that could come up during any shoot. Seriously, if you do not believe me then try doing just as I had and let me know your results.

Case in point is to always know what you are getting into when you are going to (a) new class(es), a new job, an assignment or anything else in your life for that matter. If it is a new class or classes, I would highly recommend looking through the entire course’s readings and assignments so you can schedule everything that you can in advance. Just don’t spend too much of your time trying to focus on getting everything scheduled right away as there is more of a chance that you will neglect certain attention to detail in your assignments. Although as difficult as it is to prepare for any task at hand, ultimately it will save you time and headache after the fact. After all that is what we are trying to aim for. And as always, thanks for reading.

- Tues. Amb. Stanley

Harms, Marlin. Windy Cove. ND. http://howto.digitalchocolate.org/. Digital Chocolate, Web. March 25, 2014. http://howto.digitalchocolate.org/guest-images/marlin-harms/marlin-harms-windy-cove-1600X1100.jpg