My shooting plans

My shooting plans

A week or so ago, I suggested that one thing we can do during lockdown is to plan the pictures we can’t take for now, so that we can be efficient and purposeful when we get there. It’s still some way off for those of us in the United Kingdom, but it may be closer for others. And as there’s nothing more irritating than driving for a couple of hours to find that the church is closed, or that you’ve got one battery that’s nearly flat for your camera, I’m going to suggest a basic checklist that you can go through every time you take your camera out of the house, as well as talking about the plans I’ve made for two specific lots of photographs that I have planned for the post-lockdown era.

I’m working on more detailed plans than usual for two specific outings later in the year (assuming lockdown comes to an end before I do) – the first is a model shoot with Black Beauty at her home, and the second is a day out with my daughter, in the town I lived in from the age of 8 to 17, Leek. I’ll leave that for another day, though, because there are very different considerations for ‘out and about’ days.
I’ve visited Black Beauty several times before, and so I know the layout of her house and garden reasonably well. There’s a conservatory with very high light levels on even dull days, though vertical blinds on the side windows can make for a slightly-messy background. There’s a very long through dining-sitting room, with a long dining table near the back window, and sofas and a large area with neutral carpet and beautiful sofas at the other end.

I’ve never used a backdrop there, and so that is definitely in my plans – I have a large cloth backdrop that allows the colour of a model’s skin, hair and outfit to show up wonderfully. I can use this either on the floor, or maybe I can put the stands behind a sofa so that my model can lie directly on it, floating on a sea of black. The house is modern, so that the rooms aren’t notably high, so there will be plenty of length of cloth available from my standard Calumet cotton square.



There’s a door from the hall to the sitting room that I have used before – I used the door open, and pushed light through the panes from a low stand, giving strong shadows and dappled light. I can also try shooting through the door, sectioning Black Beauty up into six or eight rectangles…

I’ve never shot using the stairs – again, with a soft and neutral carpet that could have been designed for photographers… Dave (mistere) has used this successfully in the past, and it offers interesting lighting possibilities.

Like the lounge, the bedroom is very long, and gives plenty of space for longer lenses. It’s easy to set up all kinds of lighting, though the angles may be limited – like many long rooms, it’s also fairly narrow. I’ve photographed here with both dark and light sheets and pillows, and this time around I may enquire in advance about which will be in use. Black Beauty seems to go for photogenic bedclothes rather than pretty sets, which is a relief: many models use their bedrooms for photography but are constantly fighting against intricately patterned materials…



Throughout the house, the windowsills are wide, so that they offer the possibility of being sat on and posed on, and maybe that’s something I should try. Two of the things about Black Beauty that make her special to work with are that she has long slender limbs, and that she is very flexible, allowing a lot of complex poses with arms and legs intertwined in unlikely ways. That’s the sort of shot that is all but impossible to plan in advance, and which relies on the model’s ability at least as much as on the photographer’s. It would be extremely difficult to devise and describe such an image – and the idea of an unbendy man in his sixties demonstrating such a pose is likely to cause laughter, and several trips to the chiropractor.

Although she’s athletic and daring, and her natural home is in explosive and erotic images, she also has a beautiful and characterful face – she’s not usually very keen on portraits, so – perversely – I always try to shoot a few. I hope the few with this blog show both the mischief and the gentle person within – and that we can push this area next time around.

And here’s the bit I promised which you may find useful, even if it’s only a completeness check on what you’ve already done! The basic checklist:

1 Fully-charged battery and cleared card in the camera, spares in the usual pocket of the gadget bag or coat;
2 Camera reset to default walkabout settings;
3 Any maintenance necessary complete – clean sensor/lenses/filters;
4 Specific lenses and accessories that you don’t usually carry are checked and packed.