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The Guardian Newspaper | UK

<<Return to the Learning Zone With today’s post, I wanted to give readers an insight into the day-today shooting of a pro-photographer. I’ll be talking about something that is a key skill for working photographers, especially those who work on-assignment usually to tight or restrictive deadlines. When you are working as a photographer, it is of paramount importance that when you are assigned to a job, you ‘get the shot’ that your client wants.

Most editors/clients have little patience for excuses such as ‘the light wasn’t good’, ‘i didn’t have the right lense’, ‘the atmosphere wasn’t right for a picture’ etc. These are poor excuses and a client hires you because they expect you to overcome these obstacles and get the picture, because it’s your job to deliver.

About 18 months ago, I got a call from the Guardian Newspaper from the UK for a 1-day assignment. At that time, the country was panicking about a recent health scare involving a potentially harmful substance in milk products, called melamine, which was especially harmful to children. My brief was to get a portrait of a child (and parent preferably) who was suffering from melamine poisoning.

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I went to the Beijing’s Children Hospital, early in the afternoon. Although I was unsure of the specific lighting situation in our ultimate destination I tried to guess what it would be like i.e. indoors, fluorescent lighting maybe, natural lighting from a window possibly etc. This enabled me to set-up so that I wouldn’t have to change too many settings once we arrived.

Eventually I arrived in one room with about four or five children and their parents. There was one lady who was there with her grandson who was suffering kidney problems, as a result of melamine poisoning. The lady was happy to talk and gave me permission to photograph her grandson. I knew I had to work fast. For one, I was a non-Chinese with a professional looking camera in my hand, secondly there was a large window on one side of the room which went directly into the nurse’s station.

In this post, I have posted the 17 frames that I managed to shoot before we were (politely but sternly) told to leave. The first 7 frames were shot as soon as I got into the room in the space of about 30 seconds. In the 8th frame (IMG_5027) you can see that my angle changes. This is because I was forced to stand from a crouching position as a nurse walked into the room and questioned us. It was quite clear that we were going to be asked to leave. So, as I stood and listened to nurse talk (on my right), I folded my arms and positioned my camera to aim at the grandmother and child (on my left) and shot 10 more frames without drawing the nurse’s attention. This period lasted no longer than a minute and then we were asked to leave.

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I was quite nervous after we left as I was unsure if I had ‘got the shot’. This was a new client and I had not time to check my pictures as I went, as I would normally do. Some portrait shoots are short, but a minute and a half? With over half of the pictures taken without looking? It was going to be a close call.

I sent all the pictures to the client and they chose the very last picture (IMG_5036) of the 17 picture sequence to run with their article. This was the picture taken a fraction of a second before we had to leave from my hip without looking. Luck? Well, I like to think that experience meant that I was prepared (technically) before I got in the room to act quick. Also, when positioning the camera under my arm and not looking, I knew my camera and lense well enough that I could position the subject within the frame without looking. The autofocus was on because as I was working quickly and the autofocus ‘beep’ was switched off, as it normally is, so no attention was drawn when shooting the extra shots. All of these combined to get the shot.

I hope the above information helps, in terms of trying to get a shot under pressure. The main points I want to highlight are (i) to know your equipment to the point where you can use it blinfolded (ii) try to anticipate the shot and shot location before you get there and set yourself up accordingly  (iii) act quickly, in preparation and when the subject appears (iv) try to squeeze out that one last shot if you aren’t convinced you got it, or you need to ‘cover your bases’.

Interestingly, as a side note, I was contacted a day later my another newspaper, this time in Australia. They wanted to use the image seen in the Guardian. I sent through the picture, plus a  few other images from the sequence. They decided to go with a different picture (IMG_5032). Lesson? Different editors may go for different pictures. Always give them a choice. Even if you only have 17 frames to work with!

The Age | Australia

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