Parting Shot

Mike Harris reckons planning is the key to consistently great photos and this month’s Apprentice shoot was a case in point

Planning, planning, planning, oh and more planning!

If you’ve read this month’s Apprentice (page 6) you’ll know it’s jam-packed with landscape tips and tricks. But condensing a two-day shoot into 10 pages is a challenging task, and plenty of information had to be left on the cuttingroom floor. While the article touched upon Edyta’s planning process, it didn’t quite hammer home just how rigorous it really is. And I think it’s something we can learn from.

Don’t just wing it

Just before the shoot Edyta sent us a sevenpage itinerary. This contained each location we were due to visit, the address of the nearest car park, the time of arrival and the time of sunrise/sunset. But she didn’t stop there. The document also contained each location’s latitude and longitude, the required OS map and grid reference, estimated weather conditions, example images, and a list of equipment. And she didn’t stop there, either! Detailed descriptions of each route and their level of difficulty were included too. Now that’s a lot of planning.

But the proof was in the pudding, and we experienced one of the smoothest Apprentice shoots I’ve attended. The temptation is to spend all your time focusing on technique and acquiring the best gear. But it doesn’t matter if you’re packing a carbon fibre tripod, top-notch filters, the best glass, two D850s, and you end up with a focus-stacked HDR that’s processed in Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity. If the weather conditions don’t play ball the award-winner you’d hoped for is much more likely to turn out ho-hum.

Good planning helps to reduce stress when you’re out in the field, because you’re less likely to find yourself rushing around or completely blindsided by the weather. This makes the whole process much more enjoyable, which increases the likelihood you’ll head out again in the near future.

It’s obviously more important in some genres than others, but it’s certainly not limited to landscapes. Wildlife pro Tom Mason regularly details his extensive preparations in his Wild Life column and plenty of portrait photographers are known to sketch out ideas before immortalizing them in-camera.

Good photographers are consistent. And if you’ve ever wondered how your favourites manage to capture stunning shot after stunning shot, I’d bet my camera a large part of their secret is good planning.

You don’t have to spend hours formulating plans, but give it a try this month. It might just be the step up your photography needs.