Best Business Practices for Photographers [26]
When you're doing a portrait of a CEO for the company, do you have additional wardrobe in the event that his shirt is the wrong color, is wrinkled, or has a moments-ago coffee stain? What about a tie alternative? What about the executive who cancels the portrait session because of pink eye? The construction vehicles in the background of a shoot you scouted two days ago, when it was clear? The addition of four people to the portrait you thought was of just one person?
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TIP
Hint: Always travel with a nine-foot seamless instead of a five-foot one. You're far more likely to be able to make it happen that way. As a last resort, run the seamless you have horizontally along the wall, taping it at the top and sides with gaffer's tape, instead of hanging it from stands and a cross-pole. Because you billed the client for the seamless, there's no reason not to use it up unless you're at the last eight feet of the seamless and didn't bill the client for it. You did bill for it, didn't you?
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All of these are circumstances you could find yourself in, and myriad other things could go wrong, go sideways, or just plain throw you off. If you do not have multiple backup plans and the resources to carry them out (preferably seamlessly), then you are not ready for the unexpected, and this lack of preparation will ruin your shoot(s) at the least desirable times.
Another circumstance occurs when you have a plan for a particular look, lighting setup, backdrop, or otherwise creative concept. You set up for it, set up your equipment for it, move furniture to the best location, and then the subject walks in and objects. Maybe he or she objects to the fact that the furniture was moved or doesn't like the overall backdrop.
On one particular assignment quite early in my career, I traveled to the Los Angeles area for an article on a museum. One setting I wanted was a grand room with chandeliers and an amazing decoupage piano. The problem was, the piano was in the background, and I wanted it as a foreground element. I looked around for the curator and, not finding her, decided to move the piano myself. The photo was great, and I was about to move on to the next scene when the curator appeared and almost had a coronary. It seems that I had moved an antique, extremely expensive, and extremely fragile piano. Not only had I moved it, which she would have expressly forbade, but I had moved it across an extremely rare Persian rug. She informed me that she'd have to bring in expert movers to move it back. Lesson learned, but that photo ended up being the section opener for the magazine, and the art director loved the shot! My bad.
It All Comes Down to Now! You Better Be Ready
I have found myself in numerous very relaxed situations in which, in an instant, we are moving at 100 miles per hour without warning. These situations range from a stakeout of a scandalized politician who makes an unexpected appearance to get the morning paper outside his home; to a CEO whose schedule changed and we had to wait around with lighting already set for what his executive secretary said would be 90 more minutes, but then she announced the CEO would be there in two minutes; to war photographers who can be mid-cigarette when an all-too-close mortar round not only signifies an immediate risk to life, but also, for those with nerves of steel, the beginning of possible news photos.
This is somewhat different than being ready for the unexpected. These are the circumstances that you were expecting at some point, but they arrived sooner or later than you expected or in a manner that generally throws you off. This means that you need to set your lighting and be ready earlier than scheduled, have cards (or film) in the camera, and have nonessential equipment stowed. And neither you nor your assistants are making a bathroom call until the shoot is over.
When you get a message that there is a delay in a subject's availability by 60 minutes, you want to really think about allowing assistants/makeup people to go get a sandwich or