Exercise 2: Your own workflow 2

The second part of this exercise has the same aim and structure as the first - devising a workflow for a specific shooting assignment.  The difference is that the assignment should be unstructured and open-ended.

The key elements for this workflow are:

• The number of images is unpredictable
• It lasts a sufficient amount of time that you would consider reviewing or partially editing your images during the shoot. 

The type of workflow is something I would be more familiar with as many of my shoots are unstructured.  I like street photography and visiting different places so most of my work is on an ad hoc basis.  

The workflow I used for this shoot is outlined below. I chose Sewardstone Marsh for this assignment as although it is something I have shot quite a few times, this shoot will probably be my last here as I am leaving the area in the coming weeks.  With this in mind I tried to capture what the marsh has to offer someone who has never seen it before. 

The workflow

• Preparation - check gear including batteries, memory cards, lenses and weather.  
• Camera settings - using WHIMS. 
• Shooting - I had a plan to shoot some of my favourite places but also capture parts I would normally overlook.  
• Edit and review images during the shoot to look at different angles - delete obvious 'bad' shots.  There was quite a lot of these as my shots included animals!
• Upload images - I had some 90 images on the memory card
• First technical check to remove obvious technically incorrect shots - deleted about 5
• Edit the remainder to produce a short list for the final selects - whittled down to 14
• Final selects
• Processing and retouching
• Naming and filing images
• Preparation for final output

These are the final images

Behind Bars

Sewardstone Marsh

I think like the first part of this exercise I benefited from the latter stages in the workflow.  I have always bee pretty good at preparing for a shoot.  I have learnt the hard way - I have gone out with a low battery and inadequate memory on my card!

I feel that a lot more preparation is required for a time limited assignment especially when you have a model for a specific period of time.  Open ended assignments are what I am used of and I found the first part of this exercise beneficial.  

From these exercises I have become more confident in my ability to shoot in varied assignments and also in my ability to make my final selects.