I have spent the last three days shooting the Crossfield Baptist Church Mission Conference and it has been quite interesting. Among the different mission organisations there were two with a special connection to the church's history. Don Rendle was one of the original Pastors of the church over 30 years ago, and his son Geordon, who just finished climbing Aconcagua in Argentina (and is the Americas director for YFC).
After lunch Don asked me if I would "take a picture" of him and his son and another missionary, except they had a special request. Don wanted to have the picture taken, with him standing at the pulpit from the original church. Not such an unreasonable request except for the fact that the pulpit is now on display above the annex doorway of the church. Of course I said yes to their request but I said it had to be done on my terms, not a snapshot but a nice photograph to commemorate the occasion. I told them to finish their lunch while I set something up.
Now I have learned that it is important to always carry a small set of wireless strobes and as luck would have it, I happened to have my stands as well. Within a few minutes and the help of Chad Paulson, I had a simple strobe setup to counter the super bright light blasting through the windows. There was no room for stands on top of the annex so I improvised with a full-stop bounced off the upper ceiling to camera right and 1/2 stop bounce off the wall to camera left. This worked well even though I could not over power the window light, it actually created a softer and dramatic scene.
This makes all the difference in the world. Many people, even some pros just "take a picture". If you want to do something great, and actually "make" a picture, your going to have to make it happen. Step out of your comfort zone, tell your subjects that just a few minutes of extra setup and they will get something so much better. This is what it means to be a professional.
