Producing a shoot is not a trivial task. Right off the bat we have to think about location options, then scouting, required equipment, casting, travel, permits, and that’s before we get into the guts of the creative process. It’s a lot of work, and often times a lot of mayhem and rushing around.

But it can also be a time filled with trepidation and anxiety. Just as your first ride on a chairlift at a ski resort, or even for experienced people, your first lift of the season or first lift at a new resort, all you can do is quietly anticipate. What will it be like at the other end of the lift? What might go wrong? Will it be worthwhile?

Those butterflies in my stomach when I plan the next shoot never go away, and I love the feeling. There’s so much excitement and possibility; this feeling is why I do what I do, and why I love doing it.

Just some fun on a cold winter’s day!

Pre-production is so important. It’s also so easy to get wrong. This post is a frank admission of failure, but like any resourceful business, it was a failure we have learnt from.

Planning for a shoot is not simple. There are a thousand things to consider when you want to actually take home results. Sometimes it is indeed possible to head out with a camera, maybe a light or two, and just go for it guerilla style and come home with some good work. But that’s incredibly unreliable and it’s practically impossible to guarantee quality results by working in this manner.

When you absolutely have to bring home the bacon, you need to plan. A shoot doesn’t start on set by directing your subject, neither does a shoot start the night before by charging batteries and cleaning lenses. A shoot starts well in advance by planning locations, liaising with people involved, negotiating location use, etc. That’s all before the physical logistics like travel planning.

Our goal was to get a jump on the winter season with minimal expense and build up our portfolio early on. My crew spent ten days working to plan a shoot involving three snowboarders and one skier at one of the early-opening resorts in New England. We got the ball rolling by calling the mountain owners and discussing our requirements. Next up we found some athletes who would be down, and secured their interest. Everything was great and we were on the verge of booking hotels when we decided to make one last followup call to the mountain. And we’re glad we did. Due to a miscommunication, we discovered at the last minute that we wouldn’t be able to operate the way we wanted to due to some logistical issues on their end. In fairness to us, the mountain basically did a 180 on what they told us before, and in fairness to them we didn’t make things completely bullet-pointedly clear when we initially spoke with them. The message from us hadn’t been fully received, and the message back from them was that it had. Until they changed their minds.

The fall out of this was that we cancelled the shoot. Had this been for a paying client, we obviously would have worked out something with another location and made it right, but since the client was essentially us, we had to weigh in the fact that we didn’t want to spend too much money on travel and that we could try again once there were more terrain options available to us. In that sense, no one got hurt. But the momentum we had built up to then lose cost us, especially with our riders who were amped about the shoot.

What have we learnt? Sometimes things go wrong for reasons beyond your control. Sometimes when someone says they understand, they really don’t. Make sure you follow up all logistical dealings in writing, and bullet-point even the most obvious of items. Assumption is the mother of all cock-ups.

Pre-prod is vital to get right.

Seth Godin just made a remarkably insightful blog post about procrastination. At least, that’s what most people I know commonly call it when they irrationally fail to get on with making progress. At first people will tell you how busy they are or give you a laundry list of other jobs they had to do, but when you press them they admit that it’s basically procrastination. Or is it?

It’s probably more powerful to call it laziness; perhaps that’s more chiding and will yield determined motivation?

If you’re not going to make those sales calls or invent that innovation or push that insight, you’re not avoiding it because you need physical rest. You’re hiding out because you’re afraid of expending emotional labor.

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Luke Geissbühler, gets it. How easy would it be to sit down on your couch, make a quip about how cool it would be to send a camera into space to take pictures, then proceed to say how it can’t be done without the budget and backing of a large nation? That’s what most people do, and that’s why most people’s dreams are seldom realized.

Every once in a while, people like Luke, his family, and friends come along and prove to us all that the little guy can get stuff done, in remarkable fashion, and with stunning results.

That is just awesome.

When your favourite colour is orange, it’s hard not to love autumn, but there’s so much more to it for me. The leaves, the chill in the air, that oh-so-crisp and distinctive autumn smell, apples falling off trees, pumpkin pie – everything around just bellows that autumn has arrived. Time to hunker down, break out the warm clothing, and look back at what feels like a full summer and prepare for the harvest.

We often feel like it’s tough to quantify how much work we do on a daily basis. Those emails, those phone calls, those photo shoots – sometimes it all blends together. But when you sit back and start to take stock of everything, and begin to put it all together, we realise just how much has been accomplished, how much can be harvested.

Part of our harvesting was to think about what content we hadn’t yet shared and needed to be added to our website as we switch gears from warm weather shoots into cooler temperatures and our winter projects. We spent time on our website portfolios to ensure they are up to date, and launched some new content in addition to rearranging some of our images into new galleries.

Take a look at our recent work, and go ahead and enjoy some apple crisp while you do – we won’t tell!

– Sharon

Then stand in front of more interesting stuff. It really is that simple.

If you’re having trouble scaling the obstacle that is photographer’s block, you might want to try finding something more interesting to shoot. As much as I admire the legions of photographers who are able to make compelling images with the most simple of subjects, sometimes we unjustly beat ourselves up for lacking creativity, when the real problem is that we’re bored with what we’re shooting. Get out and find something interesting!

Oh, and speaking of scaling obstacles, I’ve added new images to my portfolio of some rock climbing I shot up near the Georgian Bay. As you can see from the image with this post, sometimes ‘standing in front of more interesting stuff’ can mean putting in a little effort…

…are out!

I’m excited to see this announcement today because a *lot* of bug fixes have been made, including significant performance improvements to Lightroom 3.

Head over to Adobe.com for the updates!

Last week I took a week off and went up to beautiful cottage country north of Huntsville, Ontario. Whilst paddling my canoe on the still water of Lake Oudaze I observed some of the fall colours creeping in already and I couldn’t help but wonder what on earth had happened to the year.

A brief moment of terror washed over me as I realized I hadn’t accomplished several things that I wanted to do this year, but this feeling proved to be only fleeting when I recounted all that I had achieved. 2010 has so far been a solid year for my business, and the future is looking very bright. And it’s not even September yet, so who knows what my team can accomplish before 2011.

Take a minute to pat yourself on the back every once in a while, you deserve it.

Last night was one of those restless nights for me. Worse, it was one of those pointlessly restless nights. The temperature in my house was comfortable and climate controlled. I had had a good meal. I was hydrated. There is no major stress in my life at the moment. But for some reason, I was awake from 02:00 until dawn.

One of the great things about lying in bed awake at night is that you think. Sometimes this is a curse and is actually the reason you don’t sleep, but other times it’s a blessing. I had a really great idea for a series of images I want to make.

Word to the wise – always keep a pencil and notebook by your bed, or your favourite smartphone.