The shot behind the shot!

This post takes you behind the scenes to all that is involved in creating an image, one that you can see it in your minds eye, but you aren't quite sure how or even if you can make it happen.

 

I had thought about this shot for months, even before the design of the tote bag was finalized, I knew how I wanted to shoot it.

I didn't want much, I just wanted everything in this shot. Meaning - I wanted the bridge, the building, the Tay, the bag (looking perfect) and an abundance of flowers coming out of the bag. I thought it just might be possible to achieve and it was, however, as always with anything, it needed a hell of a lot of preparation and a fair amount of good luck.

First we had to have a stressful botched attempt to get the shot, on a windy overcast evening, with an insufficient amount of sunflowers (I know, really we should have known better). That evening resulted in a broken glass vase and two bruised egos, but at least it showed us we needed more preparation and some clever DIY engineering. 

The next attempt involved engineering a weighted cardboard structure within the bag, a cut up cardboard poster tube and a lot of pins. 

Given how heavy sunflowers are, we then had to weight it down with some arm weights, plus cut and tape the sunflowers into more easy to manage bunches.

We tested it a few times, before heading out again on a sunny morning to capture it in the right location.

All that wonderful prep made the magic happen, that and a sunny day in sunny Dundee.

We obviously tried several locations around the urban beach and on the museum plazas before we were totally happy with the results. I hope you agree, it was worth the effort...

Lesson learned - never underestimate the power of putting in the preparation! 

Plus of course you need the perfect tote bag - here

And almost more than anything, you need the perfectly patient and supportive photographer.