Back in February 2020 I don’t think anyone could have predicted just what the next 12 months had in store for us. I think it’s fair to say that March 2020 to the present has been a period of time that none of us will easily forget and equally will not want to experience again in a hurry. Mere survival has called for extreme levels of creativity and ingenuity in all walks of life. Photography has been no exception.
At the start of 2020 I don’t think anyone had heard of the term remote shoot but as it became increasingly obvious that the Coronavirus Pandemic wasn’t going away quickly people began to look at alternative ways of continuing shooting and remote shoots were born. I moved in a slightly different direction and recorded some podcasts to fill some of my spare time and I remember joking on one of the early ones that we would have to go away and try and find some way of taking pictures over the internet with our iPad’s. It was a joke and something that I never in my wildest dreams thought would grow to the level and sophistication that it now has.
I have to confess that remote shoots are not something I have got involved with to a great extent but they certainly have been popular and played a big part in keeping photography alive over the last 12 months. They have brought together models and photographers from opposite sides of the world and also opened up opportunities for disabled people to shoot when a visit to a studio may well not be practical, so there have been many positives that have emerged from them and even though I haven’t been involved in too many myself I certainly would recommend giving them a try.
Back when remote shoots were in their infancy and I was just stating out with my podcasts I got in touch with model and friend ElleJ. I knew she hadn’t done any remote shoots at the time and so suggested doing one with a view to recording a podcast about our experiences of a first time remote shoot. The shoot wasn’t without problems, the main one being that I wasn’t getting a feed from the camera so we had to rig up another camera looking at the back of the shoot camera so as I could see what was happening. It wasn’t straightforward but it was still enjoyable and we came away with some pretty good images considering the minimal amount of preparation. You can hear more about how the day went if you follow the link below.
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Wallpaper by Kevin MacLeod Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4604-wallpaperLicense: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
One good thing to come out of this was that Elle carried on with the shoots and they have been quite successful for her and she has now built up a much more impressive setup than we had to work with back then. So, recently, we decided to do it all again and let me see how things had changed since the first shoot. I was impressed. Now not only can the photographer control the camera remotely, with Elle’s setup he can adjust the power of the lights as well. Things are starting to get a lot closer to a studio shoot. I was impressed. . In brief, what did I discover from the second shoot. The main thing was that my normal method of direction which involves much hand waving and gesturing was pretty much a waste of time, although that didn’t stop me from doing it. It’s certainly a different experience from that of actually being in the studio but it was an enjoyable couple of hours and we got some good images. Check them out below and you can also click on the link to listen to the podcast. As I said before, if you haven’t tried a remote shoot give it a go, you might be surprised at how much you enjoy it. You could do worse than get in touch with Elle, I’m sure she would be pleased to hear from you.
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Wallpaper by Kevin MacLeod Link: incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4604-wallpaperLicense: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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