Exercise: Thinking about location

Outline: Find six very different settings or backgrounds which could be used effectively and attractively for either a whole body or torso portrait. Take reference pictures without people then choose one and go back with a portrait subject and photograph them.

I am one to always take a camera with me. I usually carry my little compact Nikon Coolpix S9100 on a regular basis as I can easily carry it in my handbag. I also use a Fujifilm Finepix S4000, although this tends to be a backup camera for a shoot scenario or a big day out. It's mainly used for festivals and any gigs that I can use it at to be honest. Then I use a Canon 1000D for more formal shooting. In the event that I do not have a camera with me, the last resort is the trusty camera on my mobile phone which is ironic seeming as that is how I started out with my photography.

So I had a look through my photo library, as I have been out a lot over the course of the summer and have taken numerous photos of interesting locations.

These are some of my favourite ones:

Bridge at Bryngarw Park

Walkway at Porthcawl

Graffiti'd subway in Bridgend

Tree formation at Margam Park

Building at Porthcawl sea front

I had always wanted to do a shoot at the subway in Bridgend and undertook the actual shoot for 'Digital Photographic Practice: 1' but I wanted to include it for this exercise purely because it was the a big deal for me to do this shoot after picking the location first. Here is an image from that shoot:

Subway shoot 

Conclusion:
As a photographer, I am always on the look out for interesting places to shoot, whether that includes a landscape shoot or a portrait shoot. Even though portrait shoots should really be in an interesting place with a less distracting backdrop, I tend to still like to use a nice landscape and add the portrait subject to it. You wont know how well a location will work for a shoot without getting in there and attempting it so it's always best to have a few locations in mind in case a few don't work so well.