Specialist Location: Plan & Test Shoot

First thing I did before writing the plan was to define my aim in the unit and carry out a  SWOT analysis on myself and my skills, identified ideas on what I could do for the unit and try to anticipate anything that might cause a problem later on in the process. Here is my SWOT analysis...

Aim: To Produce 5-10 images in the genre ‘Landscape Photography’ using my DSLR.

Strengths... Mature Enthusiastic Determined Independent	Weaknesses... Forgetful and Clumsiness Perfectionism Poor Time Management
Opportunities... Considering Landscapes Peak District Lake District Yorkshire South England (trip to the BEACH!!!)	Threats... Weather/Available Light Injury on Shoot

After I pre-empting threats the threats it helped with the planning because that way I could ensure that if things went a little wrong then I would have a solution or a backup plan. 

We then did presentations to the rest of the group telling everyone our plan and what we hope to achieve where they gave me feedback and ideas. This was a lot of fun because they would ask me questions and as I was answering them I could feel myself understanding my own concept better. What was really great was someone made me aware that the position of the sun differed at different times of the day which seemed really obvious but I hadn't actually considered it at that point...I'm sure it would have clicked eventually :) What I did was using a combination of common sense and an app I download on my phone (there really is an app for everything!) I was able to guess what the lighting conditions would be like in certain areas at certain times of the day!

I decided to do the shoot in the lake district because I felt that it would allow me to incorporate water easily and another option I had considered for this reason was South England however I ruled that out because it was a little too far away! Next I had to decide where I would go in the lake district i.e. which lakes I should go to. I researched on the internet and asked a couple of friends who had been and I narrowed it down to three lakes I would visit on my test shoot and then choose one for my real shoot...

Coniston (friends stayed there for a couple of days and said it was lovely)

Windemere (because it was the largest lake)

Ullswater (read somewhere on the internet it had the best views apparently)

I decided to spend 1 day on a test shoot and then do another shoot the next day for my final images once I have seen the area. I dragged my father along to give a lift to the lake district and take me around the lake district. We stayed there overnight for that second day of shooting.

I knew that I wanted to go sometime in late May/early June because apparently that's when you a lot of sunshine and not much amount of rain...if I wanted optimum weather I could have left it later but I needed time to edit them and submit them for my unit of course so I had to take that into account!. However when exactly I wanted to go wasn't actually planned. I didn't want to commit to certain days only for it to end up being a two day monsoon so I checked the weather regularly and luckily about 3 days in advance it said on BBC weather that the area would be clear and sunny over the weekend 8th/9th June, checked other websites just to be sure so my father and I set off that weekend very early in the morning to get as much sunlight as possible. 

Before I went I had to make sure that my equipment was all in order (e.g. cleaned my lens, charged both batteries, emptied memory cards, checked tripod was working etc). I also had to make sure I had maps printed off and also made note of car park postcodes (for the car obviously!). 

Going back to what I said earlier about predicting predicaments I ensured I took any safety precautions needed. I took a first aid kit (in case of injury) I took both walking shoes (to prevent me falling over and prevent blisters) and wellies (for standing in the lakes doy!). I also ensured that my father stayed with me at all times because I have a tendency to get lost...fall over and hurt myself...and drop stuff...and lose stuff...basically he was there to stop me for killing myself. Carrying on from my clumsiness, brought and change of clothes because I wouldn't be me if I didn't fall head first into at least one lake!

I was really lucky with the weather that weekend not only was it sunny, it was fabulously clear and even when it was cloudy they were very cute little clouds not thunderstorm like monstrosities. So all in all I was very happy with the weather. I tried all three lakes on the test shoot on Saturday here are a couple of images from each lake...

Coniston

Ullswater

Windemere

I liked the views on Coniston however it was a small lake so It didn't offer as much variety as the others. My issue with Windmere was simply that it wasn't a scenic as the other two. I felt the images I produced there weren't exactly what I wanted to achieve, plus it was too vast. Ullswater was fantastic because it was just right balance between Consiton and Windemere. It was large enough to offer a variety of beautiful locations and possible angles which I could photograph  but without being too big! So it was decided, the next day I set off for Ullswater again.