Assignment preparation

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, 

and not quite enough time." 

-Leonard Bernstein-

The above quote might not have been made by a photographer, but I think it's apt for my situation. Now I'm not suggesting I'm going to do great things, but my tendency to procrastinate means I'm an expert at the second part, and with a lot of help from Marie, I hope to sort out the first part.

Supplies

Confucius once wrote: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Well in my case it was actually a three hour round trip to Ikea. I appreciate that's not quite as poetic, but I'm not a philosopher, so how about cutting me a little slack?

Having chatted to Marie, I've decided to keep my pictures as simple as possible to start. If after taking a couple of test shots I decide something else is needed, then I should still have enough time to make some changes. With that in mind I set off in search of some plain material to use as backdrops. As I said before, I'm not actually sure how big a piece of material I'll need for the various shots, so I thought I'd err on the side of caution and get 3m of each colour: red, blue, orange, yellow and purple. The only problem I might have, is that the widest material available was only 140cm (sorry about all the metric, but that's the way they sold it), whilst that's fine for some of the close-up shots, it might be a bit short for any full length ones. Actually that's not true, there's another problem...my stupidity! I was feeling quite smug about starting to get on top of things. That was until yesterday, when a group of us went in to the studio. I discovered quite a few of the backdrop colours I was after are already in there, not only that, but they're actually closer to the shades I originally wanted than the cloth I spent a fortune on. I know I should have checked first, but I'm obviously not that intelligent. Damn it!

As well as the material I also bought some props for the various pictures. A 271/2" x 391/4" picture frame (which I hope will be used to create an illusion of the subject coming to life.) Again I think I might have made a mistake, this time bought something that's too big, but we'll see. A smaller 81/4" x 113/4" frame for set dressing. A vase similar to the one in a Steichen picture (I'm hoping to surreptitiously stick it in a photo as a reference to his work.) I know this doesn't sound like a lot, but as I say I'm starting off with the bare minimum.

That's a bit more information for you. As I'm working in the studio I won't be using my own equipment, so can't yet tell you about any of that (other than I'll be using a Canon 5D camera.) I keep meaning to make a note of the lens and size of the CF card, but always forget. When I do I'll edit this post.

When I get a chance I'll take some photos of the material and props. That should make this post a little less boring.