Great Ideas . . .
By
John Terence Turner
Stock Asylum Columnist
April 1, 2007
©
2006 John Terence Turner
It can be argued that some good photographs invent themselves. The photographer
need only stumble upon the scene and shoot the picture. It does happen
that way, with some scenics, for example. Yet most good stock pictures
require much more planning and execution.
 The idea for this image came to the author when he was scouting the rock formation as the location for a shoot. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
But, even before planning and execution there must be an idea. You, the photographer, must actually think of something that will make a good, saleable image.
That idea must involve enough substance that plans can be made around it. However, the idea must be malleable because circumstances rarely permit your idea to be perfectly realized. Improvisation will probably be necessary.
In this column I’ll show some examples, talk about how I got an idea and then describe how the idea progressed into becoming a finished picture.
The first shot, of the woman climber leaping between rock pinnacles, came to me during a location-scouting trip to a rock formation named The Feathers in central Washington State.
Over the centuries, these vertical basalt columns have had the connecting dirt eroded from the interstices, resulting in some dramatic “see through” gaps.
As I looked at them and took test shots, I decided they should be photographed when the light was behind them and that they should be silhouettes to emphasize the unique, visually interesting shapes.
Next, I needed to decide what should be happening with the silhouetted Feathers. After some time climbing around on them, and viewing the formations through several lenses, I decided I would have a climber jumping between two spires.
I wanted the climber high in the frame and airborne, creating visual separation from the rocks. The human figure would be small in relation to the size of the rocks, so the flight through the air would diminish competition between the rock columns and the leaping lady.
It was much easier to envision a leaping climber than to make it happen. There were precious few takeoff spots and fewer safe landings. All the rocks were sharp with rough surfaces. I could imagine my model not only breaking a leg, but losing a lot of skin, too.
Finally, I settled on the spot you see in this picture. My model was less than confident about being able to land on the second pinnacle without falling off.
Accordingly, we had another climber stationed out of sight on the far side of the landing spot, ready to grab her if she slipped.
She didn’t.
I shot it with an 80-200 mm Nikkor zoom. A gorgeous Washington sunset provided the eye-grabbing color. Because I was shooting wide-open (f2.8) and into the light, I was able to use a shutter speed of 1/1,250th of a second to stop the jumper in mid-air and keep everything crisp.
The photograph of the falling climber is an example of an idea, an extensive location search and persistence. I had long had a desire to shoot a dramatic overhang climbing shot, but I couldn’t find a photogenic overhang. It took two years, but I finally found one—suggested by an assistant.
 This photo shows the value of being flexible on a shoot. Though the weather was less than ideal, Turner and his model persisted and the photographer came away with some good images, including this one of the model losing her grip and falling. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
The first time I tried, the weather did not cooperate. We had gray skies with disappointingly flat light.
Rather than turn around and drive back to Seattle, we did an abbreviated shoot. I exposed carefully for the climber and used a warming filter to compensate for the weather. We did get some useful images out of the shoot.
This one, however, was a bonus I hadn’t planned on. Kanisha, my climber, was game to do the overhang (as yet unnamed, because no one had successfully climbed across all of it).
In the process, I had her in focus and framed tightly because the background was too bright and gray. I used a Nikkor 80-200mm zoom lens.
She had been under the overhang for a while and became fatigued; she lost her grip and fell. She was, of course, in a harness and was belayed by her attentive partner, so she could not fall far and did not get hurt.
However, just as she separated from the rock and the rope, I got two frames and this is the better one.
Insurance is an issue. I do carry a liability policy that covers those who are working for me.
Fortunately, I’ve not had to make a claim on it. (In Sun Valley I once had a couple skiing some steep south slopes on Baldy on a day when the snow was getting heavy. The woman skier was in front and she hit a bump with heavy snow and almost stopped. The male skier behind her planted his front teeth into her scalp. There were loose teeth, there was blood from both parties, but snow can stop blood so nobody missed drinks at the end of the day.)
This climbing image shows a real climber falling and it was not staged. We came back a few weeks later in the sunshine and shot the picture that was the subject of my first column in this series. (For Turner's first column, click here.)
This picture started with an idea, but it wasn’t an idea of a falling climber. As it turned out, I was in the right place with the camera ready. The image I envisioned was about striving and success. This one is about the frustrations that come before success. Both are strong concepts that image-buyers can use to convey different messages.
The idea for the sailing shot below came from a shoot I did with two women sailing an International 505 two-person racing yacht. The picture of the two women on the 505 (the last image on this page) was done with a Nikkor 600mm lens from the beach.
While I liked the photographs made with the long lens, being on the beach was very restrictive. I had to wait for the 505 to get into position and then blast away before it moved away from the beach. I knew that shooting from on board would be more productive and have a greater sense of immediacy.
 The idea for this wide-angle image came from a previous project during which Turner shot from shore with a telephoto lens. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
I made arrangements to shoot a 505 again, from on board.
My sailor informed me that we couldn’t have three persons on the boat because it wouldn’t sail right with so much weight.
I decided I could not shoot from the cockpit because it would not provide enough distance between my camera and the hiked-out sailor.
We settled on having me sit on the tiny foredeck where I could wrap my legs around the mast, leaving my hands free to hold the camera.
The shoot went according to plan as we tacked back and forth across Puget Sound. My model handled the boat well by himself and I directed him to extend his body out over the cold water of the Sound and to allow himself to get hammered by the occasional big wave. I was shooting with a Nikkor 20mm wide-angle lens.
At one point, I had the back of camera open to change film and one of those big waves caught us bow-on. The salt water washed right up my back, over my head and into my lap, filling the camera.
The film I had previously exposed was in a waterproof bag and survived. The camera did not. A salt-water bath is deleterious to the wiring of a modern camera. It was fried. The insurance company paid for it and I even salvaged a few frames from the last roll that was in the open camera.
 Sometimes one picture leads to another. This image was the inspiration for the photo of the male sailor above. ( © John Terence Turner ). |
Some ideas start with a location, some are prompted by another shoot and some just start in your head for no discernible reason.
On more than one occasion, I’ve been on the verge of sleep when suddenly I “saw” a picture in my mind. Later, I have gone out to make it real. It is a good idea to have a bedside notebook and pen, though I will admit that occasionally I’ve looked at those scribbled notes and said to myself, “what the heck were you thinking?”
Once you have a picture idea, think it through thoroughly so you can anticipate all the problems you must solve.
Visit the location and imagine yourself shooting your idea. Be sure you think of special equipment needs. There’s nothing worse than getting to a location and realizing you didn’t bring a necessary piece of equipment.
Finally, shoot some test shots with the lens you will likely use and from the spot from which you want to shoot.
A final cautionary word: when you’re doing the on location planning, don’t con yourself. Be rigorous in your thinking about what will work and what will not. This is business. Don’t commit time, money and people to a half-baked scheme.
Then, go shoot and good luck!!
(John Terence Turner has been shooting stock photography for 20 years. His work can be seen at Getty Images, Alamy, Digital Railroad and, of course, The Stock Asylum, where his column appears monthly. He lives and works in Seattle, WA.)
Turner's web site can be found at: http://www.johnterenceturner.com.
For more of his images: click here.
For all of Turner's columns: click here.
