I’ve covered many military parades before and to a certain extent you can initially make a mental note of all the ‘safe’ shots that you need to obtain in order to cover the event effectively but you should always keep an eye open for other possibilities. This applies to all your jobs. If you have to fulfill a brief then make sure you do so but don’t forget to also keep your creative eye open for other pictures. Push the limits and really look for alternative pictures. Try different techniques on the fly to see if you can get some good results.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what you can achieve, it costs nothing other than a fraction of a second. Learn and understand exposure and then under or over expose on purpose to see the effect. Get away from convention. Get away from the norm. Everyone else will be doing that. Shoot straight into the sun. Get your flash involved by popping some light into an underexposed image it can make it really jump out, especially with the red tunics some of the troops here are wearing.
Blur your pictures on purpose, whilst adding some fill flash and see what happens. Many pictures won’t work, some are close and one or two will look good. However, don’t think that this is a ‘hit and hope’ approach, relying on luck alone to get a picture, remember, it’s partly luck but also it needs a sound knowledge of the techniques in the first place and then all you need is the imagination to push it.
Despite all of this the one thing I find is the most helpful of all is probably the most obvious piece of advice. LOOK for pictures, really look, as you move around your subject, look for angles, look for an approach, look for something different. It takes concentration and after a long shoot you can be drained from the concentration involved but sometimes, if you get a good shot, it is worth it.
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