Bill’s Blog

What to do when you’re photoshoot gets rained out.

Short answer, keep your options open.

Yesterday we drove to Tampa with a forecast of clearing overcast clouds. We had a small window of morning light before the sun would move too far and we’d miss our planned shots. We stayed dark and overcast so our shoot window closed without even unloading the gear and we conceded defeat. Over lunch we discussed the remainder of the day and remembered a wild looking building we’d been wanting to shoot. The Florida Polytechnic University between Orlando & Tampa was our new destination. To our delight, the clouds vaporized shortly after departing the coast and we had the rich cobalt sky that I was hoping for earlier. We arrived, scouted, and got permission from the friendly campus staff and set off to building our camera kit and digging in.

Obviously, the feel and look I was going for was contrasty, stark B&W images of this ultra unique building. The deep, dark polarized sky contrasted with the spiraling lines, reflections and shadows of the structure ended up being even more exciting to shoot than I had anticipated. I think my favorite shot is the one with the student’s shadows. I composed this one vertically, anticipating capturing the human element of merely shadows while not capturing the bodies. After about 5 minutes and multiple groups of people entering and leaving the university I got what I expected. I also found it interesting that the last shot I posted was a combination of two shots that remarkably line up quite well as an interesting composite.

So, when the weather throws lemons at you, it’s good to have alternative ideas, goals, and plans to whip up a refreshing serving of lemonade. It’s such a wonderful feeling to work on personal projects. No rules, just sweet artistic freedom. Victory…