I have mentioned before what the challenges are when shooting outdoors.  I usually plan my shoots according to the weather, especially if I am hoping to create a certain mood.  Although none of us can predict the weather to the T, at least we have some indication of what it is going to look like….. unless you live in Cape Town.

Last night I had a shoot which I planned for a while now.  Various factors led us to postpone, especially previous weather conditions. The mood board which I had send to the model for approval had a summer breach scene and we were hoping for a nice sunset. Have I mentioned before that I love shooting while the sun sets?  Anyway, the whole day looked perfect.  The sun was shining, no wind, just a slight offshore wind and I was convinced that today was going to be the day.  As I was driving to the beach later in the afternoon, a message came from the make-up artists.  “I am setting up but it looks like it’s going to rain.”

Although I knew that my sunset shoot was not going to happen, I was actually glad.  It wasn’t going to rain, but the fog was rolling in and I knew that we are in for an even better shoot.  I love shooting in misty conditions, but bringing that and a model together on the same day is basically impossible. The look you get from a shoot in the mist really brings our a different mood, and shooting in that soft kind of light makes it so much easier to reduce the contrast on your subject face…and everything else that has a shadow.  What I also like about mist is that it softens the background and sometimes even remove nasty objects that spoils the picture. The colour can be a problem, but if your model is dressed up with colourful clothes and accessories you can break the grey.  On the other hand, black and white images taken in misty conditions can be very exciting.

I don’t thing one should plan a shoot without thinking about alternative moods in case the weather doesn’t play along.  Usually the weather does not change that quickly, but when you live in Cape Town you never know what can happen next.  I love shooting in mist and I actual wish we had more of those days.