FAQs – golf course shoots
Here are few questions I am asked by clients in the run-up to a shoot. Enjoy!
If the weather is bad, do you postpone?
Absolutely. It does not serve the club nor myself any good to shoot in poor conditions. The timing of the shoot is critical and a great source of wisdom is your course manager. When a decision has been made regarding timing (early, mid or late season), a week will be pencilled into the diary for the shoot when no course work is planned. As the week draws closer, I will monitor the forecast and specify the evenings/mornings of the shoot a couple of days in advance. If the forecast fails, we will reconvene another day.
Will that incur additional costs?
No
Can you split the shoot to get light at different times of day?
Absolutely. Whenever I photograph a golf course, I typically arrive on site around lunchtime to survey the course and identify possible compositions and vantage points. I then shoot in the afternoon and evening, and then again in the morning (this usually requires an overnight stay). Many of the holes are therefore shot using both evening and morning light which will create entirely different scenes.
What is the advantage of opting for a two-morning/two-evening shoot?
The longer I am on location, the greater number of compositions I will be able to identify and the more time I will have to utilize different light. This ensures in a wider range of moods, colours and images from which to make your final selection. You also get to select more images!
Why ask the client to select images from a portfolio when you could make that decision for them?
With the best will in the world, I don’t know the course, club or resort as well as my clients do. And unless they involve me in the PR, I won’t know the marketing plans either. I therefore think it’s important to include the client in the decision-making process so they invest some time in selecting the right images that perfectly showcases their course, clubhouse, hotel etc. It’s important to note that all the images that make it to the final portfolio are good to go as far as I am concerned, so I am comfortable with whatever the client selects. As long as the client’s happy, I’m happy!
Can we specify that some of the shots include people?
Yes. If you want specific posed or playing shots, I find it best to work with the club’s pros. For that reason, I include an option in my proposals that addresses that preference. Alternatively, I can include golfers/members who happen to playing while I am shooting. As I tend to shoot early in the morning and into the evening, this can be a bit hit and miss. There is also no guarantee they will be appropriately branded or wearing suitable apparel which could age the image. There is also no guarantee as to the quality of their swing either which could impact on the impression the club is trying to make. More importantly, there would be no way of securing their authorisation for their image to be taken (a key GDPR consideration) which would mean I could only take images where the individuals were unidentifiable (silhouettes for example). For all these reasons, it is better to organise a dedicated shoot with the club’s pros if your preference is to include people in the shots.
If you have any questions or queries, let me know. I will be more than happy to chat them through with you.