Why I Don’t Plan Photography (all that much)..

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No matter how hard we plan or schedule our photography sessions, there are hundreds of variables that determine whether they turn out successful or not. I don’t plan the majority of my photography outings very much, and today I’m going to explain why that is, hopefully giving you a bit of inspiration if you’re feeling disconnected from your photos.

Story time

A few years ago, we were in the Faroe Islands for about four days. I had basically planned out every day from A to B, one location after the other, to try and maximise the amount of photos I took in a short time on the islands. On the first day, we took the ferry over to Kalsoy, followed the plan, spent the whole day there, and it was fantastic. However, photographically, I wasn’t doing that well on the day.

On the return, however, we missed the ferry. Luckily, there was another one in an hour, so no big deal. We left our car in the queue for the ferry and decided to just randomly walk around the surrounding area.

It wasn’t until that original plan for the day went a bit wrong and we just wandered off, literally like a few steps away from our car and over a couple of grassy bumps, that I took what turned out to be my favourite photograph of the day (as shown above). I didn’t know those houses existed; I hadn’t found them on Google Maps beforehand. Obviously, it’s not groundbreaking by any means, but it was still by far my favourite image on that particular day.

This circumstance was an eye-opener for me: it doesn’t matter how much you plan, how many different angles and compositions you come up with before visiting a place, there can always be something that results in your mega plan not getting you the photos you wanted.

Which is fine; it’s all part of the photography process, despite it driving us a little bit crazy.. I think it also contributes to the drive that keeps us shooting.

But after this, I spent some time looking back over old images of mine, and realised that the majority of my favourite photos I never planned at all. And when I say that, I don’t mean somebody dropped me off blindfolded in the middle of nowhere with my camera and left me there to take photos. I just mean the scene or subject, and even the weather conditions, were never overly calculated or pre-planned.

More examples

Take the image above for example, we had planned to go to this lovely national trust estate for the day, but I had no idea that old boat hut existed, I didn't know about the body of water, and I had no Idea there was going to be fog up in the trees there.

Another example below, a day where I headed out in the spring thinking I was going to take a nice bright walk along the coast and it turned out to be the foggiest seafront day I’ve ever witnessed. And both of these photos, and many many more I’ve taken are the ones I look at and think, I really connected with that, thats my image.

Look around the corner

Now, I’m not sitting here and saying, “Don’t pick locations based on the time of year and don’t have a rough route or walking paths to follow when you’re on a trip.” Some shots do require intense planning, some shots require a few visits and a bit of luck to finally get the image you want of a place or subject. And for lots of people, that’s where they do connect with their own images the most.

Photography projects based around certain areas or parts of history often require a lot more planning than just winging it on a walk, and I do shoot like that sometimes too.

But the takeaway I would like to give you from this ramble is to remember to look around that corner, poke your head over that hill, drive down a road that wasn’t on your route, ignore your plan now and again, don’t get too fixated on one shot, or one subject, look for stuff on the journey to a location you’ve planned, look for moments that are happening at a place that can only be photographed right there and then.

Being curious about the world and what’s around you, past that one subject or one viewpoint you’re visiting, will definitely result in photos you never knew existed, and might result in photos that become your favourites too.

I’ve definitely found in the past that always photographing places I’ve seen online before, subjects that have been overplanned, or revisiting the same place hundreds of times trying to take the best image possible of that place has led to frustration, boredom, and disconnection from the photos I’m taking. Especially when I’ve planned something so hard and it doesn’t go to plan, that can get discouraging pretty fast.

Finally

For me its the unplanned images that feel like my discovery, they feel like the photo is more mine than just another snapshot of an iconic place, or a re creation of an image I’ve already seen online. For the record I’m still an advocate of shooting iconic places you’ve seen a million times online, because everybody wants their version of the Eiffel Tower, but get those out the way, and then go off the beaten track.

In fact my favourite part of photography over all, is stumbling across something that’s super cool that I never knew existed, and photographing it how I want to photograph it without any outside factors having a swing on my choices.

Not to mention the journey, the happenings of the day, like missing the ferry, all remain in the memory of the unplanned photograph, which makes images so much more special to you.

So hopefully that explains why photography I never expected to create in the first place, for me is the work I connect with the most, and its very much why I have started to plan photography outings less and less as the years go by.