Anatomy of a Failed Photography Assignment
By Bill Scullion

I had one self-imposed assignment – photograph the Mardi Gras floats at night at Universal Studios, Orlando. I failed. And this is how.

BACKGROUND

First, a little background. As an avid amateur photographer who has dabbled in film and digital photography off and on for most of my life so far, I have come to a point where I am getting ready to stop working for others and work for myself along with my wife, Cindy, as travel/fine arts photographers. This is what others refer to as “retirement”. To me, that means I work for myself rather than do what I am paid by others to do. We will not get materially rich from this goal. However, we will be emotionally enriched by sharing what we like with others.

In preparation for that transition, We have been reading, practicing, and gradually setting up a place to engage in our future life. This web site is part of that transition. This example of my failure is also part of that transition. Cindy is currently a Certified Public Accountant and in the dark pit of “tax season”.

Please note that all photographs in this article are not for sale or for use by others.

Also note, the links provided are for information only. I do not have an affiliation with any of these sites.

THE GOAL

A photography assignment for an individual who makes their living as a photographer is to be either contracted for by a business looking for content or, more commonly, shot by the photographer and pitched to a potential buyer. In either case, there is a deadline involved and performance in a timely manner is required.

I have read a few articles about pitching a photography story to a potential travel story buyer and decided I would see what the actual shooting part of that process entailed by putting together my own photo story about the Mardi Gras floats at Universal Studios, Orlando.

To me, this seemed simple. I have a season pass to Universal Resorts Orlando. I'll just go to Universal Studios, shoot some cool shots of the events surrounding the annual Mardi Gras activity at the amusement park, and culminate with some neat shots of the Mardi Gras floats at night. I envisioned great lighting, flying beads, and smiling faces. That is not what happened.

POOR BEGINNING ASSUMPTIONS

My first failure was to look at the weather report the day before my travel rather than the actual day of my shoot - and believe it. It was supposed to be partly cloudy and an off chance of scattered rain after the float parade was over. I didn’t even bring my raincoat!

My second failure was to arrive too early in the day. I realize that sounds strange. However, I woke up at 5:30 am. Rather than review my not so carefully laid out plan of attack, I just put my camera gear in my travel bag and headed off to Orlando from Tampa. Did I say I left without my raincoat?

A GOOD START ON THE WAY TO FAILURE

As it turned out, the day started well. It was actually sunny and I was able to get a good establishing shot of the entrance to Universal Studios showing it was the 25^th anniversary of Mardi Gras.

Entrance to Universal Studios OrlandThis is an example of an establishing shot. It would have been used to provide a location reference for the subsequent story.

The problem with my “plan” was I was too early for the preliminary Mardi Gras activity and spent about six hours just wandering around the theme parks with no real “keeper” shots until I ran across this future Olympian working on his pommel horse routine at Marvel Island in the Islands of Adventure theme park.

Future Olympian Practicing Pommel Horse RoutineThis child caught my eye while working on my self-assigned Mardi Gras floats project.

While February up north is cold, Florida is not. My shoot day was a high of 86 degrees Fahrenheit and I had left my water bottle at home in another example of poor planning. Needless to say, I got hot and tired. I remedied this by taking a nap in a convenient chair outside one of the many restaurants in the park.

THE ROAD TO RUIN

I woke up from my presumably snoring nap due to a change in the temperature and an increase in the wind speed. It was suddenly cooler, but I was refreshed from my nap. I’m sure a few people took pictures of me dozing in the chair. While I noted the change in weather, I also remembered what the weather forecast from the night before had told me. Embracing this delusion, I went back to Universal Studios in search of pre-parade activity.

I was not disappointed! As you can see in these next few photographs, a street party with a New Orleans jazz band had broken out. I was on Easy Street getting my background shots that would lead up to the culminating shots of the day!

Collage of Pre-parade Mardi Gras Activities at Universal Studios, OrlandoThis collage was is an example of atmospheric shots which would have lead up to the Mardi Gras float parade.

Now all I had to do was find a great spot to shoot my float photos! And it was only 3:30 pm.

Well, poor planning event number three decided to kick me. In my hast to “plan” my self-imposed assignment, I misread the time of the Mardi Gras parade. I was assuming a 6:30 pm start time. When I arrived at my great spot at 4:30 pm I decided to work on editing the shots I had captured so far on my iPad using Lightroom CC. I was relatively pleased with a few of the shots and even more pleased that I had killed a good hour of time. That’s when I started getting that feeling that something wasn’t right.

Remember that temperature drop I noted above? I decided this might be a good time to consult the weather apps on my definitely smarter-than-me smartphone. To my dismay, a storm front was moving into the Orlando area and would be dumping rain with a chance of thunderstorms as well at 6:30 pm. Not a good thing when trying to photograph floats.

THE POOR DECISION MAKING

Poor planning factor number four kicked in at this point. It turned out the parade for this evening would be starting at 7:45 pm! I quickly looked by at my weather apps and found that there was to be a major storm starting at 6:30 pm for at least an hour and a half period! Of course, I went into denial mode and talked myself into believing that Florida weather is fickle and it would not rain at all.

And the sky got darker as 6:30 pm approached.

Mel's Diner Universal Studios Orlando FloridaThis shows the rain clouds moving in that broke my nerve to complete my assignment.

It started to rain just a predicted. At 6:30 pm my perfect front row park bench position had to be abandoned for a dryer location so I could consult my weather apps again. I remember telling you I forgot my raincoat. Sure enough, the weather apps said medium rain continuing into heavy rain in one hour. So I believed the app and made my soggy way to my car with my tail between my legs.

This was my final error. As soon as I had driven out of the park and onto the I-4 interstate heading for Tampa, the rain stopped. If you are from central Florida, you know why I couldn’t just go back and find a new spot to complete my assignment. For those of you who aren’t from around here, I-4 in Orlando at 6:45 pm on any day is a stop and go nightmare. This is when most visitors are heading out of not only Universal Orlando, but Sea World and Disney World as well. If I had just waited, the usual Florida weather mantra would have come true. That mantra is “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 20 minutes and it will be fine.”

THE CRITIQUE

So, what should I have done? First, I should have written down my plan of action. Second, make sure I had the other things that make a successful shoot besides my camera gear. In this case, at least the raincoat. Third, double check all my assumptions. I should have checked the weather earlier in the day as well as the time of the preliminary Mardi Gras activities and the parade time. I would have saved my feet from unnecessary abuse. Finally, I should have listened to my experience with Florida weather rather than deciding my smartphone apps were going to be correct.

This is how to fail at an assignment. But, failure is a great teacher and I will learn from this example.

If you have an assignment failure to share, feel free to lay it out in the comment section below.