Every shoot is a learning experience

"Towson University senior goalkeeper Brandi Daniels has recored six shutouts this season and continues to lead the women's soccer team defensive. Daniels has been named CAA player of week three times, was a member of the 2006 All-CAA first team squad and has recorded 18 career shutouts."

When shooting assignments, photojournalists are constantly looking for creative ways to inform readers on a certain topic.

It's a fairly simple process. We shoot, edit and then transmit.

Once done, we move to the next assignment with new challenges and new subjects.

In most cases shoots go as planned, whether they are a preconceived portrait or an uncontrollable news event. But sometimes during the editing process we find ourselves disappointed.

While we cannot go back to reshoot, we may find subtle things that are unable to be changed. While it may initially disappoint us, it teaches us to pay attention to certain details and how to change our approach to similar assignments in the future.

For the above shoot, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Keep it simple, yet effective. Having planned two ideas, knowing rain my play a factor, I lucked out with a break in the downpours. It was weird to see rain, as we've been in a drought here in Maryland.

I arrived a bit early, setup two lights and had my associate sit where the subject would. This rarely ever happens, having a partner in crime on a shoot, so having someone sit in for a test cuts the time with a subject. In turn, gets me moving to another assignment and gets the subject in and out in rapid succession.

I liked how the test image looked and knew that's what I wanted to run with.

When Daniels arrived and put on her goalie gear, I positioned her accordingly and popped a couple tests images. Things looked great. I added a couple more soccer balls and had my image in under a minute. I changed things up a bit for a second image, and was out in back in my car in under ten minutes.

It wasn't until I was in post production that I noticed a subtle changed I should have made.

The thing I didn't notice was the soccer ball covering her feet. While it isn't a huge problem, it certainly is a small aspect of the photo I would have changed.

Sometimes we are either rushing ourselves or just get too caught up in the shooting process to notice small details. However, learning from these only helps us get better.

Nonetheless, I love the image and it looks nice on the front of the sports page. Next time I'll be sure to keep my eye on my subjects feet.