I recently read an article about Tiger Woods and his struggles with his golf game. The article pointed out that, while swinging the club, he had to think about many things to ensure a clean ball strike – posture, foot position, club speed, arm position, wind direction and head position, to name just  a few. It all looks so easy on TV, and yet he has to process all this in the blink of an eye. It got me thinking about photography. People think that what I do is easy. People think I point and click. One of my pet hates is when someone looks at my photos and says “you must have a great camera”. A professional photographer has to consider so much before taking the shot. This was highlighted recently when a delightful Indonesian lady called Tea came in to the studio. Her English was not great, which made communication a bit more tricky. I would ask her to strike a pose, and she didn’t always understand. As a result, I found myself demonstrating some of the poses I wanted. When taking a shot in the studio, I have to consider if the lighting is right, are there shadows on the face, is the exposure, aperture, ISO, shutter speed etc correct, is the model relaxed, is the room warm enough, is the room too warm (rarely a problem in Scotland), is the clothing sitting properly, should I get a smile or laugh or scowl or pout etc, are my jokes funny, am I talking too much, is the subject bored, is the backdrop creased, is the camera straight, am I cutting off any fingers, feet or hair from the frame, and many other things. All this has to be processed before the subject gets bored and moves, which causes the whole process to be started again. So remember the next time you look at a studio shot – there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. And don’t get me started about location work!!!