I recently shot the cast and crew of an accounting practice for their new website. With 2 directors and 5 staff it made sense to set up a small studio at their offices in the second floor of a prominent commercial building on the city parklands. Having had a well organised plan in place, I was confident that the shoot would go well. I had organised with Anne, in charge of their new-look profile pictures, to set up the backdrop and lighting in the company's boardroom, and sent my assistant Chris ahead of me to start setting up the equipment before I got there. On my way there I received a call from a disheartened Chris to say that there was a problem. The boardroom was barely larger than a small office and wouldn't even fit the backdrop across it. I reminded myself why it was always important to give clients a spacial minimum for a studio setup, and made a mental note to add more rigour to my workflow. Rather than saying that we need a 'fair amount' of space I will now give square meterage and scout the location if I can.

When I arrived Chris was scouting with Anne for an alternative space, and we proceeded to consider all options - even the photocopying room was fair game. Ultimately we negotiated to use the landing outside the shared lifts, and proceeded to set up the world's most interesting studio space (I wish I'd thought to get a photo of the setup).

Given the amount of time lost to problem-solving the studio area, we did well to set up in record time, and we got through all staff headshots, as well as the director shots, totally on schedule. It probably helped that we were RIGHT outside the lifts as people arrived for their scheduled photograph - there was no escaping the photographers! We almost managed to convince the courier, who came up to deliver a parcel, to stop for his updated headshot too.