Luck plays a great part in life, and especially when you decide to head out on a particular date in the future with a model. You might already know exactly where: which street, which tree, which fountain or wall. But nothing ever quite works out as planned – thankfully.

I firmly believe the best photographs aren’t planned. Who wants a sterile, thought-out image, when you can have a well-composed but unique photograph? The trick is merely to react well to the changing surroundings. On a recent shoot in Soho, not only did we manage to grab the use of a bit of staging from the Astoria thanks to a very helpful backstage guy, but also managed to get a good shot of a couple of policemen passing in the background.

We could have said nothing to the bloke shoving staging out the back door, and not got some interesting shots with it. We could have waited for the policemen to pass by, out of shot, before continuing, because these things didn’t fit with the plan we’d already discussed. But why? That’s just boring.

The worst thing you can do when shooting on location is to stick to a plan. Plans are great – but only when flexible enough for you to scrap it entirely and react to a new lighting situation you didn’t spot when scouting the location, a different kind of car parked just round the corner.