7(b). Get your counselor's input and approval before you proceed

Warning. THE APPROVAL IS ON THE PLAN AND IT COMES BEFORE THE SHOOTING. This step asks for your counselor's input AND approval before you proceed, and proceeding means taking the photographs in 7(c). A photo story shot over a weekend and presented afterwards has skipped this, and there is no way to approve a plan for work already finished. Raise it at a meeting rather than by message on the day. It is also the single most useful conversation on the badge: a counselor looking at the plan can tell you that eight images will not carry the story you have picked, or that the event you chose happens indoors in bad light, while there is still time to choose differently.