When Not to Shoot?

Rialto Beach

Art Wolfe once said something like, “The mark of a professional photographer is that he knows when not to shoot.” Mostly he meant that an experienced photographer knows when the light is really not going to create a good photograph. You can also tell a beginning photographer’s photos by the lack of attention to the backgrounds.

The backgrounds are still important, and it is nice to have warm, soft light, but advances in Photoshop, especially HDR, make it now much more forgiving to shoot in marginal light. I find myself shooting bracketed exposures in those situations, just in case. Remember, Art said those words in the days of film.

The above photo is the latest one to surprise me. It was an overcast Washington coast morning. I had hiked a mile down the beach to get to this spot to shoot tide pools on my last morning, and wasn’t coming back, otherwise I would have made a mental note of the composition and returned when the light was better.

I shot a five exposure bracket, knowing that I wouldn’t like the results of straightforward post-processing of a single frame because of the flat, gray light. When I ran it through Photomatix at home I loved the result. I wasn’t expecting anything great at all.

I don’t habitually make HDR’s, but when I know the light is not going to create anything stunning in a single frame, but I love the composition, I’ll shoot a bracketed burst. It doesn’t always result in anything useable, but it is fairly quick and easy to go from Lightroom to Photomatix and back again to see what you may have.

Lake-side chair_Lake Quinault

My self-assignment with the chair was to make a photograph that made the viewer really, really wish they were in that chair right now. It was sunset, it was a warm summer evening. Never mind about the damned mosquitos. This was a single frame. I actually made an HDR, but discovered HDR does not know what to do with ripples in water and makes a mess of it.

Lake Quinault Lodge

Here is the view looking the other way. Now do you wish you were there?

 

Arctic Vacation

Spitsbergen

     I had an interesting conversation with a friend recently. She stated that she had no use for cold climates and would always vacation in sunny, tropical places. I, on the other hand, spent last July in the arctic in Spitsbergen, north of Norway. What would ever possess someone to vacation in a place where it snowed three full days, was windy and cold most of the time, and is fairly barren compared to a tropical locale? I have thought about that for the best part of the past week and can only say that if you have to ask, you will probably never understand. This friend asked me why I went to Yellowstone National Park in winter. All I could think of to say at the time is that it was beautiful and it was an adventure. How do I describe how it lifts my soul? How to describe the feeling of getting outside on a sunny sub-zero morning when every bit of moisture in the air is turned to ice crystals, called fairy dust, that float and sparkle everywhere. The squeak of a booted foot on really cold, dry snow? The utter silence?

     Sure, it’s cold, but with proper clothing and the common sense to get in the warm snow coach once your feet or face start feeling a bit too tingly or numb and it is sufficiently comfy. One thing it does is sap your energy. By the end of the day it is all I can do to stay awake log enough to eat before going immediately to sleep, usually before eight pm.

     In trying to describe why some of us might prefer such an arctic adventure I am reminded of a chapter in Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography Book called The Size of the Rat. He was trying to describe why some people become mountain climbers or professional nature photographers, while others, with equal talent, stay home and work in a factory. The rat in question is the rat that is eating at your stomach to go for an adventure. Apparently that rat is very small or does not exist in most people. These people are called shopkeepers. Perfectly fine people, but they prefer to stay perfectly safe at home and have no real yearn for an adventure. Disneyland will do just fine. It is safe and predictable. They are most interested in accumulating money and all else is a distant second to that goal. There are a lot of shopkeepers in this world. There are not very many adventurers in this world. Adventurers do not have much material wealth. That is sacrificed, along with a stable family life, for the freedom to roam the planet, often leaving on a very short notice. It is a big price to pay. Adventurers would become extremely bored with sitting on a chaise lounge on a beach drinking Mai Tai’s. They would probably be climbing palm trees for coconuts within about one hour.

“Make a life, not a living.” Donald Neale Wash, Conversations with God 1

“You will not be coming back this way again, leave nothing undone.” Omar Kayyam

“All you can do is look at where you are and be happy, or not.” Peter Droge

Winter Photography

     This is my friend, Meg, in Yellowstone in February. Winter photography in Yellowstone is not for wusses.