Follow the Light
One of the things I like about the blogging process is that sometimes while working on one post, another blog idea arises. Occasionally, an idea comes to mind that invokes previous images I’ve made and I get to revisit old friends. That’s what the paragraph about “following the light” did from the Light and Water blog post. So let’s take a walk down memory lane!
When I wrote that paragraph, a particular image came to mind. And since I couldn’t get it out of my mind, it was time to write about it. The image came from our 2014 trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. It was the first of our extended adventures, the trip that convinced us we wanted to do as much of that as possible.
We got up early one morning and headed out to Oxbow Bend on the Snake River to photograph the Tetons. We arrived while it was still dark, beaten there by a couple of guys shooting 4x5 who had planted themselves down at the water's edge like a couple of squatters. We soon found out why when we were quickly joined by a steady stream of photographers, unseen in these images, who planted themselves down to await their photograph, staking a place in the ground like homesteaders. Realizing we were in a pretty good spot, with a bit of elevation above anyone who might come along, we decided to stay put. This wasn't going to be one of those instances where one moves from place to place for different image opportunities. Yet another thing Ann and I learned from this trip - we don’t really enjoy being at the locations where the hordes congregate. They’re beautiful places, but the crowd dampens the experience if you let it.
In any event, the early pre-dawn light was spectacular.
But as the sun maintained its track upwards, the quality of light died and yielded nothing but colorless, grey images for about 15 minutes or so. Everything I tried was a bit lifeless, so it was simply time to wait. Eventually, I noticed some pink coming to the sky so I made yet another image and had an idea . . . .
Realizing that the pink coloration had to come from somewhere, I did another one of those things one should do a lot more when photographing - I looked behind myself to see if there was an image to be had.
Indeed there was. All I had to do was follow the light.
Knowing that this quality of light wouldn’t last for long, I quickly made one image and swapped lenses to make another image as I could tell the color was already starting to fade as it lightened.
I then turned around to make another image of the Tetons, only to find out that there was still nothing to be had. So I turned around again. Yet only 4 minutes after I made the above image, the color was gone and all that was left was a small orangish area on the horizon.
There was nothing left to do but turn back around, recompose my image of the Tetons and keep my fingers crossed.
As it was, I lucked out!
Not only because the sun eventually brought out a lovely pink cast to the Tetons, but because I had been smart enough to follow the light and turn around!