Merlin and His Apprentice
We all have ways of working, things said and unsaid about what we do photographically and what we don’t. Sure, those rules can change at any time because they’re largely self-imposed, but it’s good to operate within limitations. And to know what aspects of photographic endeavors really don’t have much to offer (at this time), because my time out is far too limited and I don’t want to waste it on doing things I’m not really interested in doing. Well, one set of images this trip really had me violating my self-imposed rules and . . . I’m glad I got it out of my system.
On our death march from hell on the Ringelsberg Route (I think my feet are still hurting from that one) as we were hiking on the back side of the ridge that had the old beech trees on steep rocky slopes, I looked across the ridge and saw this amazing form hiding behind a dense stand of younger, vertical beech trees. I excitedly told Ann, “Hey, you gotta see this tree!” Followed immediately by, “Im heading over there.” Despite our tired legs, we hopped the small ditch by the trail, climbed just a bit and crossed the ridge top to check it out.
As I approached, two trees stood out from the others - the one I’d originally seen due to its size and another, much, much younger, but nonetheless full of character itself. I immediately thought, “Merlin and His Apprentice.” Now, I never, ever, title my photographs. Whether it’s because I’m not creative enough to come up with names, or whether I think most titles/captions/names are stupid, I just don’t. At most I’ll settle for location and year. Heck, if Moonrise, Hernandez NM is good enough for Ansel, Beech Tree, Kellerwald-Edersee UNESCO World Heritage Site, 2024 is good enough for me. Call me boring if you wish.
Merlin and His Apprentice
That’s the first of my self-imposed rules I’ve violated with this posting.
The next is that I’ll be honest, I think these are a couple of mediocre images. Sure, the trees are interesting (though the photographs truly do not do them justice - believe me, I tried several different compositions, these are . . . the only ones that don’t make me want to hurl), but as photographs, they leave a lot to be desired. Nothing of what I’d envisioned and . . . for lack of a better word, failures. They do not do the trees justice.
Wizard and Apprentice
I’ve written that I try to keep the images I post on the blog at a certain level and, well, I’ve violated that principle too. Just for the sake of a story.
There’s just too much wrong with each of these images to go into it. And even worse, I look and I can see what I found to be so amazing about both trees (and the downfall to the left). The images just fall far short of what I was striving for. Sometimes that happens, but really, I don’t have to post about it.
There! Now that it’s done, I hope I’ve gotten it out of my system. No more titles, no more images that I truly consider failures. Even if the trees are really cool. Time to get back to principles. Gotta keep those standards up!