Shooting the Shooter - Leersumse Veld
You know, sometimes you go out on a photography excursion and, to put it mildly, the conditions are far from ideal. Ok, the reality is, that’s the way it is most of the time, despite those who love to throw out the adage, “There’s no such thing as bad light.” Yeah, there is. When you’re out doing landscape photography, you take what nature gives you. And for every jaw dropping moment at Bandon, Lake Powell, the Lamar Valley or White Pocket, you have dozens of mornings and evenings that are significantly less inspiring. Even on those glorious occasions, the magnificence is often fleeting. The thing is, if it is in your mindset to accept (and it is in mine), the act of photographing is simply a joyful thing to do. Regardless of the conditions and despite the frustrations of not crafting a perfect image. Sure, it’s sometimes a bitter pill to swallow once you look at the results, but that shouldn’t take away from enjoying the process of looking, seeing and trying to craft an image. Even if you consider the result a failure. Because being outside photographing pretty much beats any of the other options for what you could be doing in that moment.
So that’s how it was that afternoon at the Leersumse Veld when Ann made this image of me. No, the light wasn’t fantastic, the weather seemed a bit oppressive and the scene left much to be desired, but I had to try and make something. That tree is certainly something, and much more difficult to photograph than it is to appreciate (hint: on my third visit back I think I made a decent image of it (thanks to the light); Ann finally got one too). So this image of me is more of a, “It’s great to be out photographing” image than one of me making an image I think is wonderful.
That’s ok, because I loved being out that afternoon and as a landscape photographer, I’ll take what I can get. Pixels are pretty much free, so one should make the best images possible because there might be something there you didn’t see but led you to make the image anyway. You need to learn to trust your instincts when they say, “Work with this subject.” At the least, it becomes an exercise in composition and another adage says you learn more from the failures than the successes. That is of course if you study the failures to figure out why they didn’t quite make it. BTW, I do a lot of learning because I have a lot of material to learn from.
Photographers have to practice their craft. That’s the only way to improve. And one of the ways to do that is by pushing yourself to make images when the conditions are less than ideal for making great images. Don’t just say there’s nothing there, pull out the camera and push yourself. And yes, sometimes the result is a mediocre image.
That’s ok. I’m stubborn. I’ll just shake it off and get to it again as soon as I can!