Never Pass Up an Opportunity
I know I’ve mentioned this photo tip before, but it’s worth remembering. When you see an image, make it. Don’t wait, do it. Simply do it if at all possible, and as quickly as you can. Sometimes the moment is fleeting - you usually know when that’s the case, so you’d better get off your butt and get at it. Other times you might want to think, it’s no big deal, I’ll come back tomorrow, or later, or . . . whatever other stupid excuse one (read: I) might have. Don’t listen to those knucklehead voices, they have no idea what they’re talking about because later is never, I repeat NEVER the same. Something is always different, even when it seems like it isn’t, it is.
I’m reminded of one of my trips to Yosemite. Ann and I were in a rush to get somewhere one morning, a location we’d planned to photograph that morning (and I think we were running late). While driving there, I glanced in my side-view mirror and saw the most spectacular morning rim light on El Capitan. It was so nice, I pulled over in a pull-out to verify if I was right. I was. I checked my watch to see the time. No problem, the weather conditions were not supposed to change and I’d come back the next morning to make that image.
As you can guess, several things happened. First, the photo location we were heading to was nothing special (Ok, pretty much everything in Yosemite is special, but my photographs that morning were not.). Second, the following morning was a bust. Not that there were obvious clouds (there were not), or that I didn’t get back there at precisely the same time (I was there, for half an hour before to half an hour later). Everything seemed to be exactly the same. Except it wasn’t. Was the rim light on El Capitan lovely? Yes. Was it SPECTACULAR? No. Maybe it was moisture in the air, distant hazy conditions, I don’t know. But I never got that image of light so sharp it could cut your eyes. I should have made the image when I had the chance. That’s not to say you don’t plan for images, or plan to come back under better conditions - of course you do. But when the light is special - STOP AND MAKE THE IMAGE STUPID.
Well, I remembered that lesson on our trip. No, I didn’t have my color camera with me. No, I didn’t have a tripod with me. Yes, we were in a rush to get back. Plenty of excuses to say, “Oh, I’ll come back and get this later.” Instead I said, “You keep going, I’m going to take a bit and make this image. I’ll catch up with you.”
This was one of two images I made along that stretch of trees. I was pleased the moment I made it, knowing this was much better than the first (it is). And I caught up with Ann thinking that we’re returning here with my X-T5, telephoto lens and tripod and we’re going to have fun! Why wouldn’t I, it was the first day of the trip.
Well, you know what happened. The weather conditions for the rest of the week meant that we didn’t have any late mornings with brilliantly clear skies. Of course.
And that’s why you never pass up an opportunity. It may not be under the best circumstances for you, you may not have the best camera for the images you want to make, but you make what you can because the conditions are so special. Even if you have to use your phone camera. At least you have an image.
Then you cross your fingers and hope you’ll make it back again more ready than you were the first time. Sometimes, it even works out that way.