Searching Is Everything

Flow of Color / Canon 1DS Mk III, f/8 @ 1/1000 sec, ISO 400, 200mm, no filters

I’ve just returned from a camping trip in the Catskills with the family, so I’ve taken a bit of time off from the blog to get away from the computer and the online world in general. It helps me stay focused on what I really want to share here, and how it helps others. I must admit I enjoy the feedback I get and how its helped you in some way, so I just want to take a moment to say thanks for sharing! It’s always a struggle for me to provide relevant content that is useful and worth your time to read, probably because I’m a perfectionist. But I know how valuable your time is,  so I really think carefully about everything I publish and whether it’s the best I can do. I have lots of aborted blog posts, but I hope that just makes the stuff you actually read better.

Today I have a photo and a quote as well. The photo was made on the Hudson River while I was looking for that “amazing” landscape composition, and realized it was right in front of me, literally. There was beautiful light everywhere, but I just couldn’t find a way to make it work with to my satisfaction. Then I looked down at the flowing water, and saw what I wanted to express – the power and rhythm of light and color, in a simple pattern. It was there all along, yet I just didn’t see it – at least right away. And years ago I would have never seen it.

Making the actual photograph proved to be a bit more difficult. I realized I needed to let go of what I thought I wanted, and flow with the moment. I wanted the bottom portion to be dark as a way to lead the eye up into the rhythm of the colors, and the colors also needed to be spaced apart far enough to slow the eye down. I wanted the viewer to look more into each band of color versus having them blend into each other, and this I knew would require a closer, tighter composition.  I achieved this by using the longest focal length I have—200mm—and simplifying as much as possible.

“Searching is everything – going beyond what you know. And the test of the search is really in the things themselves, the things you seek to understand. What is important is not what you think about them, but how they enlarge you.” – Wynn Bullock

I love this quote by photographer Wynn Bullock because it really encapsulates the approach that I think is most effective to photographing the landscape, whether large or small. We spend far too much time thinking about what we’re photographing instead of how they move us mentally and emotionally. Finding great subjects, locations, and interesting vistas is fun and exciting, but without searching within, that fun slowly fades away. It’s only when you find how you have changed that a story can emerge, and that story is what you want to share in your photography.

Please share your thoughts and feedback below  – I enjoy and appreciate every one of them plus they help others as well. thanks again.