Mountain Dreams
Off again into the evening light, trusty travel companion, and a camera in hand. High hopes, and a history of flubbing what should be a simple composition. Heavy haze, and unrefined editing causing me to loose sight of the composition. Today was to be different, rather than being sour over yesterdays failures, today I would show myself I belonged to this community. You start these trips with dreams of perfection, maybe some light rays, splotchy clouds, crystal clear vista. The perfect photo. Once you arrive, and its not perfect…. Challenge yourself to find perfection in the chaos.
I left the house at 5:30 this evening, hunting a sunset at a location I have visited multiple times during this summer. Craggy visitor center, just bellow the mountain named Craggy. I understand many people want the photo from the vista, but this valley is obscured from there. You don’t get the seamless line leading you off into eternity, the slight foreground helping frame the exposure. More over, when I finally arrived here, the clouds had scattered, and many photographers began to filter away, That’s fine, because just because the sky is blue doesn’t mean you should walk away. Just wait for it, you may yet get an excellent shot.
I used all my tricks here, walking around with my cellphone, snapping test shots, exploring my focal lengths, from ultra wide to telephoto. A smile and a nod to all the people who sat waiting for a memorable mountain sunset, set yourself apart from the typically sour and quiet photographers. Once you have got your gear setup, start working that composition a bit more, rotate your camera, try your axis’ then work your focal lengths. Use your remote shutter release, or a two second timer, keep the shake to a minimum. Then, try the light, look at the shots you’re taking, and take a lot of photos. Try a CPL, or a ND filter for longer shutter times.
Once you finally get home don’t immediately rip it from the camera and start working, no…. wait a while, decompress. This is for a few reasons.. if you work on a photo after you just get home you may find it not looking like you expect it to. You may over zealously process it. You need to calm down, relax and wait. Once you’ve gotten to the point where you’ve nearly decided to call it a day, transfer the files, maybe pick a few you want to work on…. Usually after that you should come back later, though sometimes you’re not going to be able to sleep until you do [my case tonight]. It takes time, patience, while you’re on the scene, and even after.
Until next time!
Aperture: f8
ISO: 640
SS: 1/30th
Focal: 11mm
Fujinon 8-16mm
