Through the Cracks
Waterfalls are a great distraction in photography. Finding your composition, working the scene, getting up close and personal within the environment you usually shoot from far away. This is the second time I've been to this particular fall, I wasn't pleased with the first composition, it came out fine, but I wasn't happy. So I returned, this time armed with the resolve to just walk out into the creek and deal with it, getting your feet wet pants too all for one photo. Perhaps my choice of footwear wasn't optimal, I found far too many rocks I simply couldn't walk on because of how slippery they really were. That aside, I was actually in the midst of working this scene, finding my correct lower angle composition..... That's when disaster struck, I handed off my camera to a good friend so I could balance across a particular slippery area. He was apparently going to try and help me across, set the camera down on the tripod, and bam, lens first right into the rocky creek bed. Around a 4 foot fall... I had a panic attack, my poor camera taking its first spill... I've never dropped a camera, not in six years... But this is the reason you research and buy your equipment based on what you're doing with it... Not a scratch, not even on what I thought was a flimsy CPL. A quick dry later and my camera has a bit of extra grime on it, and I have a new photo to show you.
So, despite my accidents out on location, what does working the scene really mean? I’ve touched on the topic before but I feel it needs its own section. While I am no authority in this field we call photography I think I might be able to share a bit of insight. So, I’d like to talk to you all about what composition means to me. I know, it;s boring photography technicalities, the rules so to speak. First we need to discover what a composition really is.
Real Estate photographers are a great source of what composition is. Those wonderful home shots we see plastered all over every real estate website and magazine out there. The homes look amazing, secluded, focused, but when you get to that home to see this amazing secluded home, it’s surrounded, nothing like you imagined. Did they clone all of this clutter out of the photo? Erase the neighbors so to speak? Of course not, they just composed the image, they took you, the viewer, onto a visual journey to show you exactly what they wanted you to see. They got on location and they walked around looking at angles, looking at for places that would cover up the distractions. A fence, a low angle, trees and shrubbery to hide unsightly paneling, or paint. They walked around with their camera and took snap shot after snapshot until they found the perfect spot to take the photo. After that it’s just a matter of setting your camera on a tripod [or hand hold it if you are more comfortable that way] and make fine adjustments to keep everything looking crisp, clean and in focus.
So, how do you find your composition in a chaotic environment? The very same way, walk, snap, walk, snap. Put your camera high, low, try different orientations until you, the photographer are delighted with what you have! What then? You setup, you adjust, you contemplate. What’s this though? You only arrived on scene with that perfect light to run and take your photos fast and run back home to edit? Well, yes you CAN do that, I HAVE done that! What I find, and your experience will probably vary from my own, if I'm in a hurry, I will always ask myself what if. What if I had spent more time researching the scene, more time invested in getting the right shot. Once I’m back home, I am almost always disappointed, sure I can clean them up, crop them how I want and hide my sins, photography allows us to do that, but it’s extra work, and that extra time is precious.
So, my advice is arrive early, long before the stunning light. If you’re shooting local go to that location several times plot it out learn what’s there and where the light will fall on those perfectly lit days. If you’re on vacation, or only going to be at this spot once, show up as early as you can manage, get a feel for things, get a sun tracker app on your phone, use a compass. Whatever it takes to arm yourself for the shot, you may not get the shot you’re after, we all fail from time to time. But you gave yourself the best chance of succeeding, in the end, that’s what matters.
ISO: 800
Aperture: f8
SS: 1sec
Focal: 19mm
