Remembering Why.
I posted this image to social media a while ago. I like it enough; it has everything I love, not my wife or dogs, but everything else. But it is not my best work; I don’t think it is. It is a little soft in the lower-right corner, and I under-exposed the shadows; I framed the falls too tightly on the left-hand side yada, yada, yada. I am sure most photographers can nitpick all the small details in their photos and tell you what's wrong with them. But what this image represents for me is getting back to basics. Just getting out and enjoying being out in nature and enjoying it for what it is. I don’t get a chance to go out and create images as often as I like, and when I do go out, I feel like I need to get a great photo, or the day will be a failure. I have forgotten why I got into landscape photography in the first place. To enjoy being out in new areas to escape the “working world” and tell my story of the places I visit and what they mean to me.
I had started this day with that same frame of mind, I had to get a good image, or this would be another wasted day. That self-imposed pressure felt even more real as I had not been out for the last three weeks. As soon as I came across this scene, I wanted to photograph it. As I mentioned, it was everything that I liked to photograph. I set up my shot got all my settings dialed in, and took the photo. Then I sat there. That was it, I just sat there, listening to the wind move through the trees, the water flowing gently over the moss-covered rocks, and I enjoyed the moment. The self-imposed necessity for the perfect image vanished as soon as the shutter closed. I found myself in the middle of the woods in a peaceful place, and the only thing I had to do was enjoy it. The image I had just created was secondary suddenly; all that remained was the creek, the rocks, the trees, and the feeling I felt being there. All of a sudden, I remembered why I did this! I photograph the landscape to carry with me what I experience in nature and, hopefully, bring it to others to enjoy.
