How many trips does it take to the same location to get the photographs you want? The answer is, as many as it takes. When one’s desire to accomplish the completion of a photography related project becomes an obsession with perfection, one forgets that sometimes nature does not cooperate.
I am struggling “big time” with photography at City of Rocks, Idaho. Why? Because Mother Nature has not been in a cooperative mood lately.
I am starving for the right set of photographs from this area for a project I am working on with Dave Seeram. It is our first major project together and my hope has been to provide him with my very best work. The problem? A hang up related to getting just the right photos from my perspective.
In my journal I have noted this frustration and will visit the entry often. Here is why. With this trip I took my good friend and fellow photographer Paul Dennison.
We ventured out in to the “wild”, which “ain’t really so wild”, and found it beautiful. However, the drama I looked for in the scenery that surrounded us failed me. Part of the failure is found in me, because I set expectations for myself way too high.
Paul and I had a great time. We made photographs like crazy. We stayed up late for a sunset that never transpired and got up early for a daybreak that broke our hearts.
So what does one do when these types of circumstances arise? One goes back until he or she gets it right. In this case City of Rocks is very close, so I really am able to return to it multiple times to get what I am looking for in the way of dramatic scenery.
There is a question, however. What of the places I will travel to soon where I will not be able to return multiple times? I believe a change in the way I prepare my attitude to visit a location is in order.
I must begin taking in to account that the weather, environmental conditions, and scenery may not live up to my expectations. I scold myself on this point, and then laugh, because although I know I cannot control these things, I still become frustrated with them when they do not turn out the way I think they should. Arrogance? Naw… Dumb thinking and the fact that I am still an amateur.
We struggling and starving artists, me in particular, need to get over the frustrations found in making photographs. “Life ain’t perfect” and neither is the process by which we capture the scenery around us. It is a good lesson and one that I am taking with me in the future for all photographic adventures.
Planning and preparation are a necessity, but remember that when shooting in a place you cannot always control what is happening in that place. As matter of fact, you cannot control it at all if you are relying on nature to fill the area with dramatic moments. That is just the way it is and we must, I must, make the best of it by seeking out those things that we believe are not dramatic when they really are.
Later this week there will be two more articles on the latest trip to City of Rocks. There is a tale to be told in what Paul and I experienced. Some of that tale is related to self-inflicted pain and sleeplessness. It was simply AWESOME! I will be sharing a few of these moments, so look for them later this week.
In the meantime, stop being so hard on yourself. More for me than you, but maybe you too.
Featured in the photographs above is Paul Dennison. Good friend and fellow traveler.
