Time flies when you’re having fun, or so the saying goes. But, time also flies when you’re not necessarily having fun. I found that out the hard way recently when, between work and other matters, I realized it had been over six weeks since I had been out with my camera. With an urge to do a little photography, I loaded up my gear and headed for a tried and true location: Petit Jean State Park.
I wanted to arrive at the park just as the sky was getting brighter, which, at this time of year, is around 5:30 in the morning, so I left the house at 4:15. As I got closer and closer to the park, the light was getting brighter and brighter. Everything was going according to plan.
As I drove down the road that leads into the park, I spotted this scene. What caught my attention was the contrast between the brown tree trunk and the bright green leaves surrounding the tree. To me, the scene epitomized spring, and I absolutely had to photograph it.
The challenge was finding a place to stop. The park road is a simple two lane country road with no shoulder to pull on to. My only option was to stop at a small pullout that may, or may not, have been someone’s driveway and walk back a couple of hundred feet to the location. Since it was still before 6:00 in the morning, I figured the likelihood that I would be preventing someone from coming out was virtually zero.
A few years ago, I discovered that if I wanted to improve my photography, I needed to have a simple process that focused on compositional aspects. In my process, step one is to get the composition as I want it. Only after I have completed step one can I move to step two, which is to determine the camera settings I need to capture the photograph I’m trying to create. It is certainly a simple process that, when I actually follow it, I come home with much better images than when I don’t.
In practice, however, my normal routine is even simpler: find an interesting subject, set up my camera, determine the proper setting, and start pressing the shutter button. The missing step in that is the compositional aspect. While I like to fool myself into believing I consider composition, the reality is I really don’t put much thought into it or, at least, not as much thought as I should. And, as one might expect, this lack of consideration often manifests itself in poor results.
As I walked back to the location of this scene, I was determined to avoid that disappointment, so I kept telling myself to follow my process, follow my process, follow my process. When I got to the trees and leaves, I pulled out my camera and attached my lens. But, instead of immediately putting it on a tripod as I normally would, I handheld the camera and spent several minutes walking around trying to find just the composition I wanted. I would take a few steps one way, look through the viewfinder, and assess. Then, I would take a few more steps and do it again. I repeated this process over and over moving left, right, up and back before I settled on this particular composition.
What I liked about it is how it emphasizes the contrast between the brown trunk and green leaves. But, I also liked the lighting contrast between the much brighter foreground trunk and leaves and background elements that were in shadow. This provided a nice separation between the foreground and background that added a sense of depth to the image. This separation created a sense that, once I stepped past those foreground leaves, I would find myself in a thick, dense, dark forest full of mystery and intrigue. It was a place where I could let my imagination run wild. Every time I look at this picture, I wonder what is among those trees waiting to be found.
This is an image I would not have created had I followed my usual practice of setting up my gear as soon as I got there. I was only able to do this because I followed my process of slowing down, finding my composition first, and then deciding on the proper camera settings. Only after I had gone through this routine did I even consider pressing the shutter button.