When it comes to my photography, I’ve never been very good at just driving around and seeing what I can find. My preference is to have a specific location to go to and then let serendipity take its course. On those occasions when I can’t decide where to go, I have a hard time motivating myself to get out there and find what I find, and I tend to just stay home rather than go out and wander aimlessly. This is especially problematic when the conditions are perfect for photography, although, to be honest, I really don’t think there is such a thing as “imperfect” conditions.
But, every once in a while, I will push myself to get out and try to find something to photograph even if I don’t have a pre-chosen location to go to. Oftentimes, it doesn’t seem to work out very well, and I come home with nothing to show. Sometimes, though, I find something quite unexpected that makes the effort worth it, and that was the case when I found this waterfall several years ago.
I had woken up that morning to unexpectedly find the sky quite overcast. Most people find such days depressing, but I like a nice cloudy day. Whenever possible, I like to get out and do some photography on a cloudy day. However, on this particular day, I had no idea where to go or what to shoot. I decided that, since I was pretty tired, I would just go back to sleep.
But as I was lying there, I kept thinking about all the potential opportunities I might be missing. The situation kept gnawing at me, but I just could not figure out how to take advantage of it. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to get up and just drive around and see what I could find.
With no clear ideas in mind, I headed toward Petit Jean State Park. But as I got closer to the park, I realized that I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about going there. So, I drove through the park and continued down the road.
As I drove, I noticed a few scenes that piqued my interest: the sun just barely peeking through the clouds over a lake, a mimosa tree displaying various shades of green, and a few old barns. I stopped to get some images, but none of it was really motivating me. Feeling as if I were wasting my time, I gave up and started heading back home.
Soon thereafter, I found a road I had never been on before. Checking my map, I saw that it would still get me where I wanted to go, so I decided to check it out without getting my hopes up that I would find anything.
Perhaps it was because I had let go of my expectations, or perhaps it was just good luck, or, more likely, the combination of the two, but, as I rounded a curve in the road, I found this waterfall flowing just beside the highway. I immediately found a safe place to pull off the road to get several nice pictures of the waterfall, but this one was my favorite of the day.