Ansel Adams once said “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.” I would argue that the second worst thing is a weak image of a firm concept. And, that is exactly what happened with this photograph.
I was out early one morning to do some photography with some clear ideas in mind of what I wanted to do. I had not expected the sky to be as cloudy as it was, but I didn’t let that stop me, and I headed down on a part dirt, part gravel farm road not far from my house where an old, abandoned church was located.
I had visited this church a few times in the past, and one of the things I remembered about it was that one of the front doors was always ajar. So, one of the images I had in mind was to photograph these doors. I even had a title for the soon-to-be-created photograph: “What Lies Beyond.” Pretty catchy, don’t you think?
When I arrived, I found that several small trees had grown up in front of the church, and their limbs were overlapping the scene I wanted to frame. There was no way I could compose the image the way I wanted without including the branches. Perhaps, if they’d had some leaves on them or something, it might have added to the sense of mystery I wanted to convey. But, as it was, they were simply distracting. I grabbed a quick shot and then went on my way.
As I continued down the old road, something caught my eye. I stopped to investigate, but whatever it was was gone. As I was getting back in my truck, the clouds began to break slightly, and I noticed the sky being reflected in a water-filled ditch. I immediately went over to check it out.
A gentle breeze was rippling the water ever so slightly, so my first thought was to photograph just the reflection. Looking at the camera screen, though, I realized that the ripples were almost indistinguishable, which would make it hard to recognize that the sky was a reflection. I noticed a clump of grass that I thought would provide the clue that the viewer was not seeing the sky directly but instead was looking at a reflection. Making sure I had sufficient depth of field and the highlights were not overexposed, I pressed the shutter button quite pleased with my luck.
A week later, I reviewed the image on my computer and discovered I wasn’t as pleased with the result as I thought I would be. (I usually try to give myself at least a week before I review my images so the excitement of the moment will be worn off and I can assess them as objectively as possible.) While I liked the reflection, I felt the clump of grass was just that – a clump of grass. It wasn’t nearly as photogenic as I thought it was at that moment, and there were more grasses in the corner that were just, well, they added nothing to the image. In addition, the reflection of the sky was not as smooth as I would have liked it to have been. There was really nothing I could do to “fix” these fundamental problems, so I moved on.
How could this image be improved to match what I had envisioned in my mind? First, rather than a clump of grasses, having a few reeds or perhaps a rock would have provided a cleaner point of orientation. Second, trying to find a smooth reflection not dotted with surface bubbles or little blades of grasses poking through the surface.
While I’m disappointed with the final results of this image, I think the concept was good. The problem is that I simply didn’t have a strong enough composition to bring the concept to fruition.