I love finding photographic subjects in places other people just don’t think about. I can’t definitively explain why others don’t see some these subjects. My guess is that it probably has a lot to do with the fact that, since they see these things every day, they have become ordinary.
In other words, they have become “immune” to their surroundings. Based on my own personal experience, I can tell you I have fallen victim to that condition more times than I can count. It’s only through a huge stroke of luck, such as light hitting something in just a certain way, that I have found some amazing local opportunities. But, for every opportunity I’ve discovered there is an untold number of possibilities I have missed. Or, perhaps it would be more accurate to say there are untold possibilities I continue to search for.
When I look at this image that I captured several years, that is one of the first thoughts that comes to my mind. Looking at it, it appears to be a small waterfall located in a very quiet, very tranquil location. But, it’s not. It’s actually located in front of a large office building on a very busy street where traffic never seems to slow down much less stop. Thousands of people drive by this spot every single day, yet I have never seen another photograph of it.
When I first noticed this waterfall, I wanted to stop and photograph it. However, there were a number of conditions that weren’t very conducive to photography. It was in a busy city; it was on a busy street; it was in front of a busy office building; it was the middle of the day; the lighting was terrible; and so on and so forth.
The biggest obstacle I faced, though, was that it was in the middle of a day. . .a work day, and I certainly wasn’t dressed for any kind of photographic endeavor. So, I had to wait for a few hours to come back to it after I got off of work.
Fortunately, that wait turned out to be to my advantage. By the time I was able to get back to the site, the sky had become overcast which eliminated the lighting issue. I was able to park in the empty parking lot in front of the office building, which, of course, had been full of cars earlier in the day. And, most importantly, I was able to take my time to find the right spot from which to shoot.
I spent probably 30 to 45 minutes in that location that evening and got a number of images that I liked. But, as I was photographing away with cars speeding by me, I was just as amazed then as I am now about how I seemed to be the only one who noticed this remarkable place.