A Personal note:
Folks we’ve been having some crazy weather here in the mountains of southwestern Montana. The winds were so strong last night that a tree fell on my car (true story) and we lost power for the entire evening. Now, on the bright side we played Monopoly via headlamps and candles for four hours. I was thrilled since I had been previously banned from playing Monopoly for nearly two decades due to my inability to “play nice”. I want to thank my girls for humoring me and allowing me to bask in the winner’s spotlight once again as I dominated the board and offered outrageous interest rates just to keep the game going…;)
Photography:
One of my favorite things to do is to watch dark clouds roll in over the mountains, setting the stage for the inevitable storm. These are the moments I find myself grabbing my camera and heading out to find the perfect frame. As a landscape photographer I cherish these moments. Light is everything in photography and good light combined with a dynamic sky can create a dramatic scene. Today’s image was created not by chance but as a direct result of me seeking it out. I watched in the distance as a large thunderstorm system was rolling in and I figured if I headed to one of the lakes nearby I would be confronted by boaters rushing to get off the lake. When I arrived, I was confronted with the opposite. A canoeist was heading out for some unknown reason. The image struck me, a lone canoeist, a thunderstorm in the making and sense of defiance in the air.
What I love about this art is our ability as photographers to interpret a moment. I realize creating an image is not simply a recording of events but a reflection of a photographer’s interpretation of events. These interpretations can be manipulated by our choice of color, dodging, burning, cloning etc. I saw a dark sky with a lone canoeist heading into uncharted waters. I chose to darken the sky and cool the image to enhance the feeling. Another photographer might see clear skies ahead and have chosen to lighten the sky and to warm the image up. What counts is being true to your inner voice and creating an image that evokes an emotional response on some level.
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I love this photograph, and your comments about how you imagined it. That reinforces what I do while working over the images I capture on the camera. Are we influenced, in making our art, by the current state of our emotions? I have to think so. What one day we see a dark and foreboding may, on another day, seem to have a sense of adventure, as your image here does.
Nice work, John, and thank you for sharing your insights with us.
Ed…thanks for your comments.
I like your processing decisions. This image is full of mood! I love these types of lighting conditions as well but they can be some of the toughest to shoot. The weather is usually headed south in a big way and the possibility of getting caught in a torrential downpour is always looming. The payoffs are usually worth it though.
I think I had 2-3 minutes to get this shot and it started pouring….but I too enjoy the mood of the image.
Good Post john
greg
great photos. i’m new to photography. thanks to pages like this it makes it easier to learn. thanks
That is a great shot, I am just learning the true magic of photo editing. Thank you for all of the insights on all aspects of photography.
John, I keep coming back to this post. It’s short, sweet and speaks very truly. I had the exact though you spoke about another photographer maybe choosing to lighten the sky and look for more optimism in the image. I feel I might have done that. Similarly to Chris I am actually only starting to get to grips with this kind of vision-based editing. But that’s me and my interpretation, you put a great image in front of us.
Ed,
Thanks for your comments. I really enjoy hearing how people would interpret an image or make it their own…that’s one of things I love about photography. John