Last Year's Bulrush | Wetland plants Strap-like leaves, creeping stems Dense complex flower spikes |
P art of the challenge and gratification of photography is continuing to find images in the familiar surroundings of everyday experience. Since moving to Warrensburg four years ago, I have been to the small ponds at Pertle Springs hundreds of times. Yet I am still able to find new and different images on most visits. Photography is predicated on both a response to ever changing external conditions, as well as shifting internal points of reference, and is therefore infinite in scope. At any given time there are many potential worthy images available for those with the vision, energy, and motivation to seek them out.
This realization sometimes is a source of frustration. There are occasions when the ambient light interacting with the environment is exceptionally lovely, and I wish I could be capturing images in several places simultaneously before conditions change. The image in my viewfinder is good, but the one obtainable just over that hill may be better. This tempts me to work faster than normal so I can move to the next opportunity, and this haste can induce errors. The solution to this is to develop high speed proficiency in composition selection and camera operations.
“You learn to see by practice. It's just like playing tennis; you get better the more you play. The more you look around at things, the more you see. The more you photograph, the more you realize what can be photographed and what can't be photographed. You just have to keep doing it.” - Eliot Porter
