gdanmitchell Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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Thanks, toddle.
At the risk of "more words,", I'm going to say a bit more about the "eludes me" subject and this photograph. This sort of photograph, by its nature, often is elusive. It usually isn't exactly the sort of thing you can go out to find, since these effects of light and atmosphere are almost completely unpredictable and very ephemeral. This photograph was certainly not the direct result of planning - though perhaps an indirect result of "planning" to be in a place where fog and dawn light were a possibility, and then of looking continuously and intently at what there was to see.
It was (and is!) also important, I think, to respond quickly and decisively to such circumstances when they occur. When I came very slowly around the bend in the gravel road where I saw this light, the specific composition of this photograph was not immediately apparent to me, but I felt that something was going to be possible here, so without thinking a whole lot I simply stopped and got out and started looking. I had perhaps a minute or two to photograph this light before it was mostly gone, and I think I made perhaps a half dozen photographs (some near duplicates) in that brief time.
While whatever success came from this photo was related to some gear stuff, it probably isn't in the ways that some might imagine. For example, while I virtually always shoot landscapes from the tripod, this photograph was handheld. When things are changing quickly, it is often better to just photograph in whatever way captures the ephemeral conditions than to fiddle too much with gear. (Sometimes my strategy is to first get something handheld in conditions like this, and to then slow down and use the tripod if the potential persists.) Secondly, I was not shooting with what some might regard as an ideal bird or landscape photography setup - instead I had a 100-400mm zoom on a 5DII. But here, as is often the case I think, the flexibility and versatility of this zoom made the photograph possible - which it would not have been with, say, a 500mm tele prime or a shorter zoom or prime.
And, as is almost always the case, luck plays a big role. While it was my conscious choice to put myself in a place where fog and dawn light were likely, I could not possibly have known that this specific and very brief opportunity would occur, much less where to find it - and it was simply good fortune that I happened to come around this particular turn at this particular moment.
Take care,
Dan
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