Today’s topic is simple: you’re out on a photography session; how much effort does it take to get a great image?
Short answer: It varies, a lot.
Long answer: Sometimes you get lucky and the light, composition, and timing just all come magically together as if you had a magic wand and had waved it instead of a camera. Sometimes no great image exists—or at least you can’t find it—no matter how much time you take.
The great deceit of most landscape professionals is that they will often go to the same place many, many times before the photo they want to take happens. Wrong time of day. Wrong time of year. Wrong lighting (overcast, full sun). Wrong colors (leaf color change was disappointing this year). Wrong weather (it’s raining, or it’s not ;~). Tree fell over. River running low. Snow level too high (or low). The list goes on and on and on.
I once watched a well-known landscape photographer pull his entire workshop class off the Merced River once (dinner time!) just before the light went magical on Half Dome. He had to know that was going to happen, but he also knew that the Camp Curry restaurant was going to close soon. Net result, he increased the effort those students would need to take to get their own great Half Dome image. Perhaps he didn’t want any competition ;~).
The great deceit of many sports and wedding photographers is that they often just learn to take the same image when they see the same circumstances. In the case of wedding photographers, they have the ability to impact the circumstance, too, so they tend to fall into style ruts where they always approach things the same way, only in different places. In both cases, these photographers are trying to reduce the effort necessary to take a “great enough” image.
I could go on, but much of a professional photographers’ work revolves around (1) keep trying until everything aligns properly; or (2) take shortcuts that you know work. #1 is a lot of effort, #2 is attempting to reduce effort. So don’t think we just walk into a scene and take a fantastic photo. More often than not, we don’t.
Ansel Adams was once quoted as saying he’d be happy with 12 significant images a year. This from a man that was out photographing far more than you and I are.
We’re over halfway through the year, have you taken your 6 significant images yet?
