Playing Ball on Running Water
November 25th, 2009
That Zen saying is one I think about when it comes to working outdoors and trying to make art. You can plan all you want, but Mother Nature is going to dictate what you can and cannot do and your success will be determined by how well you can adapt to what you find when you are out there trying to make photographs.
I’m pretty good at adapting. And I’m pretty good at planning and adjusting the plan as needed. But today Mother Nature was flat out fucking with me.
I’d seen some things happening with the changing of the seasons that is a little unusual. We’ve had an unusual year as far as weather is concerned and I think it’s resulting in a little different progression of fall into winter. There was a situation that I thought would make a good figure shot. It required an overcast sky, which has been what we’ve had constantly for the past week…and what is forecast for today and the coming week.
So I called Angie and set up a shoot for this morning. Angie has become my “go-to” model for lots of things recently. She’s beautiful, she’s a talented model who is learning and getting better every time we shoot, and she’s often available and willing to put herself through the torture that my models frequently have to endure, especially at this time of year.
When I got up this morning there was a heavy overcast. Perfect. But as I headed to my studio to meet Angie the clouds moved off to the east and clear blue skies appeared. Shit! But Angie and I went on the location I had scouted. And, as I knew would be the case, the photos I had in mind would not work with the harsh sun beating down on us.
Time to adapt the plan. We hiked around and found some spots that worked ok, but in a different way from what I had envisioned. While scouting I had spotted this log out in the lake. On the day I was there the air was still and there was that overcast. There were beautiful reflections in the still water. I didn’t think it would work today, but we went there and Angie crawled out onto the log. This spot on the lake was sheltered enough that there were still reflections, despite a brisk, cold wind. Clouds started moving back in and added a nice element to both the sky and the reflections in the lake. So, we got a photo. Not the one I set out to take today, but still a keeper.
Of course, as we headed back to the studio the clouds moved back in and within an hour there was a full overcast again. We would have waited around, but Angie had to get to work at her day job, so that wasn’t an option.
But, I have another shoot planned for Monday…maybe the clouds will be back…no telling if fall will have progressed into winter too far for the photo to still be there, but I’ll just adapt the plan to what I find then.
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