AR 2 - Ferns, Trees, and Snakes

It has been almost three weeks since my last photo-walk. I didn't intend to take such a long break :-) I did a lot of shooting elsewhere in the reservoir during the "break", and I'll post about that later.

There is a fallen tree alongside the trail that has ferns growing out of the trunk. It is incredibly beautiful, and I had intended to photograph it when I started this project last month. But on my first outing, I found all the ferns brown and dried up.

Yesterday, I discovered that the fern has come back. It's not returned to the full, bright green that it was before, but it's definitely alive.

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The trail comes to several large, open fields along the section that I walk, and there is a lone tree out there next to the trail. I was quite surprised to find a cloud that was the same shape as the tree.

I'd like to keep these posts to just one photo, but this was too good to pass up. Plus I was too excited to see the fern come back.

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As it gets warmer, the snakes appear more often along the trail. They like to sit on the asphalt and warm up. This water moccasin (cottonmouth) stayed very still as I passed by. I couldn't resist posting this either.

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On the photo/creative side of things, I thought about opportunities. How often have we passed up something and not had the chance to come back later? And if we did come back, the conditions were not the same? And we smack our heads because we missed the great scene and knew that we should have stopped for that photo the first time.

The ferns are a good example. I should have photographed them more than a month ago when they were tall and vibrant. When I finally got around to hauling a camera out there, the ferns were dead (or dormant, rather - I just didn't know at the time).

I almost stopped to photograph that tree (the one above with the clouds) as I walked the first two miles (recall that my walking route is 2 miles out and two miles back on the same trail). The clouds were multiple, small puff-balls that made an excellent background to the tree. I passed it up and decided to stop on my way back if the clouds were still good.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have. But when I did stop on my way back, I found something extraordinary - a big cloud that was identical in shape to the tree! And I only discovered this cloud because I actually stopped and looked back towards the tree (the scene that I shot was behind me on my walk back). If I had stopped earlier on my first encounter with the tree, then I would have ignored the tree on my return walk and probably not have noticed that great cloud.

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Regardless, the thing to remember, I think, is to photograph those opportunities when you can. When you come along something interesting but have a notion to pass it up, listen to that little voice that's telling you to stop. And when you have multiple opportunities, take them all!