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I've rambled on about attraction and finding photographs during photographic outings in the last several posts. It's a complicated subject, mainly because it is probably very different for each person.
The thing that is clear to me is that the process is more successful with 1) the right frame of mind or mood, and 2) practice. And I'm definitely getting that sort of practice during these photo-walks.
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No snake photos this time - but I fulfilled a childhood dream. When I was a kid, I spent hours and hours, summer after summer chasing butterflies with a net. The ultimate butterfly for me, the one that I fantasized about catching, was a western tiger swallowtail. I never caught one despite my efforts.
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I came across one during my walk yesterday, and the timing was perfect. It didn't notice me approach because the sun was to my back. Amazingly, it didn't detect me as I closed in and photographed from different angles. It stayed for a few minutes drinking from a small bunch of flowers.
Yeh, it sounds cheesy, but it really was fulfilling. However, instead of ending up smothering in alcohol in a jar, the butterfly went free and I retained the experience in pixels.
The butterfly shot is great, and all the sweeter for bringing back your childhood. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Hobbit Hole misses the mark for me, I think because depth of the scene that was undoubtedly there in person doesn't quite come through in the image.
This is something I often struggle with when shooting in forests or other dense environments, because without the spatial cues that we see in person, the images will often look busy or random even though that's not what it was like to be there. I had this problem alot during my recent Redwood trip.