Kenneth Waller wrote: > So it begs the hypothetical question - would you have taken the image or > just enjoyed the scene for what it was worth? > Something that I've come to grips with after many years of capturing images > that I eventually discard for similar reasons. There are very few images > I'll attempt with out first evaluating the quality of the light. > > > Kenneth Waller
Here we go. Something to chew on. Several years ago, I went on a shoot with Don Nelson, who worked for Pentax, and some newspaper guy from North Carolina. We had decided to meet in a little town in Tennessee near the NC border, to hike in and photograph Mouse Creek Falls. We arose early, way before dawn, grabbed up all our gear and drove to the trailhead. It was somewhere in the mid-teens, Fahrenheit-wise, and the trail was up a pretty steep angle. The falls were three miles into the woods. It was rocky and cold there in the NC mountains, but we made it all the way in, only to realize that the light was absolutely wrong; we should have waited until afternoon. We set up and shot anyway, -we'd come in, and bygawd we were gonna take pictures- but I've never really liked the results I got, even using a P67. Now, like everyone else here, I shoot quite a bit. The overwhelming majority of the photos I get come under the category of record-keeping; I'm in a place, so I get shots of that place. The quality of the light is not as important as the proof I was there, I think. But if you want to see me excited, or as excited as I ever get, give me some good light, and I'm all over it. I start looking for a subject that fits the light, and the whole magic of photography thing strikes me anew. You have to be wary of becoming too dependent on golden light. When I mention "good" light, it may not be that perfect warmth of the early/late hour. What I mean is light that is interesting, whether it's dusky or rainy or foggy or something different entirely. It's one of those things that I know when I see it. There are subjects which will do justice to that particular quality of light, if only we can find them. Obviously, the best times are when I'm somewhere special, whether it's my backyard or Paris, or wherever, =and= the light's good. That's when it's fun. Did I answer the question? -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
