BLOG: When the Image Sucks
Around 3pm I began monitoring the sky conditions and checked my phone app for the weather forecast and time of sunset (5:57pm), then began planning what compositions might be had. Checked my gear bag, assembled the lenses I thought I would need, fed the pets and waited until an hour before sunset then set out in search of a composition.
The composition I had in mind was rolling hills of yet unharvested crops so I followed the winding back roads through the countryside in search of just such a scene. I continued to monitor the suns angle of descent as an attempt to best judge locations and compositions which would catch the softened fleeting light of the day. On several occasions I thought to myself: "Oh, that scene might work..." only to reject the composition as unsuitable. The sun continued to set.
Although I was not finding the composition that I had originally planned for I was not worried as I still had the local State Park as a backup plan. I have been meaning to photograph the State Park for years as an extended study and with the colors in the sky building I figured tonight might be a excellent time to start that long-planned work. As I drove through the east entrance to the park the "composition hunt" was back on.
After several more "oh that might work...hmm no the light is not right" internal dialogs, I came upon a scene in the park that was definitely on my 'to do list'. I gauged the soft, waning sunset light might fall nicely on the rock formations which could be captured with some long exposures. Now parked, I grabbed my gear and headed towards the path where upon I soon was pondering several compositions. Settling on one composition I setup the tripod, attached the camera, framed the scene, checked the focus, once, twice and again, took some sample shots, checked focus again then unfolded my hiking three-legged stool and proceeded to wait for the light to change.
Well the light never changed or at least it never met my expectations. The clouds that were previously present and promising for reflective soft warm sunset light on the objects in the valley never materialized. When I got home and began processing the RAW files in Capture One I realized the composition failed to impress as well.
The composition is so busy and is just utter chaos and I found myself once again in an internal dialog, this time asking myself what I actually saw in the scene?
Still, knowing the power of Photoshop, I began an edit session and cropped to 4x5 to remove a very distracting downed log in the foreground, which is what you see above, but the continued myriad of distracting elements in the image still seemed insurmountable. Then there is that pesky lack of any interesting light. Photography is all about the light and this image is void of anything interesting in this regard as well. In the end the -- image fail!
However, I still consider this quick photographic adventure a success. I took my first deliberately composed photograph roughly 40 years ago at the West Bend Grotto as a wee lad on a Kodak Duoflex IV 620 medium format camera that I had found in the attic and ever since have been drawn by the visualization and framing of compositions more than anything else about photography and art. Certainly, being rewarded for ones efforts with a good (keeper) final image is its own reward, but for me failed images equally propel me to continue the hunt for compositions, correct my mistakes, learn more about a location and inspire ever more improved approaches to capturing the beauty and interest that inspired my stopping to setup the tripod in the first place.
References
West Bend Grotto - http://www.westbendgrotto.com/