Creative photo opportunities have been few and far between for me recently. Winters in Nebraska aren't exactly inspiring (most of the time). But it is amazing how many times you see great images when you are least able to capture them (Murphy's Law of Photography?)
Got up this morning, predawn, to walk the dog before leaving for work and there was a gorgeous and striking conjunction of the crescent moon and venus in the southeast. Then leaving for work (1 degree F) I decided to take the interstate which parallels the flat Platte River basin and I was struck by the gorgeous fog coming off of the frozen ponds, lakes, and river & creek channels. Trees and bushes were frosted white by their overnight exposure to the freezing fog. The scene got even more beautiful as the sun crept over the horizon and bathed everything in that warm morning light. Turning north off the interstate to take the final leg to work I saw, near the road, a cluster of geese sitting on the ice enshrouded in more fog. Then looking west, I saw horses bathed in the same warm light, breath comng out of their nostrils. I was cursing the fact that I had to bypass each of these photo opportunities due to the call of a timeclock, but if I was honest with myself I probably would not have even witnessed any of these scenes if I hadn't been on my way to work. My lazy butt would probably have still been under the warm covers while all of these excellent (and frozen) photo opportunities passed in my blissful, slumbering ignorance. Still, I'm glad to have "captured" them with the eye of a photographer. It is more than possible that my visualization of the images is better than my actual execution in capturing them photographically would have been. Everything is perfect in the theoretical. But while visual exercises are nice, it is in the actual photographic capture that we find our greatest pleasure and it gives us the opportunity to relive those moments of transient beauty each time we look at them. I probably should have been another 15 minutes late to work and captured at least ONE of them. Darren Addy Kearney, Nebraska -- Photographers must learn not to be ashamed to have their photographs look like photographs. ~ Alfred Stieglitz -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
