Sorry I’ve been absent lately. I’ve been working a lot of hours and haven’t even been shooting very much lately, alas. I did manage to get out last night, though and came home with a shot that I kind of like, so I thought I’d do another lesson breaking down my thought processes as I made it.
I went out after work with the intention of shooting the sunflowers that grow around Denver International Airport. That didn’t pan out as well as I had hoped. Still, there was a nearly full moon rising in the East and the haziness we’ve had due to all the wildfires out west have made for interesting skies. There’s a nice concrete grain elevator a little east of Denver in Watkins that I like to shoot when I can’t figure out anything else to do.
When I arrived in Watkins, I decided that I had to add some supplemental lighting to the elevator if I wanted to keep any detail in the moon. I set up my camera on a tripod, measured for the ambient to determine my exposure for the moon and then worked out what I needed to do with my single Nikon SB-26 flash to balance the light from it with the moon. I like to get the flash off camera whenever possible because on camera flash is just flat and dull. This is what I ended up with for the elevator image (not strictly related to what I did with the train, but it kind of sets it up):
While I was working with this shot, I noticed the haze on the horizon lighting up. The light source was far too strong to be just from the highway, so I was guessing that I had a westbound on the Limon Sub. Shortly thereafter, my suspicions were confirmed when he whistled for a crossing east of town and I knew I had only a short time before he arrived.
And we’re back to that “eye” thing I’ve referred to before. I’m not sure that can actually be taught, but one can learn how to turn that inner vision into a very close approximation to what the mind creates.
Now for some digression.
Speaking of “one shot” makes me think of an Ansel Adams story about an iconic Adams image, “Moonrise Over Hernandez, NM.” He related that he was actually returning from a day of shooting and had one unexposed film holder (technically, two shots remaining) when the scene presented itself to him. He hastily set up the camera and got pretty much what he wanted. Metering was something out of the question, but he realized that the moon would be in the zone of essentially high noon (VII), so that was where he set his exposure. He then got the shadow detail he wanted by inspection developing the sheet. Apparently by the time he had made his first exposure and before he could get the holder out and reversed, he had lost the light he wanted. I heard the story in the late 70s at a talk that he gave, and other tellings are at this link.
So here we are, a similar story before us to show how having the experience can give you the ability to spot quickly an image opportunity and do quickly what needs to be done to transform the idea into a captured moment, or in this case, mom
Reference that famous Ansel Adams shot entitled “Moonrise, Hernandez,” the location looks somewhat different in person than the photo. So many photos do. Sadly, the church on the photo’s lower left is no longer there. But, outside of that, to know one stood near where Mr. Adams himself once stood gives one a strange feeling, especially on site.
Maybe someday one of us, Chuck, will say the same thing about CopCarSS’s night crossing gate photo …
Like Mookie, I too found the elevator photo compelling.
An everyday building, one I would not bother to look at in passing, now keeps drawing me back to study, the detail just hidden in the edge of the dark…fantastic.
One “eye” factor that can be taught (and I’m always willing to share it with anyone taking a picture) is the “rule of thirds,” and it is quite evident in Chris’ shot of the train.
You’ll note that the crossbucks/signal are roughly on the right hand vertical third line, and the line of the headlights is more or less on the bottom horizontal third line. Despite that fact that the elevator is nearly dead center in the photo, it serves as background, not the primary subject of the image.
There is no replacement for skill, experience, and knowledge, especially combined with serendipity, but the rule of thirds comes close - oftimes turning a “snapshot” into a portrait. With time, it can become almost automatic.
That, and remembering to look for the tree growing out of Uncle Henry’s head…
Grain Elevator and Moon - Watkins, CO by Chris May, on Flickr