You Gotta Scratch Your Head!
Do Small Details Matter?
I kinda pride myself on including those elements that help the story telling while eliminating those that don’t. This is all done in the viewfinder. There are times though when I see the smallest detail and I will wait to make that one detail at least in my mind, pop though in the final image, it’s the smallest detail. So it begs the question in my own mind, do small details matter? Case in point, the rainbow at the base of Lower Yosemite Falls. By itself, it is so dynamic, so gorgeous and so full of life. What else can really matter in such a moment, a capture? Well to this shooter, the rock in the lower right corner. I waited and worked until that little kiss of light kissed its top. Why? Because to me, it looks exactly like Half Dome but only a fraction of the size. Now I think that, I know that I’m in Yosemite shooting Lower Yosemite Falls and Yosemite is the home of Half Done. But does any one looking at this photo know it’s “Lower Yosemite Falls” located in Yosemite and know the shape of Half Dome so well they connect all those dots? Honestly, that’s a stretch! So then why work to include some detail that in the final analyzes only you really know it’s there? I think we all SHOULD because the photo has to matter to US before it matters to anyone else! It is just possible that if you care that much about such a small detail, there might just be some bigger, more important ones that matter to you as well. If nothing else, it means you’re putting more heart than perhaps technical into your photo and that is always a good thing. You of course must answer the question for yourself and your own photography. But to me and my photography when all it said and one, small detail do matter.
The Falls are Simply Spectacular!
“What is the subject?” When you’ve greeted the sun at the base of Lower Yosemite Falls, your senses are so overwhelmed, you simply might not know that answer to that question. But as the sun starts to creep its way down the face of the wall, it all becomes very clear. The spray is hitting you in the face and coating all your gear. The breeze blows your hair and fills your smell with the sweet aroma of Cedar. And then the color hits and you can barely get out the words….”WOW!” The falls are simply spectacular!
Once you take those couple of overall, “I was here shots,” it’s time to get back to “What’s the subject?” The rainbow which appears for a short time under only the right conditions is simply so cool to watch as it dances with the mist. For the first time, many shot video this morning just to be able to take the experience back home. But when it comes to the single clicks, zooming in tight with the 70-200 and ripping the frames when you saw the highlights your wanted with the D4, the magic of the moment is forever captured. To me, it’s very rewarding to share this valley secret with the folks, even more when coated with spray, all you see are the biggest smiles! Life gets no better in photography!
Back in the Valley Again!
Ya, back in Yosemite Valley again and you know what, the rocks are all in the same spot. And it’s still as gorgeous as ever! There is water in the falls (Upper Yosemite Falls at night pictured here) and clouds are in the forecast, it will be a great week. The challenge for me is, for some one who has been to a location hundreds of times, how to you approach it photographically to comeback with something new? The trick is there is one is two fold, follow the light and, make every click count! While the rocks are the same ones as on my first visit to the valley 45yrs ago, everything else is new which includes how my heart now responds to them. It does require not falling in the trap of shooting what I’ve shot before which means pushing because some views just don’t change. It means taking a deep breath and feeling more and lastly, remember to move the feet. The tripod has legs, so do you so move and look! Hope you’ll check back to see how I do this week as I approach my 1000 day in the Valley.
Moose, Photo Trap & the Bobcat
So I’m home for a few days, finally. I’ve only been home up till now since the 1st of the year, 8 days. I’ve got this really, really cool tool here, The Photo Trap that I want to use on a project I’m doing with our No Flying Squirrels. Well, to use the Photo Trap, I need to have flying squirrels. While I was gone, Sharon would check on them at night and most nights when she looked, they were there. All was good.
Three weeks ago I was heading out to the airport, heading to Grand Canyon. It was my normal departure time for the airport, 01:00. I was just going up the onramp to the highway and crossing in front of me was a adult Bobcat! I stopped and watched because in my 50yrs in Mammoth, I have never seen a Bobcat. Bears, Mtn Lions, Coyotes, you bet. Bobcat, never! So I watched, texted Sharon and then headed up the highway once it passed. While I was gone, Sharon was talking to our neighbor, a second home owner who told them they saw a Bobcat one night staring in their window at them. Sharon found it hard to believe, figured it was somebodies lost house cat. Well, since I’ve gotten back home from the Grand Canyon, the last few nights, we’ve had no squirrels. I had the Photo Trap, D4, SB-900s and other goodies ready to go, but no subjects. Time is running out, about to be on the road again for three weeks.
So I’m taking the dogs out a 23:00 for their last trip of the day. As always, I do a 360 with my maglite to check the trees for owls and the like. I come over to our tree that has all the flying squirrels to see if any appeared and what do I see perched on the branch, a Bobcat! It’s just lying there, watching the dogs and me and not doing a thing! I go to the door and yell in the house to Sharon there’s a Bobcat in tree 3!. I hurry the dogs up, get them in the house and up the stairs I go. And there the Bobcat laid, watching us watch it. It’s a juvenile, pretty small and really cute.Sharon says, “Can’t you get a picture of it?” It’s 23:00, it’s just nine feet from the door. I said I don’t think so. But I still grabbed the D4, 70-200 & SB-900 and while knowing it was a no win situation, made the click. You see the results above. We then continued to watch it for quite a while. I finally slowly open the door trying to get a shot. I take a step forward and it slowly turned and climbed the tree. That was it. The next morning in the fresh snow I went looking for tracks. On the other side of the property I found its tracks. I also found the tracks of what appears to be a bunny family, most likely the reason for it being on our property.
Last night, we were looking every five minutes to see if it returned. Just before 23:00, fresh tracks appeared going right under our deck door and heading to the tree. We never saw it last night, haven’t got a photo of it but we have the vision of that Bobcat nine feet away, looking at us looking at it forever exposed on the thin emulsion of our minds. It was a good night!
And When Blessed with Heavens of Light?
Well, when that happens it tend to throw everything into chaos! Why, because taking what the mind’s eye is telling us and cramming that into the viewfinder can simply be sensory overload. When you see those magical, heart warming, soul stirring God beams the panic sets into capture them because we know, we just know how special they really are. No matter who you are or where you were raised, they stir something inside. And that’s what we want our photography to do, stir something inside. So you could say that capturing successfully God beam is an easy way to make that something stir inside. Just how so you do that, capture them God beams?
We were incredible fortunate to have many opportunities on our K&M Adventures Grand Canyon to have a whole bunch of God beam opportunities so discussing them was a hot topic. What I can pass along is what I’ve found works for me hoping it helps you. First, you gotta ask yourself, what’s the subject? It is the God beam so then you have to make sure in the viewfinder, that’s what you see. God beams often are associated with a hole in the clouds which is BRIGHTER than the beams. Since we know that the mind’s eye goes to light and bright first, if you want the viewer to see those God beams, that bright spot can’t be in the final photo. You can do that simply by not including it in the photo when you go click. You must follow through with that same thinking when you finish the photograph! How do you do that? Well, during our digital darkroom session, I demoed at least three different ways to make your finishing clicks compliment your camera clicks. I got a real kick when I showed how, with moving just two sliders in ACR, in a heartbeat I finished the photos and folks saying, “I would have never guessed you could do that!” These are simple D4 / 24-70 clicks. Photography is all about light, it is what makes the photo. It’s our job to find it, caress it, love it and then share it. You do that when you have just a droplet or when blessed with heavens of light!