Have you ever spent a lot of time at some locale, shooting it until you are bored? Then, you have a friend who has never been to that locale and they ask you to go and because of your friendship you go knowing you will probably be photographically, bored? We start off at such opportunities already thinking, “I’m not going to get any photos today!” We know we shouldn’t think that but hell, we’re human! It can be hard to get excited when we repeat a photographic opportunity for the twentieth time but that’s the time to dig down and move our butt!
I’ve spent a lot of time in hangars and while the planes change, the hangar is the hangar is the hangar and normally, they are a visually busy place. They are simply a photographic challenge. The number of hangars I’ve “gardened” for that one shot and then “ungardened” afterwards is more than I care to think about. Even with that, if you think about it, I rarely post any hangar photos because they simply don’t turn out looking anything more than, a busy garage. So when I found myself “stuck” in a hangar while a rain downpour past, I mentally went into a creative slumber. Not a good thing. While in my stupor, the clouds off on the horizon changed and the sun broke through a small hole int them and lit up the hangar. That light instantly burnt off the creative cobwebs for this hangar I’ve been to so many times in the past.
It always amazes me how light can dramatically change the boring! I instantly got the D750 / 24-70VR stuck them on a tripod and headed for that light. The hangar that I’ve spent weeks in full of distracting elements suddenly became new with one subject, the PT-17 Stearman in Luke Field colors screaming to be photographed. Then the light kept unfolding and the storm broke and that busy tarmac emptied and became the perfect background. Then the light changed again making that busy hangar the perfect background by simply turing the Stearman (thank goodness its light!). That mental, photographic boredom had completely reversed and now was that mental, photographic panic as the changing light opened up opportunity after opportunity you didn’t want to miss. The lesson? We might be going to the same locale for the 20th time but a small change can make it all brand new. We just need to smell the roses and wait for that moment and take refuge in the thought that at the very least, we’re not in an office working. Just being out with the camera can get us pushing past boredom.