Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Ever Changing Light


Happy New Year,



A lot of us are traveling all over the country or even all over the world seeing new places and new things but also trying to improve our photography skills along the way. I hear from people all the time, how lucky I am to live in the southwest and to have all these amazing photo opportunities around me within a short reach of my home and as I may agree with them yes, I also believe if you take a look around where you live there probably are some great places to photograph not far from where you live. The southwest is just not the only place in the country with great state parks or even great national parks, Acadia N.P. for example is a place far from me that looks abosultely fabulous, how about the Great Smokey Mountains another amazing looking location that I have not been to yet. While we should keep seeing new places and new things I believe one of the best opportunities to improve our photography is to return to those locations that are within our reach in doing this we can gain all kinds of valuable knowledge about weather, light conditions at different times of the day, or even different times of the year. For example I have hiked into the Narrows in Zion N. P. six or seven times over the course of about the same number of years and every time I would shift the time I would enter the canyon in hopes of seeing something different or under different conditions that would completely change the look of the composition. On a trip this last Sept. with some friends and after trying different times such as early morning, late day, mid day, etc. etc. I decided to shift my time again and enter late morning. At a point not far up, walking on those slippery rocks through the water, I turned around to look for my friends, I seem to walk fast, I saw the conditions in the photo here......something I have never seen before, an incredible display of color and light that is nothing close to what I had seen in this very specific location on all other trips into the canyon. Revisit the beautiful places that are close to your home, it is where you have the best opportunity to learn about the ever changing light.

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