Earlier this week two photographers stopped by my shop to say hello.
I noticed they both had camera backpacks on and were carrying tripods so I asked them what they had been doing.
One fellow sat down on the stool I had in my shop, took a sip from the coffee cup he was holding and said, “We have been following the light.”
I think that is a good statement for those of us that like to wander the world with our cameras for no other reason than to find something that looks interesting and photograph it.
I didn’t need to ask it they were pointing their cameras at something specific, I knew that they were just “following the light.” I expect that can be hard to explain to a non-photographer that only thinks a camera is for documenting some particular thing.
The other day my friend Jo sent me a morning text asking how I was and what my plans for the day were. I said that I was thinking about taking a short drive with my camera. Her response was, “I want to come too. Let’s take a drive to Falkland so I can do some long exposures where the train tracks cross that small stream just before town and can we leave at 10”. Jo always is like that.
So off we went ‘following the light.’ The day was partly cloudy and some of the landscape was still in shade depending on where one looked. I drove, stopping along the road, but I wasn’t happy with most of the locations.
Finally we pulled off where the road and train tracks cross the stream where Jo wanted to photograph.
She got out her tripod and complained to me that she must have left two of the neutral density filters on lenses left at home. She ended up putting one ND and two polarizers on her full frame DSLR’s 70-200mm to reduce the light.
I wanted to walk around to choose different locations for my photos. I was using that cropped frame Fuji with two lenses, an 18-55mm and 55-200mm.
I have photographed that stream many times with many different cameras, and many different lenses.
I have been there during rainstorms and snowstorms, sunny days and days like the one we were experiencing - partly cloudy with slashes of light illuminating small areas of the scene.
I couldn’t help but think of how much those two photographers from my shop would have enjoyed the light.
After exhausting every camera angle we could think of at that moment, we drove on to Falkland.
The light was right and I wanted to make a photo that included the Falkland pub that was built in 1937 and the 56-foot wide wooden Canadian flag that is displayed high on the mountainside above Falkland.
I enjoy those short photo drives. And have often referred to myself as a road-side photographer.
I don’t need to go on long-distance treks or spend time flying to distant locations when, on a short drive I can use my imagination to make fun photographs of things that a non-photographer would easily pass by.
The camera, especially one that I can change lenses to change perspective with, allows me to be creative close to home and, of course, follow the light.
Stay safe and be creative. These are my thoughts for this week.
Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.
