One of the dictionary definitions of the word "anatomy" is analysis and that is precisely what this edition of my blog is going to do. I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to find animage in a natural scene on Spring Creek in Ft. Defiance State Park near my home. I had passed these types of setups on several occasions and felt that there was some real interesting play on the horizontal lines of tree roots that clutch the banks along the creek and the horizontal lines created by the rapids that flow by such root masses. The question was, will I ever find just the right positioning or, if I did, would it really result in a fine art image.
After many days of tromping down and back up from the valley floor, which, by the way, probably did me more physical good than I imagined, I finally found the right combination of location, elements and possibilities. In this first result, a four exposure hdr, I was disappointed that the white of the rapids wereblocked out (which I never thought would have happened with hdr) and gave a rather gaudy appearance. This is a rather long exposure and all the elements seemed to be in the proper place, but there wasn't much of an visual impact, at least to me. So, I scrapped the shot and decided I had to make another trip down into the abyss.
On my next trip I decided to return before sun rise and take advantage of the really low light of dawn, which would mean I could increase the exposure time (make it longer) and thereby achieve a little more definition in the blocked out areas of the "white water". The result was an exposure lasting 30 seconds which lessened the blockage of whites, but, in areas of the foreground submerged rocks, came up short and the color was a bit flat. I still felt that the artistic statement of the roots in relationship with the rapids was pretty limp and decided to give it one more try.
When in doubt...worry the subject until you can figure out an answer. The night before I made my next decent, I thought about angles, changes and what I could do to make the image pop. First I decided I was going to get into the valley very, very early...before any light was really available. I love to shoot water at this time because the times are extremely long giving way to some interesting qualities in the water. Yes, there is plenty of light at night!
When I got there I decided to put the camera close to the water to compress the distance ever so slightly (without sacrificing my camera to the "aqua gods" which made viewing through the viewfinder rather strained and awkward, while at the same time trying not to slip on the rocks or fall face first into the water. To the casual observer the scene may seem the same, but it's changed ever so slightly.
After working on the computer I finally realized that this would make a much better black and white image so I use the Silver Efex Pro software, which gives a reasonable appearance of black and white film, and behold...I think I achieved the image that I had in the dark recesses of my mind all the time.
While this all may seem way too analytical to the readers let me point out a couple of things as resulting highlights of these trips. 1) I got to spend a lot of really great personal time standing in the water, listening to the liquid symphony and watching some really incredible sunrises. Not only that, but the forest floor seemed to change it's "plumage" for each of my returns with wildflowers changing at a rapid pace. I spied deer, they spied me, they ran, they came back and they ran again. I listened to the greatest "cat fight" of all as two, or maybe more, raccoon's decided to settle some territorial dispute and then, in an instant, listened to the morning calls of birds begin to elevate in volume.
Second, the analysis really isn't that important since it's more about the results. If you like a piece of art, how it got to be a beautiful piece of art is of no real importance. It's no different than if you sat down to an absolutely sumptuous Italian dinner. With every single bite, how it got to be so delicious becomes irrelevant and I doubt that anyone would track down the chef to bribe him/her for the recipe.
The real purpose of this discussion concerns the ideas of seeing, visualizing and realizing. Sometimes it all happens the first time a photographer steps into a scene and sometimes the steps have to be repeated and a sort of "reinventing of the wheel" must take place. Sometimes a change of many seasons may have to take place before the image is realized. In this particular case I have to admit that I had walked by the scene many times with barely a notice on my part. It took quite some time before I saw the artistic quality of the situation, with the root lines and rapids almost "joining hands".
Enough...let your head relax, grab your camera and go out to have some fun...bring the kids!
Other sites of my work:
A Piece Of Work Gallery, Spirit Lake, Iowa http://www.apieceofworkinc.com/alcove_3.php
Art Of The Vine Gallery http://www.artofthevinegallery.com/
Artisans Road Trip http://www.artisansroadtrip.com/index.htm
BetterPhoto.com http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1
CR Gallery, Milford, Iowa
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