I had seconds to run to this photo.
I actually jotted this one down after waking up rather abruptly from a dream about this very scenario.
I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind Workshops around our planet. It happened the beginning of last August while I was teaching at the Maine Media Workshop.
If I might digress for a moment, I’ll be back there next July 30th for my twenty-ninth year. It’s the granddaddy of them all and a wonderful place to immerse yourself in photography while shooting with me for a week. Since there’s several other workshops, everyone has their meals at the Homestead so the energy level is awesome!!! Keep an eye out for the school to put the workshop description online and I’ll also comment on it in future posts.
I’d also like for all of you to send me a friends request on Facebook. I always posts my workshops there.
Ok back to what I was dreaming about.
I was standing by the water’s edge in Port Clyde (a location we always go to) and was observing one of my fellow photographers watching the sun about to come out from under a cloud and set. I would say that the entire length of time from beginning to end was about three minutes give or take a minute.
This person whose name I won’t mention to protect the innocent, was in a position that would have rendered a somewhat predictable photo. I mean how many times have you seen a sun setting over the water? I guess this photographer was from Tulsa, Oklahoma and didn’t get out much so he started setting up his tripod to take the photo.
I ran over to him and as fast as I could talked to him about “giving meanings to photographs” and suggested that he go over to where some boats were docked and put them in the foreground to create depth and some layers of interest.
He agreed and slowly began to separate his camera from his tripod. I quickly suggested that he didn’t have time for that and to keep the camera where it was and run over to the spot I suggested; now he had about a minute left of beautiful light.
He looked at me as if I had just landed from Neptune and finally got the point of my suggestion. That was the good news, the bad news was that he missed the shot.
These kinds of moments are few and far between so the more time you take to decide the bigger the chance in missing the shot. I can tell you that no matter what the subject is and where I am, I know better than to take my time.
Light is so fleeting that if you pause for even a few seconds, those few seconds can make the difference in going home with a great photo…a trophy worthy of being on a wall.
Next time you’re out, no matter where you are and what the subject is…even if the light’s not great and you’re going for a “moment”, don’t walk, run!!!
That’s what I do, I run for photos and I’m seventy-one years old.
Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. On July 30th I begin my 29th year at the Maine Media Workshops. I’ve had the same week since the beginning. It’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. It offers a completely different set of photo ops than one would expect when coming to photograph the coastline, lighthouses, and fishing villages of Maine. Come join me and spend a week completely immersed in your love for photography.
Send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.
JoeB
