To be fair, it wasn’t raining and I wasn’t really expecting good light. I just wanted to get out with the camera. I know that the opportunities do present as frequently as I’d like them to and (after separating from my previous employer this month) I won’t have as many chances to get out with my camera during the summer months by virtue of needing to dedicate a few months to orientation and showing my new employer that they made a good hire.
So I went for a walk at Green Lakes, walking around each, slowly looking for shapes and contrast that might lend itself to purposeful blurs or intentional camera movement. I was only experimenting while trying to avoid having to use filters (not that I didn’t have them, I just didn’t want to deal with the inconvenience), so many of the images I captured were at f22, and I know better if I am trying to capture an image for print that wouldn’t require a lot of clean-up of spots from the sensor.
I spent about 3 hours walking the trails; someone told me that there was an owl at Round Lake, but I didn’t see it. I did get a chance to practice with some ICM, though, and a few images are interesting to my eye.
I now have only a couple of months before the summer ends, and no opportunity to travel as I had hoped and expected. Still, I want (and probably need) to get out with my camera as much as I can and be creative. I’ve experimented with capturing the night sky. I’m open to the possibilities of ICM. I aim to explore what infrared might have to offer.
I love to be outdoors and I want to capture images worthy of hanging on my wall. It is not an easy objective to achieve if I am not able to get in my car and drive to beauty, but even if I drive 4 hours away to a well-known and beautiful destination … what have I done? Have I only captured an image that has been captured thousands of times before?
I’ve decided to convince myself that – even if photographing locally – there is an opportunity to capture beautiful and unique images close to home.