I spent a few hours this afternoon hiking over on Long Creek, a scenic little creek characterized by clear water, gravel bottom, long pools, lively ripples, and an abundance of natural beauty. As always, I took my camera and camera pack. Most of the fall leaves had already fallen, but a few were still lingering that provided at least some photo opportunity. As I wandered along, I snapped a few shots of this and that, but nothing really seemed to work. All the shots were rather cliche'ish.
The obvious photo's included shots of the trees along side the creek, some looking across, some looking up or down its length. Although they weren't bad shots, I've become a lot more critical of what I produce. As I shuffled through the images on the camera's viewer, I knew I just wasn't getting the shots I wanted...in spite of all the natural beauty that surrounded me. When that happens, I'll often challenge myself to quit looking for the obvious and start looking for the subtle things that might not ordinarily be readily visible.
Floating in a shallow portion of the creek were some recently dropped leaves. Photo's like that create a different kind of challenge for the photographer, for now the image becomes all about shape and form and color. It's not as easy as it sounds, because it takes an artistic eye to find the right combination of shape and form, balanced by color. It's a matter of building the composition to create a visually appealing image.
Keith Bridgman
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