Saturday, February 23, 2008

Keep Going Back




One of the best traits a photographer can have is to keep going back to a location. It would be easy to think that would be boring and repetitive but it actually is the opposite. The weather changes, seasons change, or the light is different every time. I am amazed at the very different images I have made at the exact same location.

When business takes me to Wisconsin, I visit the same wildlife refuge several times on each trip. I often revisit the same location two or three times over a trip and have been to my favorite locations several times, on several trips over different seasons. Each trip yields me good yet different images. Some may have spotted that a few of my prior posts were taken at the same area in the marsh, yet I think those images were also very different.

Take this image here-it is a slough along the Trempealeau River. It is nothing special. There is no overlook. There is no sign. I don't know if anyone else has ever even considered photographing it. But as you can see by the guardrail, it is right on a bridge embankment. The first time I drove into this refuge, I took a snapshot out the window of the car and then looked for a place I could park and walk back to it. That was five trips ago and I go back every time. I have photographed this scene from late summer, through fall, to the cold snowless early winter, to the frozen depths of a snowy winter.

I enjoy each and every time here and look forward to my next visit. I wonder what the light will hold, how the cattails will have grown, or the trees will shine. From green, to red, to brown, to snowy white-every time is different.

I could do a portfolio of the seasons at this spot. And at many others.

Get out. Get out often. Keep going back. Who knows you might just finally find the perfect scene.

No comments: