Frustration in the Desert
I have become all too familiar with the highs and lows associated with being a photographer. I have personally experienced getting to a point where I felt my photography was improving quickly and then all of a sudden started to struggle with composition. In today’s society, we are programmed have everything at our fingertips instantly and when things don’t work out exactly like we had planned, we become frustrated.
During my last shoot, I headed out with great expectation as we were on the back side of a storm and the partially cloudy sky was promising. As I headed out to the Usery Regional Park in Mesa, AZ, I immediately noticed the shadows on the mountains and was excited to get out and grab some images. Upon arriving, I headed up the trail I noticed that the clouds were quickly disappearing and all of a sudden I was struggling to come up with a composition that I was happy with. I quickly setup and grabbed a few images that I ultimately processed but realized after the fact that the clouds that were in my images were moving very quickly, not only did that complicate the processing of my focus stacked images, but had I paid attention and slowed down, I would have used a 10stop ND filter to capture the motion blur of the clouds which would have added drama to my images.
Every session should be a lesson and used to improve on your skills for the next shoot. I for one need to continue to focus on slowing down, and realize what photography really means to me. Getting outside and exploring the outdoors is by far the biggest advantage of this craft and everything else is just icing on the cake. If I just slow down and enjoy myself I know I will find a much better balance as an artist and I am sure I will find the craft much more enjoyable.
These images were taken with my Canon 5Dsr using my 24-70 f2.8L| ISO 100 | f11 | 1/40
