Alley Spring

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

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When I was at a location, I was obsessed with the best image I could get of my subject for a long time. I have been at places where I didn’t even move my tripod from its initial location, fearing that in chasing after other shots, I might miss interesting light or something exciting happening at my original location. Often it meant I would have tons of photos from a viewpoint that didn’t differ from each other that much. Since 2018 I have been working on making a conscious effort to move away from being so rigid with my approach to exploring a new location, and there are two steps that I picked up from various other photographers that helped a lot.

The first step was to download an app called “cadrage,” a digital director’s viewfinder that allows you to pre-visualize compositions by plugging a focal length into the app. I stopped taking the camera out as soon as I got to a location and started to walk around with my phone trying to get familiar with the areas and possibilities. Recently I learned that landscape painters do this often with cardboard cutout cards in various aspect ratios. For example, holding it closer to the eye to simulate a wide-angle FoV and away from the eye to mimic a telephoto. It's one trick I am looking forward to adopting in 2022.

The second step was to take at least five images at every location. I cannot state how important this step is if you are a landscape photographer. Trying to find five good photos forces you to use your tools creatively and makes you look at your surroundings differently. While it sounds simple, It's been a great challenge for me, and so far, it seems to be the one trick that has helped me a lot. While at Alley springs in Southern Missouri, I struggled to tear myself away from the apparent compositions as the light was quite captivating. But in the end, I walked around the spring and came up with some fascinating compositions that I ended up liking a bit more than the first couple of shots I took. Let me know if you find these images interesting.

• H. G. Wells.

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A bit of a change from the desert pics trends today. It's another image from the Alley Springs water mill in souther Missouri. The day we visited the mill was a wet one, and in this part of the country, it comes down. Thankfully as we reached the park, the rain let up, and I managed to take some sharp images. We were there during early fall, but some of the leaves were turning already. My initial focus was on the colorful foliage, and I got some beautiful images. But after a bit, I managed to calm my excitement and decided to look at different possible pictures that I could make with the mill. While the fall colors were pretty, I noticed that the emerald green of the spring and the varying shades of greens from the foliage were contrasting well against the brilliant red color of the mill. So I decided to make an image carefully, excluding all the autumnal colors. I love the results.