Postcards from the Creative Journey

When One Is Enough

Sometimes jet lag is a good thing even if the jet lag is minimal and you get up a few hours earlier than normal. Such was the case when visiting my in-laws in Montana. I had the town to myself at that hour when the smell of sage brush and pine was still in the air and the light was still low in the sky. This photo didn’t make “The Flower Shop” because I already had enough door photographs for that project.

The Best I Could Do on That Day

Sometimes you just have to make a photograph because you require yourself to do so. When making a landscape photograph the circumstances require you to make an image when you are presented with it. It’s not like a studio where you can come back to the same viewpoint and recreate both scene and lighting. In the world of landscape the exact situation will not happen again so you have to come back with a photograph. It may not be the best ever photograph, but you are seeking the best photograph you can make at a particular place and time. So it is with this image of the Heckman homestead shack. I was making great images on the inside of the shack and I knew that some exterior versions would help complete the project. I made this one, so I knew I would have an interesting image of the exterior. As luck would have it, a few days later, (September 14 to be exact – there is that date again) I was able to make the image that graces the cover of the “Winter is Peaceful with Memories” folio. And this photo becomes a square peg.

Don't Be Obvious About It

Lighthouses are really difficult to photograph. There’s the cliché subject matter for sure, but the difficulty is proportion. Tall and narrow on the East Coast, shorter on the West Coast, I chose a non obvious solution – not photographing the tower. It’s there on the left, of course, but I chose to center on some of the attached buildings looking at strong afternoon light to delineate the shapes and textures of the building. Choosing what you can photograph is the way to solve this type of problem.

You Do Need A Plan, Don't You?

I decided on this photograph before I left on vacation in the hope that I can add it to the website quickly and with little effort the day after I return from the annual photo safari. I think it’s appropriate because the plan (you do have to have a plan, don’t you?) is to head over into Idaho and photograph some old abandoned mining towns. This mining company office is located in Molson, Washington and is part of Molson’s living history museum.

On the Way to "Serious Photography"

 

This one is a week early, I hope. I am greeting you from a rest stop near Washington Pass in the Cascades. (That’s my shadow in the lower right corner. Wave back if you want to.) A square peg because it’s one of those fun photographs you make along the way to “serious photography.” The date I made this photo was September 15, 2008, so it’s not included in the “Photographs I made on September 14^th project. That’s why it’s a square peg. I am posting two photos this week because next weekend I hope to be in the Cascades or somewhere else in the Pacific Northwest on my annual photo safari with Brooks Jensen and won’t have time to update the blog from the road. The week after that, I will probably be late in posting because I will still be traveling.