When To Change Your Perspective

“I’m going out to take beautiful pictures! Wish me luck!” Have you ever said or thought something like this while on a trip or in a beautiful location only to step outside to find it’s overcast or socked in with clouds. Now, I love clouds, don’t get me wrong, but I’m talking about clouds where you can’t see the sky because they're so thick. My favorite sky is blue with big puffy clouds where you can see both blue and white. I like to refer to that as “texture.” But on this day you’re faced with a flat white sky or even rain. What do you do? Well, years ago I learned a very valuable lesson from a photographer but unfortunately I can’t remember who. Regardless, when you can’t get what you want that’s large and grand, look for tiny and detailed. In other words, look for what everyone else passes by. Look for the beauty in a leaf that’s become a cup holding rain water. Look for a bright yellow salamander walking across rotting bark. Look for dew on a blade of grass that looks like silver sparkles. So often we overlook the beauty all around us because we want to get that Instagram image we’ve seen so many times. What a lot of those Instagram people don’t tell you is how many days they visited that same spot to get that amazing image. Or how long they waited for that animal to be in just the right position. Timing, patience, and the ability to see beyond the norm is what separates the true photographer from everyone else. No matter where you are, you should always be able to come back with some image that only you saw or were willing to make because you changed your perspective. If you’re serious about photography and this idea rings true with you, a macro lens might be the right thing for you. What’s a macro lens you ask? I guess we’ll be discussing lenses next month. You know where to find me.