Every photographer, particularly amateurs like myself, will tell you that sometimes the shot you are looking for just doesn’t work out. This happened to me this week, and certainly not for the first time.
In fact, not only did it happen once, but twice. The first came early Wednesday morning when a friend and I got up at 5AM to make the slopes of Roan Mountain on the TN/NC line. We had hopes of catching snowfall as a late season cold airmass invaded the region. Some locations in West Virginia saw over a foot. Unfortunately, we were greeted with plenty of cold but no snow. I did manage to snag a great view of the spring leaves beneath the still brown trees of our 6000ft elevation. The mountains towards the back of this image are part of the Black Mountain range, the highest east of the Mississippi.
The next was less of a problem with the conditions and more of a problem with the photographer and his camera. I like to think I am a good photographer, but I occasionally get caught up in the moment and make mistakes which cause my shots not quite to come out like I want them to.
I took off to Price Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway on Friday evening for what I was sure was going to be a great sunset. It was a rush there after work, but I made it just in time to see the sunset from one of my favorite spots.
On this night, however, I was more excited about what would happen after. I have driven by this field a thousand times, but on this night, I decided to hop the fence to the other side of the road to catch the plentiful wildflowers blooming. Over the next 15 minutes, the sun lit up the clouds in a gorgeous fashion as I took shots of the flowers with a wooden fence rail. Both these shots would have been absolutely spectacular had I just paid attention to the foreground (bottom of the image). In both cases, the flowers closest to me were well out of focus, adding a blurry section in the most important part of the image.
As I got home, I started kicking myself for not paying more attention. But then I thought that I had enjoyed the sunset far more, not stressing over the camera. Sometimes the moment is more important than the camera.
Even with those two shots not working out, I did get one phenomenal one just a few moments later, this time completely in focus.
I’ll no doubt be out more this coming week as wildflower season really takes off here in the high country, and I’ll also most certainly be paying a little more attention to my focus areas.
Have a great week, and perhaps I’ll see you on the trail…
