Working through my many photos from my last trip West, I am struck by how my assessment of an image at the time that I am taking the photograph to the time that I make a print changes so much. Repeatedly finding this to be the case makes me question my skills as a landscape photographer. When I watch the increasingly numerous YouTube photographers search for the "perfect composition," I realize that I could never stake an entire day on finding that one photo, then waiting hours until the lighting is just right, and, finally, snapping the shutter and knowing that what I have captured is ideal. So many times the scenes that excite me turn out to be complete failures when I process them in Photoshop and I ultimately look at them. These disappointments occur far too often to ignore, leading me to question my photographic "eye." On the other hand, a number of photos that I take as almost afterthoughts because "I am there," often turn out to be the best ones of the trip. I therefore find myself taking numerous photos and sorting them out on the computer at a later time, which is the way that seems best for me to function out in the field. Without question, there are times that I know that a photograph is a home run right at the time that I trip the shutter, but those moments are rare. I suppose that if I did take only those photos, it would not be very different from the YouTube photographers, but I would then have lost an awful lot of good photos, which is, in fact, what I think happens to the people who wait unbelievable hours for the "decisive moment." In the background of their videos, I often see scenes that I think are perfect, but they completely ignore them and move on to their perfect spot. I guess either method is fine if it works for the individual photographer, but I think that I miss less and ultimately enjoy myself more. I believe that it was Ansel Adams who said, while you're waiting in one spot for everything to be perfect, you're missing something fine somewhere else. I couldn't agree more.
