June 8, 2020
What to do with green?
Questions originally raised on talkphotography.co.uk
This is where I live. It all looks like this. It's overwhelmingly green. I spend a lot of time in this environment, and in its way it's spectacular. I love walking in these woods.
But photographically, I don't know what to do with it.
But photographically, I don't know what to do with it.
There's light to work with if you look for it. Texture and shadow. A little moisture would have helped and that's usually the default around here, but today was dry.
I walked up a nearby trail about a mile into the woods and back. There are 12 pictures in this post, all done in probably 2 hours. Near water and away from it. Through different kinds of light and terrain. And a million different varieties of green. But in the end, it all comes out green.
I can put water into play. There's every kind of moving water coming off these mountains. From glacial melt and rivulets through creeks and streams into substantial rivers that cascade over big waterfalls. I didn't shoot any of that today because I was shooting to make a point. But even that's green. The water is green. The reflections off the water are green. Water helps break things up a little bit, but not much.
In trout fishing, there's a thing called frog water. Flat, slow, no structure. Often pretty and accessible, but no reason to be there if you're looking to catch fish. I can shoot this kind of stuff all day every day, but I'm out of ideas on what would make it better. Are my woods frog water? Should I just give up and move on?
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June 23, 2020
So I went out again today. Up the middle fork this time. Tried some advice from my UK photography friends. How am I doing? I'm not sure I can tell.
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July 10, 2020
Went back into the woods today. I mentioned there's a lot of water up in these mountains. Haven't done gauzy water in a million years. Figured I'd try and work that into the green. Follow a creek. See what I could find.
I'm not a tripod guy. When I think of tripods I think of fireworks and studio work. You always have to account for a tripod. Account for it while you're shooting with it. Account for it when you're carrying it. And especially account for it when you're not shooting with it. You can't just set it down and wander away, looking for a shot.
I probably shouldn't complain. I got a really nice modern carbon fiber tripod. Sure beats the hell out of that old Bogen 3021 that I used to lug around. You gotta have a tripod to shoot gauzy water, and that's what I shot today. Pretty much nothing else, tied to the tripod and all.
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October 5, 2020
It's fall. Hooray. Fall is my favorite season. Most of my hobbies have been best in the fall.
Somebody on the interwebs mentioned I should wait until fall to mitigate the green. While I've always admired fall foliage, I've never seriously tried to photograph it. Went out this morning on a practice run.
