Thanks Phrasikleia... I will give that a try. You suggest my timing was a big factor. I wish I had that kind of "timing". I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Being "in the right place at the right time"
is an example of good timing.
When I'm out in the landscape, I'm always amazed how quickly (most) other photographers shoot. They get to a spot where things look nice, raise the camera up, press the shutter, and that’s that. They must think of taking a photo as a moment, and the landscape as unchanging... so that any one moment is as good as any other.
Another way of shooting is to think of it as an event, a process, with a start and a finish and an indeterminate amount of time between. The landscape
does change... though the changes will be most obvious on a day with some clouds, rather than a sky of uninterrupted blue.
The ‘luck’ in capturing a pic at just the right moment comes from perseverance (“the harder I work, the luckier I get”, as golfer Gary Player used to say). It can also come from being patient. If you stay in one location for 2 minutes, with the hope of capturing a special play of light, the odds are stacked against you. If you are prepared to wait (ten minutes, half an hour, two hours, who knows), you are stacking the odds in your favour.
I used to rush around, trying to fit as many locations as possible into a day’s photography. But I realised - eventually - that if the light is poor in one place, it might be just as poor ten miles away. It’s possible to walk a long way, or use half a tank of petrol, and still not get acceptable pix. It’s also a stressful, ‘results driven’ way of taking pictures.
So now I stay longer in a location: taking time to explore, see things from different angles and relax into the landscape. I find I actually get more acceptable pix by slowing down, rather than being in a hurry. If there are ‘magic’ moments, I’ll be there to catch them: camera on tripod, exposure values set, cable release in hand. Of course, being patient doesn’t guarantee that nature will cooperate, and there are plenty of days when I go home empty-handed. But non-productive days are part of the process too: watching and waiting and being ready.
Somebody passed me a couple of days ago, as I was standing by my tripod, and said “What are you waiting for?” I said “I’m not sure... but I’ll know it when I see it”...
