What’s wrong with this photo:
No, I’m not expecting you to track down my email/phone number/home address and give me your opinion. Nor do I want you to, life is scary enough as it is. Just answer in your head, ok? Or, if you must, write it down somewhere, but this isn’t a test.
I know what bother me, what bothers you?
This photo wasn’t planned out, although I’ve been eyeing this location as I sped by on the highway for awhile now, always intended to stop when the lighting is good and I have the time. Well, I finally stopped, short on time and iffy on lighting because I got tired of driving past.
I cropped this to see if I could pull it a bit tighter to my focus, the tunnel. Lots of empty sky. In the original photo you can see the shadow of my car since I was sitting inside as I took the photo (I mentioned short on time, right?). Perhaps I used the wrong lens. A 35mm stays on my camera when I’m out and about on non-photoshoot days. Easy to carry, wide enough to capture most things, and sharp. But maybe it doesn’t work here. Nah, its fiiiiine. Different angle? Or get out of my car and walk closer?
Did I mention that this track is still active? That walking along a track isn’t exactly safe? Neither is stopping on the tracks…
So maybe zooming in.
Not sure that’s better.
I could go back, crop it even tighter, maybe go back in time and get closer to the tunnel. Lay down on the train tracks (unwise), center the tracks, move so the tracks are at a more interesting angle (see how many times I can write tracks) use a lower f/stop…
Plan my shoot instead of impulsively grabbing a photo.
Sometimes it works, I have photos that I caught without planning and it… worked. More often? It didn’t. So this photo, why take it? Because one day, I will go back, frame a better photo, maybe on the other side of the tunnel, maybe after the rain. I have a folder with photo remainders.
So, what I need to remember… Take the shot. You may surprise yourself and capture something. Or, at worst, you have a photo that reminds you of somewhere you want to go back to and try again.
Another reminder to future me, think a bit of what you want to accomplish when possible. Thinking ahead would give me more to work with in Lightroom.
Lightroom is a whole other post.
