A Photographer's Lessons

My last few trips have been very photo-heavy and I have taken a few "lumps" along the way to becoming a better photographer. Mistakes can teach if you let them and I badly want to learn. Here are a few things I have discovered lately about photography.

1. Always save your best pre-planned shots for the 25 minutes surrounding sunrise and the 25 minutes after sunset. The lighting and colors at these times cannot be recreated at noontime. I have found in recent weeks that sunlight gets to be too harsh within 30-45 minutes of sunrise to make for great photography. Sleeping in is good... if you don't plan to take photos!
   
2. If you're going to shoot into the sun, be prepared to receive lens flare as a result. I've used a "lens hood" before, which is a little shell that attaches to the end of the lens, and it usually works. Usually.
   
3. Always study the road map before you head out to take photos at a particular place. I set out this morning to capture the sunrise at a wind farm, just outside the refuge. But the highway i thought went straight north towards the farm instead took a surprise left, away from my photo target. By the time I worked my way back towards the wind turbines it was too late and the sun had risen too high.
4. Pick one good photo target per sunrise or sunset. Time is limited and sky color doesn't usually last very long. Also, the time spent traveling can frustrate the wannabe photographer, leading to missed opportunities.
5. Always keep your eyes open for new ways to shoot familiar settings. I saw five or six lake dams this weekend, each one was unique, but who can handle a bunch of boring dam photos? So I worked on zooming in to sections of the dam, changing the camera angle, over and underexposing, and a few other ideas. While I missed more than I hit, it made photographing dams an artistic challenge for me — and a fun one, at that!

More lessons learned as they come up......


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