“People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.”

•  Anton Chekhov

 

Day 2 of my photo Quest, which incidentally, was the name of a Publishing Company I owned and “ran” for a short time. Got to love doing things in the name of liability. So anyway… I was at work today, 24 hours at the ambulance, and kept watching the weather hearing about how cold it is going to be and thought that I needed to take a photo that kind of showed and felt that. I had often paid attention to an old barn and pig farm on the way into work many times over the last few years, and felt that it might have been the perfect thing to take at sunset. The farm is on the east side of the road, and the late afternoon sun would wash the white buildings with some of the pinkish hues of sunset at this time of year mixed in with pale blues of the skies and long shadows as that blue hour approaches, things that I believe mean cold and winter.

So being at work, I grab the tripod, presetting the camera as I thought the image would need, I mean it is COLD out. I put on the wide zoom, grabbed a radio to compliment my pager as I was “working” after all, and drove the mile to the barn. I get my trusty little truck turned around, trudge through the ditch, set up the tripod, mount the camera and go to take a photo and my “lesson” of the day becomes… MEMORY CARD! My dumbass had taken it out to back up some files and forgot to put it back in the camera. Because this was a quick trip, I did not grab the bag, nothing, notta, zip. Upset with myself I head back into the station to get the memory card, knowing full well I had missed the shot I had envisioned for today.

I  had to scramble for an idea of an image representing to me, cold and dark and wintery. I mean I had this idea in my head and it was needed to be taken today. Knowing the immediate area through work I knew of a flat open field with the windmills in the background and due to it being a little bit later, I knew I would catch more of that blue that so signifies cold, that snow that means winter and that hint of color that shows we are still alive.

I set up the tripod low to the ground, bringing it right up front, marching you into the image. Also pay attention to the where the horizon is in the photo, to low and you are not drawn into the image. To high and you do not have enough sky to make it work. Look into rules of thirds for ideas on proper composition. Depth of field is going to have to be a discussion for another day or weeks. But you want your foreground all the way to your background in focus, so your viewer is drawn into the scene.

I learned 2 things today. As an EMT we are taught to start working the call when we are paged to the call. Today I was greeted with a different scenario upon arrival to the call than one I was working in my head. I hope my patient has a speedy recovery. Secondly, be prepared, I thought I had everything ready to go for taking a few photos and I was not fully prepared. Having an empty camera is like having no camera at all. Please enjoy the image and do what makes you happy. There are some geese glinting in the sun in the image, windmills, a tree line, in the distance were some deer, a farm, all things to make you wander around, but not for long as the sun is setting and it is cold and dark. Enjoy and God Bless!