I think I'll just put the crisis on hold for now while I think it through. In the meantime, let's just talk about my rather inspiring session this evening.
Last night when I shot that pinkish sunset over the Uinta mountains, I came away feeling like I hadn't really done the scene justice. The colors were incredible, my composition was lazy. Here's how it played out:
DD: Sunset alert to the east!
CJ: (putting the dishes on hold, running to my camera bag)
EV: Wow, pretty!
CJ: (running to the garage to pull the tripod out of the trunk of the car)
I then step out to the front porch, plop down my tripod and get this very boring straight on, flat panoramic shot that has about as much depth as and personality as a dung beetle. No I take that back, at least what a dung beetle does is unique. That shot was not.
So, my photographic endeavors were not particularly inspiring for me last evening. I certainly didn't push myself to make something compelling. And maybe that's the problem. I'm just in a bit of a funk and need to challenge myself a little more seriously.
So tonight I feel a lot more inspired by this shot:
Now this is not the perfect shot, but in my mind, it is a bit more interesting than the shot from last evening and I certainly pushed myself a little more to get it. This time I had to haul two flashes, a shoot-through umbrella, a mounting bracket, the camera, and tripod. Somehow I thought that I could carry all of this without my bag. Then when I saw the light on the peaks to the east (I began shooting toward the west), I somehow managed to pack all that gear about a tenth of a mile through the wild grass up to the top of the hill for this and a couple of other shots.
In any case, I like how the sage bush stands out because I went to the trouble to bring the two flashes and brelly. I had that sense of anticipation and excitement which motivated me to schlep all that stuff at a near jog to the top of the hill. I also learned a technical lesson: I should try gelling the flashes next time so that the foreground gets the same warm light that the background is getting.
Perhaps the funk can be solved by finding a way to push myself, even if just a little, every day. Let's give that a try.
And in the meantime, I'll keep thinking through the philosophy that one should narrow one's photographic focus (pardon the pun) to be most effective.