A quiet time of day

I am always in search of a remote quiet location to do my photography. The stillness lets me take my time to connect with the environment that I am in. I don't like rushing around when doing landscape photography. Being rushed often leads to making numerous poorly composed images that just fill up a memory card. It is better to make a few good images that represents the emotions you feel about the subject and location, than just to fire away hoping that you get something that inspires. I learned to take a slow approach with landscape photography with my many years of working with a film and a large format camera. It is easy to fall into bad habits with camera that think too much for you. I pretty much use my mirrorless cameras in fully manual mode. I really don't bother to learn the multiple features that modern digital cameras offer. I find it too difficult to be occupied with many functions and settings that are built into these cameras for my style of photography. Certainly if I was still doing professional sports photography I would utilize many of the features these new cameras offer. This image is from a Canada trip around Lake Superior. It was long after sunset on a calm and quiet summers night.

While traveling in Canada last summer around the North side of Lake Superior. I found some interesting hikes that took me along some streams flowing down off the nearby mountains. It was a cool and rainy month of August and the waterfalls were full of energy. On my hike I noticed from a distance a rock that appeared to look like a profile of a face on the side of wall. I stopped and took out my rectangle viewing card that I always carry with me, and determined I would need a 400 mm lens to get the subject framed correctly. I found a good spot for my tripod and a comfortable big rock to sit on, and took my time just enjoying the rushing sound of the water and the solitude of the location. The rock figure looks like an Indian Chief or an old fur trapper that lived in the area centuries ago. As I was sitting there after making my photograph a young boy and his Mother saw me and wondered what I was photographing. I pointed out the face I saw on the rock wall and I could tell they didn't see it. So I let them look at the view finder of my camera and they were both astonished that they would have missed this scene on their hike. It is always gratifying to come upon the unexpected when our hiking and having my camera gear with me.

Another 3am image

The older I get the less I sleep.  At times it is frustrating dealing with insomnia but I find that the wee hours of the morning gives me the quiet time to work on an image without any distractions.  I think back of my many years working alone in the darkroom and it was a space of little noise or interruptions.  Once I entered the space I had a mind set and focus of working on printing an image.  I knew I had maybe three to four hours of a good concentration level before I tired out. After that I would mix chemicals or do other mundane task the darkroom work required.  The digital darkroom is much harder to maintain a steady concentration when working on an image.  There are frequent distractions that come with being on a computer and doing photography.  A simple notice of an incoming email message will take me out of my processing mindset and I end up just saving the image off to work on later.  If you take your photography seriously you will need to find a way to work without frequent interruptions.  The steps to processing of an image takes analysis, execution, and finalization in order to achieve a satisfactory image.  A disruption in any phase will most likely end up with falling short of achieving a successful image.  So, do I like working on my images when I should be sleeping? No, but it does help me produce some of my favorite images.