The journey, continued

Obviously time, having time to update this site with images and blogs and formatting and removing watermarked images etc. is in short supply.

I’ve done one blog, since July of 2024. That’s unimpressive …

So where am I at? I will say this, I shot more in 2024 than I have probably shot in any other year. I also produced some images that are some of my better images in my opinion. As mentioned in my “The Beginning” blog, I’ve yet to shoot an image that really nails everything. At least for me. Every image has a subject matter issue, a composition issue, a “there’s not much to this” issue. So I’ve work to do, and I’m game for that.

The good news is I’ve been shooting more. There are more, and better, images on the site. That probably requires removing some of the images … another task for the site.

One recent observation that I think is worth sharing.

Recently Sheryl and I drove to Northern New Hampshire for an event. This trip, I realized, wasn’t unlike a lot of trips I/we take. I’m traveling, I’m looking around, and I’m seeing awesome things to capture in the camera. Beautiful landscapes. Incredible scenes. I often find myself thinking through “I’d shoot this scene with these settings” or “I’d try and capture that specific aspect of this beautiful landscape.”

Then, I come back home, I look around, and I find myself thinking “There just isn’t that much to shoot around here.”

That thought process is wrong though. It is the newness of the new place that sparks my eye and its the familiarity of the everyday place that causes me not to see the amazing scenes that surround me.

We live on the New England seacoast for goodness sake! Of course there are incredible things to shoot!

Then often I find myself saying “I could go shoot that lighthouse … but it’s been shot soooo many times.” That is often true. We live near Maine, near a lighthouse named the Nuble lighthouse and I would guess it is the most photographed lighthouse in Maine. It’s been shot thousands upon thousands of times.

Yet just the other day I saw a pretty cool image of it. The photographer had caught a breaking wave at a perfect moment with a setting sun and it was a pretty good shot. Perhaps not the epic shot I’m still seeking for myself, but a cool shot and definitely a cool shot of such a photographed subject.

This time of year is getting fairly idealic to capturing golden hours on both sides of the clock. One doesn’t have to be up at the crack of dawn nor do they have to stay up late at night. They don’t call it the “golden hour” for no reason at all, so that should represent unique opportunities.

A new ap I use called photopills shows me where the sun will rise and fall, so even mid-day I can plan compositions.

All of this to say there are amazing scenes everywhere. And incredible opportunities to capture them. One doesn’t have to be in a new environment to see beautiful scenes. It’s a realization that I need to fully embrace. So that when I find my images are falling flat and not accomplishing what I would like that I can glimpse inward, to myself, to find the solution and not blame the beautiful, incredible, amazing location that we live.

The other day I shot a scene in B&W, a setting sun on a snowy landscape. It’s posted on the site. That morning it had been snowing and I should have gotten out then to capture those moody scenes. Still, I’d anticipated that the sunset would be better than what it turned out to be. I was out though. It was worth hunting for a shot. The posted image I like quite a lot actually. It’s moody and feels cold. Even got a little bit of sunburst through a tree.

Looking forward to expanding on this theme and having a lot of fun doing it.

Happy shooting!

Jack