Why go back to the same location?
Just a small oak tree I discovered in the South Downs National Park.
Getting out there and finding a spot to photograph is always great fun for me. I love the outdoors in any weather - rain nor snow ever holds me back. There is not always immediate success in finding a good location and composition, but I love just getting out there and and exploring.
Woodland photography is new to me
By the time I really noticed this little tree, I’d probably walked past it 20 times, without giving it a second thought.
I must admit that I often find photographing in a woodlands setting frustrating. As a native South African, it is completely new to me and honing my photographic senses to this new environment is taking time.
So, having noticed it, I looked at it from every angle to consider my options.
This is the first image I took of the little oak.
What if?
I thought it best to shoot it from a distance with my 70-200mm lens. It was a gloomy day, so I wasn’t really expecting a brilliant photo. Yet, for me the tree just stood out amongst the large pine trees around it. Perhaps a bit of a rebel, like me, not conforming to the straight shapes of its peers. I darkened the background a bit in post processing to really make it stick out, but in the end I was happy with the result.
After getting this shot my mind started racing….WHAT IF….I thought.
Misty conditions separating the tree from the background.
What if it was misty?
What if it was snowing?
Then, I went home and waited.
Waited for just the right conditions.
The very next week I woke to a perfectly misty morning - and off I went. And sure enough, I was lucky and got a super moody shot of the tree in the mist.
And a few weeks later I followed it up with a beautiful snowy scene.
Location scouting ALWAYS pays off
It always pays having that ‘go to’ location, when the conditions are right. You already have a perfect composition, you’ve tried all the angles, various lenses and a variety of processing options.
Now you are now simply waiting for the right conditions.
A few thing to remember when scouting for a return location:
Consider, the weather conditions that you could expect.
Consider the time of day that will most appropriate.
Consider what kind of mood you want to have in the shot.
Finally what does this image say about you and your style of photography.
You might wait for snow or for the seasons to change - and when that happens, all those days of scouting and waiting will be worth it.
What locations do you go back to time and time again to shoot?
Carl
