Go With Your Gut

Two summers ago I bought my first camera that wasn't just a point and shoot. My friend Janet gave me lots of advice and settings and I had great fun experimenting. Last summer I took the plunge into the world of SLRs and have enjoyed the fun of exploring photography.

While up at Soulfest I was hoping to get in a little landscape photography as well. Since that's one of my weakest areas, it's good to do it with someone else who can give you some pointers or critique. I was there with Janet, who is a much better landscape photographer than me.

One night we came home from the days events and it was almost sunset on an overcast day. Sometimes this leads to nothing and sometimes it leads to spectacular sunsets. Betting on the later we grabbed cameras and tripods and headed down to the lake.

No spectacular sunset and Janet chose to sit down on a bench and enjoy the end of the day, since there really wasn't much to photograph. I was determined to get something and spent some time balancing against the edge of the dock, lying on my stomach on the dock and generally pushing myself to find interesting lines and compositions.

Here are two of the photographs from that night. I love the sapphire sky in the first and result of lying on my stomach on the dock in the second.



The lesson - follow my instinct! It was worth the effort to get the pictures in this case.