Conventional Wisdom
This is another photograph from my book, Eastern Sierra. I was looking for photo that would illustrate the point that sometimes conventional wisdom and preconceived notions could result in the loss of a great shot or could result in the loss of an otherwise viable case.
In the fall of 2007, 14 compatriots and I signed up for a photography workshop to be conducted under the tutelage of a well known National Geographic photographer. The instructor gave of the benefit of his knowledge and skill in developing his unique and talented approach to outdoor and travel photography. As part of the workshop, we traveled to many scenic locations in the Eastern Sierra Mountains of California. Since this workshop and the photo shoots were being held around Bishop, it was practically in my back yard. It was a session I didn’t want to miss. The regimen for these workshops are all similar; out of bed by 3:00 A.M.; gather for coffee at 3:45; drive to the site of the morning shoot; shoot the sunrise and the morning magic hour; lunch and return to the lecture hall for an afternoon instructional and critique session; drive to the afternoon/evening shoot; shoot until you can’t see anymore; dinner (if you are lucky); process and review the day’s shots; hit the sack by 11:30 so you can start again the next day before dawn.
The workshop sponsors had their hands full; coordinating transportation for 20 or so people and 1-1/2 tons of camera gear, supplying 80-90 meals, processing film, assisting in instruction, planning the photo shoots to take advantage of all of natural beauty in the area. We are talking about iconic scenic areas such as the famous Bishop Creek and lakes, Bristle Cone National Monument, and the fantasy land of Mono Lake and its tufa. This was a “can’t miss” opportunity, right? Well, not entirely. The first day’s sunrise found us in the brush and along the banks of North Lake at 9000+ feet basking in the 31 degree predawn watching ice crystals form along the south shore. The cloudless day resulted in little drama in the sunrise, but we were all excited to be there. Since there was to be a full moon that evening,Bristle Cone National Monument, at 10,100 feet elevation across the valley in the White Mountains was scheduled as our night shoot. Imagine the moon rising behind 2000 year old gnarly, twisted trees. The hike from the visitor’s parking lot to the nearest good specimen Bristle Cone was only about 1/2 mile; the elevation change was about 500 feet, a mere bump at sea level but packing 20 pounds of gear at this altitude made it feel like Mt. Everest. We were hurrying to catch the last light of the day and breathlessly set up for the moon rise. Unfortunately, no one considered the fact that we were on the west face of the 13,000 foot White Mountains and the moon would be rising on the other side. I got great shots of the Bristle Cone trees anyway.
Two more days of pre-dawn gatherings, arduous hikes and disappointing conditions left most of us tired and a little grumpy. On the last full day things started to look up; a storm had been brewing in the mountains but the cloud cover was breaking up. It portended to be a great sunset. The late afternoon shoot that day was along the South Fork of Bishop Creek to catch the beautiful colors and movements of the aspens. By 30 minutes before sunset, the sky overhead had cleared with just a few clouds clustered over South Lake to the West. We were in a deep north-south canyon. I insisted that the best view of sunset would be about 8 miles back down the mountain. I lost the argument. The group stayed in the canyon to shoot the sunset but I slipped away and headed back down Highway 168 toward Bishop looking over my shoulder every few hundred feet to find the right spot. Just as the sun was setting I pulled off onto an old mining road and set up the tripod. I shot nearly 2 gigs of photos (about 90) of the sunset. The one above is toward the end of sunset and at the beginning of civil twilight. The next morning, we all compared our sunset photographs. Of course, I was the only one that had any dramatic photos.(If this were not the case, I probably would not be telling this story.)
This time, I got a good shot because I didn’t follow the consensus opinion. To be fair, I should add that my Bishop home is only a few miles away and I’ve shot the sunset from this location several times before. My fellow workshop attendees missed some spectacular shots because they didn’t really think about the situation. It is hard to get a good photograph of a sunset when you are in a deep valley with 13-14000 foot mountains between you and the horizon. In litigation, we often miss the shot because we listen to conventional wisdom and do not think the case through in the beginning. Gather all the available facts, think the problem through in your head, then using this analysis, go with your gut
.
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.