Lazy

Desert View Watchtower (Grand Canyon) at sunset last week

A confession.

What you miss if you don't go out in the weather.  Grand Canyon

I’m in a constant battle with discipline.  Jerry Dodrill, a mentor and one of the least lazy people I know, says if you don’t want to be out there (because the weather is unpleasant for example)  it’s probably time to be out there.  I paraphrased, but that’s the gist.  The first time I heard this from him, I looked for exceptions in my head.  I didn’t want this to be true.  I’ve since admitted that he’s correct.

Nature photography, like most things worth doing well, requires effort.

Mid-day at Grand Canyon last week. Zone-tailed hawk

As I was thinking this might be an interesting topic for a post, driving home from a couple of nights at the Grand Canyon, what should come on the radio but Todd Rundgren’s Bang the Drum All Day.  You know, “I don’t want to work…” Yeah. Perhaps he fought a similar battle.

Focus-stacked telephoto image, Death Valley

For example, at a Death Valley workshop last March with Jerry Dodrill and Todd Pickering, we spent lots of time out on the dunes, sometimes shooting at long focal lengths.  I’ll boil down the technicalities and say that it’s difficult and sometime impossible to get the entire image in focus with a telephoto lens.  Most of us were working on a technique to get around this called focus stacking.  I realized that, when working on my own, I can sometimes be lazy about this very thing and end up with soft focus on the horizon of my image.  Hope, as they say, is not a plan. A side point here is that it’s nearly impossible to be lazy in a workshop. Peer pressure and enthusiasm. That’s another advantage of getting out there with teachers and peers.

 

One of those mid-day details, Grand Canyon

Sometimes when I’m camping, I really want that midday nap.  The snooze is especially tough to resist in summer when sunrise comes very early.  I do love a camping nap.  That said, there can be some great opportunities to shoot details and macro images mid-day.  There’s a tough balance to strike, especially for people like me who don’t do well with sleep deprivation.

Gotta walk to find things.  Buffington Pockets, Nevada

Another example is the dirt road which, like most of them, deteriorates as I go. How much further am I willing to drive to explore the new spot?  If I make camp here, how far am I willing to walk in the dark to catch sunrise? How early will I set the alarm?

Maybe I’m too hard on myself, assuming that the relaxing times are somehow less valuable than the challenging ones.  Maybe I should just enjoy the peanut butter filled pretzels a read a book sometimes.

I find myself wondering how much effort is enough. I may never know.