The scene we stopped to photograph is one that I've photographed many times before, and in fact, stopped there on the way to meet my friends that morning to grab a shot with my trusty FujiFilm X100T with it's fixed 35mm (equivalent) lens (see photo at right).
The beauty of this particular scene is the awesome lone Maple Tree that sits out in the field. I've photographed this tree by itself many times but this afternoon I wanted to capture something I hadn't before.
The fog was fairly thick but slowly dissipating. We had to work quickly and deliberately.
To digress a little, back in film days when every shot cost money to shoot (the film), develop (the chemicals) and print (the paper) - just so you could see what you photographed - you took your time and tried to make every single shot count. Digital comes along and other than the cost of the camera, and yes, the computer system too (but most people have that nowadays), you can shoot as long as you have space on your memory card or until your battery and spares run out. Literally thousands of images!
I thought of setting my camera and shooting everything I could before the fog left, but instead, decided to shoot 'old school', like film. First of all, I always shoot on a tripod - at least with my 'big' camera, the Nikon D800e. A tripod forces you to slow down and think about what you're doing. You concentrate on the composition rather than holding the camera steady. I mounted the camera along with my trusty 24-70mm f:2.8 lens onto my Gitzo Carbon-Fibre tripod with a Really Right Stuff BH-55 ball head. I knew from experience and from shooting this scene before, that I would probably shoot somewhere around the 50mm - 60mm range so went straight for this lens.
When you need to work quickly your equipment needs to facilitate this. A slow, heavy, cumbersome tripod or head can be very frustrating to work with. The Nikon D800e at 36MP is closer to shooting medium format when it comes to technique, so your support system has to be solid. The carbon fibre Gitzo makes light work out of being solid and the RRS ball-head with matching L-Plate on my D800e means I can position my camera very quickly where I want it, and switch from vertical to horizontal in about two seconds - without having to reposition my set up to get the same perspective. The lens ends up in the exact same position! Cool eh!
The 'old school' comes in that because my equipment can be deployed quickly, I can now take my time to find the #VantagePoint to create the image I envision. So I walk. Before looking through the camera itself I take in the scene with my own eyes, unobstructed. Take a deep breath and embed the view in your mind. Too many people just hold up their camera and snap away without taking the time to actually enjoy the view.
I walked to a viewpoint that I hadn't photographed this scene from in the past. It's a different look, and I like the image, but it's a little 'flat' for what I envisioned that day. However, moving the camera and tripod a few inches allowed me to place the Maple Tree directly between the two buildings and balance the composition with the fence and other tree on the left hand side. I also like this image in B&W rather than colour. The machinery on the right was bright red and distracted too much from the buildings and tree that I wanted to be the main focus.
