Glamour Shots

When I go to familiar places to photograph, I like to pre-visualize the scene, I am looking to capture a certain mood or perspective. I will watch the weather to see what the conditions are like. Sometimes that works but most often it doesn’t. For instance, a friend and I went out to shoot the sunset and it was setting up to be a great one! However, at the pivital moment as the sun began to sink to the horizon, the sky lit up in an unexpected place – not even close to the mountain peak we were aimed at. That was disappointing, we couldn’t get to the right position, which required some driving, in time.

The key is to keep an open mind, because nature doesn’t always do the expected. Instead of being disappointed that things don’t go as planned, I try to embrace the moment and capture what is right in front of me- to capture the feeling of how I feel and what I see. Now keep in mind, I won’t put myself in the path of a tornado intentionally, (but if the opportunity arises, and I am right there….. well, maybe) Safety first and all that! In this collection of winter images I took this year, I was on a different mission than what I captured and was so surprised and happy with what I was able to find.

In “Gentle Giants” I was visiting Silverton, CO with my husband, it was free ski weekend so he hit the slopes while I went searching for photo opportunities. It was a very cloudy day and was starting to snow. As we were leaving for the day, I suggested we drive up to Molas Pass so I could see what it was doing there. As we arrived, it was snowing lightly and then got harder but to my delight, it was gorgeous, the light so spectral. It felt so magical, soft and serene. I trudged through thigh high snow to a little rise to capture the two scenes featured. It was just so beautiful, I felt like a little kid at their first circus show! The snow let up for a few minutes, then the sun peaked out between the clouds and kissed the peaks with light. What a moment to remember.

In the “Glamour Shot” series, I felt I wasn’t in the right place at the right time. I noticed the sunset was to my right, just over my shoulder. I tried to drive over there but the road wasn’t plowed after a certain point and I couldn’t get to a good spot. But when I went to this location after I turned around, it was amazing! Better that I could have anticipated. Surprise is good and sometimes so are road blocks!

Pre-visualization has its place, but sometimes the unexpected yields different but equally amazing results.

Gentle Giants