Drama with a Camera
Sometimes real life is just sitting there, looking gorgeous
I am selling my professional camera equipment, and down-shifting to simpler but still semi-pro equipment.
I needed to do some testing, a comparison of my existing camera (Phase One IQ4) and my proposed new camera (Fuji GFX 100S II).
[The Phase One is what high-end photographers use on major assignments where beautiful results are required. They are not action cameras, not even slightly, but they produce beautiful images with rich colors and fine detail. I wanted to know how close I could get to the Phase One with the Fuji.]
After taking all my ‘serious’ images for the tests, with both cameras, on a tripod, pointing at exactly the same things (about which, another post will come), I put a favorite lens on the Fuji and just walked around looking for interesting things to photograph.
When I was done with that, and walking back to the car, I saw what you see above. Not quite as dramatic (yes, I edited the initial photo; I always do) as what you see above, but the potential was obvious. So I did what I always do, pointed my camera and lens and took a few dozen shots at different angles, different compositions, and slowly learned what I wanted from this arrangement.
Then I edited the photo to bring out the beauty, and done. The changes were relatively minor—add some darker tones for contrast; emphasize the color differences. Here’s the original, un-edited photo:
I must have walked past this a dozen times as I wandered around the area looking for good shots. It’s all too easy to get your brain wrapped around some idea of what you want, and completely miss what you really want.
I’ve shot in that exact area (trailhead area of the Foothills Trail in McMillan) for years now, and I found another thing that had been there a long time and I had never noticed it - a mile marker along the trail.
I thought it deserved a photo, showing it in all its routine, timeless glory.