We were out scouting today, per our usual modus operandi. We have had some surprises in the past, such as when they started a major clean-up in the fishing village you saw in yesterday’s blog, or the spring “They” fixed up the old life-saving station, and they didn’t ask our permission. Of course, it looks much better to the layman, but to us photographers, it was a disaster. The sand no longer came up to the second-story windows. They put new shingles on it that weren’t weathered. They fixed the broken windows. In short, they took all the wonderful, textures that made it so interesting to photograph.
Fortunately, there were no ugly surprises this time. Phew! We walked out to Roanoke Sound on the mainland side of the Outer Banks to see another of my favorite locations. This is one where I invariably make a panorama. The breadth of the view begs to be a panorama. I’ve been watching the fishing shack, duck blind, whatever crumble a little bit each year. One of these days, I know we’re going to walk out and find it is no more than a rubble pile of rotten boards.
As you can see each one has a totally different feel, and for each of these, it was only One Shot. Again, in so many locations, particularly at the ends of the day, the light changes rapidly. Even with the monochromatic, middle image — yes, it’s the same one used for the banner above — the fog lifted, the breeze picked up, and the scene lost the mysterious look that attracted me. In none of the cases was there time to create another pano.
So, once again, it pays to know your location and setting. In each of the cases, I had to stand in a slightly different place because of the tide, grasses, or position of the moon to get the shot I wanted. In each case, I looked for what I call “the potential hazards,” those unwanted elements that are far better discovered before one clicks the shutter than afterwards on the computer.
These three photographs are also a good illustration of Same Place — Different View, since they were certainly all done at the same place. They do illustrate that every time you visit a location the light invariably will be different, the sky a different color, the moonset at a different point above the horizon, the reflections … different. Just because you have photographed a location once, don’t be afraid to return to make more wonderful photographs there.
I haven’t even shown any of my many, One-Shot, non-panorama images from this location, and not just of the shack. When the building finally does collapse, I will continue to find other things I enjoy photographing.
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