Sometimes it just doesn't work...

[Destin]

I drove two hours to a state park this morning intent on photographing the sunrise over a really cool boat dock that I scouted for a photo spot last year. There was potential based on the forecast for either a dull gray morning or a great winter sunrise, and of course it shaped up to be dull and gray. To make matters worse I got there to find that the dock had been removed for the winter.

Basically, the light sucked and I didn't have a subject. I had to scramble to find an alternate subject and attempt to make the best of a bad situation. I came away with the following image that isn't terrible, but it's far from the portfolio worthy shot I had planned.

Lesson of the day: Landscape photography is a fickle beast. For every great trip out, there are a dozen that don't go right. You've gotta stay motivated and keep going out even when you're having a bad streak. Don't just give up when the photo isn't there, you can always find something else to shoot.

 

[dxqcanada]

Yup.

 

[smoke665]

Murphy's Law. Nice recovery. By chance have you tried this as a conversion I think it would add to the image if you converted it, add a Cyanotype tone (to bring out the winter look), add a little grain for grit. Then lay a radial filter over the dock and some of the water in front to give the appearance of a break in the clouds. Anyhow just a thought.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

Hmmm, sounds a lot like wildlife photography as well. Maybe photography in general? You have to really love something to keep believing in it in the face of failure.

 

[weepete]

Aye, landscape photography can be fickle. I just had 5 days last week of superb sunsets and sunrises when I was working, planned to go on Saturday with a mate to a location only to see a front moving in from the north which basically meant 100% cloud cover and persistant heavy rain.

Still, if you don't go you won't know. I've also seen many defy the weather forecast when I hadn't taken my camera!