Not Ideal

I’ve been working hard to stay motivated when things aren’t ‘ideal’ – everything from getting out to photograph, to getting out on the bike or for a hike. Waiting for the ideal has left me longing and sitting – so the mental game has become how to overcome the paralysis of thinking there is an ideal, perfect world and life out there that I need to just wait for… which is folly.

I went out to try some long exposure photography yesterday, and explored a place called Delta Park, just north of Burlington. I have fat biked out there in late winter – and it can be beautiful, cold, and windy. Yesterday the wind was moderate, the water has been high with all the warm temperatures and snow melt / rain, and the ground soft and muddy. I initially saw some great ice that had a good view of the setting sun – but opted to trek off around to the river side in hopes of having some good framing with trees / ice / water. That didn’t really pan out – the landscape and direction to the sun didn’t align and cooperate.

Once I trekked around I just setup and made due, and started making images. I have been playing / learning / failing / fumbling with a filter holder on my little Canon mirrorless M6. I have a Formatt-Hitech system – mounted the holder, the circular polarizer, and then played with a 10 stop ND and a 2 stop graduated filter. I tossed most of the those images… learned a lot, and am getting better at setup and take down of the system – but needed to stack 2 filters for a longer shutter speed than 30 seconds in order to get some cloud blurring – and the landscape framing didn’t cooperate – there was nothing static of interest in my immediate field of view that could anchor the movement of the water / clouds.

I did enjoy a lovely walk, bonus for tripping over rocks and roots and slipping on rocks, and I managed to make a few images, once I let go of the ‘ideal’. Just by turning to walk back to the car, my perspective changed and I was treated to the lovely sky…