Imagining a scene under different conditions

Late Afternoon in the Foothills. Boulder County, Colorado, 2012

Here is a suggestion for you: No matter what you are doing throughout the day–running errands, at the computer at work, driving home at the end of the day, taking out the garbage–keep your photographer goggles on and your eyes alert to possible images. You might not have your camera with you (although you should!), you might not have the time to make a photograph, the light might not be right, and so on…but keep alert to the many possibilities if the right conditions were to materialize. There are potential images everywhere.

I have a number of favorite places, vistas and scenes in which I have composed potential photographs in my mind’s eye; I am just waiting for the conditions to be right. This is the idea, then: Try to imagine what you are seeing under different conditions–in different light, at sunrise, at sunset, with storm clouds, in autumn, in winter with snow, in the rain, in the fog, with people present…or not, with some kind of critter there, at night with star trails, in color, in monochrome. And so on.

Once you have visualized what the scene might be like under different conditions, be alert to when those conditions actually come about…or go there to actively seek out those conditions you have imagined.

When you start imagining how different scenes might look under different conditions, it’s amazing how many more photographic possibilities start popping out at you. Great images are everywhere!