On shooting with a friend

Second Amendment Monkey. Near Eldora, Colorado, 2013

Rather than alone, that is.

Last week I spent an afternoon and early evening with Dana Bove, a local photographer just as enthusiastic as me but perhaps a bit farther along that endless photography learning curve. (More on Dana in later posts as his new non-profit-supporting, invitational photography art gallery goes live on the web.)

We first headed to the high mountains by the local ski area but, after three or four snaps of the shutter (example above–detail of an abandoned, bullet-ridden, 1940s truck left out in the hobbit forest near Eldora), a persistent rain and hail storm that showed no signs of abating had us buzzing back down to the plains near Nelson Road, just north of Boulder. Here a couple of interesting landscapes, backed by dramatic thunderheads drifting slowly to the east, caught our eyeballs and we went to work.

Shooting with someone else–especially if they are more knowledgeable–is a great chance to ask all those dumb questions you have been afraid to ask elsewhere. You can compare shooting techniques, camera settings, ideas for printing your images, art philosophy, vision, project ideas, jokes, life stories, and anything else that might come up. I found one of the most interesting aspects was how we each saw the same scene in quite different ways. Even if we had our tripods set up within yards of each other, the finished product turned out to be way different–a reflection of our individual styles, personalities and vision…he shoots a pano, I shoot the clouds, and so on.

So, I need to do more of this…it was fun, a great male bonding exercise, and it was pretty much like a free photography workshop for both of us!

Fenceline. Boulder County, Colorado, 2013