Catalysts and Plateaus

I’ve mentioned having writer’s block for quite some time. Yeah, I’ve been able to squeeze out the intermittent blog post and hopefully, it hasn’t bored too many of you but I’ve been trying to get a new presentation about photographing birds in flight out of my head and on to paper. Not much success at this point.

My old friend Sam Hampton, who has the soul of a poet and the scientific/technical ability of a physicist  once explained how a super saturated solution could change to a solid or a gas if the right catalyst was found. Sam was and is a pretty smart fella that lives in California and can be found with a fly rod fishing in beautiful places when he gets the chance. Definitely a person that I have listen to over the years.

I guess we could say the same about photography plateaus. You know…when it seems like you are in a rut. You pretty much have the technical aspect of photography down enough that you can overcome bad light or poor backgrounds and all the things that seem to interfere with producing top notch work. You have to reach a point where you are ‘saturated’. in photography. You are looking for that ‘catalyst’ to solidify the images in your head so you can figure out how to achieve them. You are looking for something to move you off dead center.

That catalyst can be new equipment. It can be switching to a new genre of photography but in my case, I think it is time to do a road trip. Not just any road trip but a road trip to one of the iconic hot spots for bird and nature photography.

In this case, Bosque del Apache.

I leave the end of November. Stay tuned for updates. Hopefully, it won’t bore you.

 

Until then, here is a warm up image that I made to start dusting off the ‘cobwebs’. It was also part of a focus test to determine if there was any back or front focus issues.

 

 

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4 thoughts on “Catalysts and Plateaus

  1. Very nice photo Bill as usual! Was this one taken this year? Look forward to the time we can hook up and go out for a hunt or two.

    Until then have a good one!

  2. Your photos are a spirit in life. Close your eyes and let your soul fly with the wind. Your blog is cherished and the photos are great. I send them on to many people.
    I would love to see them set to music amid a poem like the one we did in Jay sometime back. The line about the ballet of ducks and guns still runs through my head quite often. Writer’s block is only the spirit of great writing asleep, and with all sleeping a morning will break, a new day will begin. Rest and reinvent but never quit! Love Sam..

    • Thanks Sam

      Kind of went to the programmer’s method
      Go to the end result and work backward LOL
      I have a good outline set up and will try and write one point and then stop, then write one point and stop and so on–
      It is a ‘mental elephant and has to be consumed one bite at a time”

      A few days ago,I fired up the old tape we made and you know…..it is as good today as when we made it–
      I might change the music but the prose and images still work

      Even dreamed of Dry Corner,Two Duck Slough and The Green Tree.
      Good times my friend, good times

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