Pixiq

Preconceptions in photography can be dangerous things creatively. They can make you so focused on looking for the images that you see in your mind’s eye that you ignore even better possibilities that are right in front of you and, even worse, they can cause you to get discouraged if you’re not finding the types of images you wanted to find.

Preconceptions are especially problematic when it comes to weather because you simply can’t predict it too far into the future. But you can work with it. For example, Lady Liberty is something I’ve always wanted to spend a day or two photographing, and to do so I had to plan some relatively elaborate (and expensive) arrangements to make the weekend happen—car rental, hotel, ferry tickets, etc. The one thing I hoped for was a nice, crisp blue sky on the days I’d be shooting (which is why I went for several days and not just one—I figured I might get lucky and hit one great day). I’d done a lot of picture research leading up to the weekend and I knew exactly what I wanted: Liberty’s green copper face against a rich blue August sky.

Naturally, as the weekend drew closer the weather reports were anything but encouraging (this is a perpetual pattern in my life) and, in fact, the weather people were calling for possibly the worst of all weather options: rain, thunderstorms, and heavy cloud cover. Yuck. No blue skies were forecast. Surprisingly though, when I got out to Liberty Island, the weather dudes were wrong once again—the sky was perfectly blue with occasional puffy clouds giving relief from the intense sunshine.

As I was shooting, I realized that the statue didn’t look as great against a blue sky as I had thought it would; the sunshine was creating really contrasty and unattractive shadows on her face. But by mid afternoon, clouds started gathering and I lost the blue sky. Then it became very apparent that a big storm was headed our way and the skies darkened and thunder and lightning began to scatter the crowds.

Suddenly, with the sky getting darker and darker, Liberty’s face began to take on a  luminescent glow. Her face seemed to posses a far more soulful expression with the sunlight gone. It became clear to me that the beautiful sunny day shot I had envisioned wasn’t the only great image—and perhaps not even the best one. With rain and hail starting to pelt me, I kept shooting until the sky behind her crown was nearly black. These were the far more dramatic shots that I had been looking for. Finally, the skies opened up and I had to pull on a poncho and stop shooting, but I’d managed to get several shots that I liked a great deal, and none of the best shots had blue sky.

Don’t let bad weather stop your shooting and don’t let your preconceptions of good weather and good lighting close your imagination to even better opportunities. You can’t control the weather, but you can alter your creative vision to match it.