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My tour partner Dan Sniffin learned a valuable lesson over the course of our last two tours together. His story is worth sharing as it illustrates a point I make in my presentation, “Discovery & The Creative Choice.”  And that is to beware of expectations. Up until the Smoky Tour this spring, Dan has typically arrived with expectations. He might say something like, I want to find a lone tree in fog or I am looking for such and such situation. Then during the tour and even the pre-tour, he would be focused on finding such. This time, as Dan arrived in the Smokies he said to me, “John, I have no expectations on this tour. I just want to relax and whatever happens, happens.” And guess what? Dan produced what I believe to be some of his finest work. And, he produced more “keepers” than on any other tour we’ve done together. Next, he arrived in the Palouse a few weeks ago and said, “John, I’ve shot in the Palouse 10 times, I’m not sure I’ll be doing much shooting. I’m going to relax but if I see something, I’ll get a camera out. If not, thats fine too.” Guess what? Yup, once again Dan produced stellar images and more of them than any other trip to the Palouse.

What is the point? By removing expectations and by being open to what was being given to Dan, he was actually able to see more! I would suggest that you don’t try and force images to fit an expectation you have. Rather, just be still and let the images come to you! Beware of those pesky expectations. You know, the expectation to come home from this trip with 10 “keepers.” Or, I saw these killer images of Iceland on 500px. Now I have to go to Iceland to make similar images. These kind of expectations can be dangerous and can potentially influence your “seeing” in a negative way as you’ll be under pressure to succeed against false or unattainable expectations. As evidenced by Dan’s success, it is much better to relax and be open to whatever right answer presents itself.

Todays image is from the Palouse. We had been out chasing late light and a storm. We finally stopped on a road where there is a wonderful red barn scene. We waited and waited for the light to come through the thick clouds behind us to light up the barn. Then it came, lasting for less than a minute. The problem for me, was the red barn didn’t have enough clouds above it when the light came. So, I searched for another right answer and found this! I love the streak of gold light and the tremendous clouds. So glad I followed my own advice for once and did not stay focused on the expectation we had of shooting the red barn in last light.

If you’re not following Chuck Kimmerle on his blog you should.  His latest post about light is excellent. www.chuckkimmerle.com/blog/

 

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