“YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY
FOR”
A True Idiom in Photography
The scene was
Rocky Mountain National Park, in the summer of 2012. I was In the middle
of my 3-day “Finding Fine Art In Nature” photo workshop, sponsored by Rocky Mountain Nature Association.
During my
workshops, we walk around a lot, talking and looking for “that shot.” I kept
telling one of my students, I’ll call her Sue, “I hope we see some mushrooms.”
They are hard to photograph because they grow small and don’t like crowds. Sue
told me she would be on the lookout for them.
After several hours of instruction, we started walking around popular Bear
Lake. All of a sudden, I saw a dark, wet area in the shadows among a grove of
trees. I told Sue
that it might be a likely spot for mushrooms. She walked ahead of me and yelled
out, “Eli, I think I see one!” Sure enough, there were actually two little
modest orange mushrooms just enjoying the coolness of the shade and nearby
stream. I immediately told Sue that she should go first---she should try to
photograph it first before I captured it.
I began
telling Sue about the challenges she was up against. Composition, depth of
field, and exposure were going to be the key elements to consider. I walked Sue
through every step of the way, beginning with the most difficult
part—composition. She was definitely the dedicated and committed student type—she
had her tripod. I watched her spend several minutes adjusting her tripod legs,
as well as her own, to get low enough to photograph the small colorful mushrooms.
I could tell
she was really struggling to get down that low to find the right angle. It was
extremely wet in the area, so I looked around and found a large piece of wood
and took it to Sue for her to sit on. She did, and continued to twist and shout,
as she committed her body to do the virtually impossible. After several minutes
of watching her inch her body left, then right, then a little higher, then a
little lower, I told her, “You look like a contortionist Sue.” “I feel like one,” she jokingly responded.
When she got
her shots, she asked me to look at them on her camera monitor. I complimented
her on her images, and for doing what it took to get that one shot. She
definitely paid for what she got.
I asked Sue
to summarize that one particular lesson. She was quick with her answer, which
I’ll paraphrase. “This made me realize how important it is to do whatever you
have to do to get it right.” She thanked me for walking her through each
required photographic step, and for being patient with her.
Sue learned that, in photography, you have to work to get what you want, but that
you do get what you pay for. And she paid for it. I, on the other hand, learned
that truly dedicated, committed students of photography understand that they
have to go beyond just “point and shoot”. And that is what separates the
“wilbes” from the “wannabes.”
Oh, and this
is what I paid for that afternoon in that marsh-like spot with Sue.
