Recently, I taught a workshop with Art Wolfe, John Greengo, and Libby Pfeiffer. We had a wonderful time running and hiding under a sitka spruce as it rained like never before on Second Beach just outside of La Push, Washington. At times, the grand landscape is not always available and instead of focusing on what it should be, we need to focus on what is available to us in every given moment. Nature is fleeting, changing, and always moving.
Art and I walked up to a pool of standing water that was covered with sea foam that was creating swirling patterns that looked like a Van Gogh painting. In the time it took Art to remove his camera from his back pack the image was gone, completely dispersed by our wind driven rain. Looking around for something else, I managed to find a similar patterning in a pile of drift wood. I captured a few images before it started to rain in sheets and drove even the heartiest of soles to cover.
About an hour later, in an attempt to redeem herself, mother nature turned off the rain. This led to all of the workshop participants cautiously proceeding out from hiding to shoot more imagery. What she failed to tell us in the memo is that this was going to become one of the most amazing sunsets myself, Art, John and Libby have seen in close to a hundred combined years of experiences.
The moral of the story is: never ever talk about fight club. Wait, sorry, never ever walk away bummed that there is nothing for you to shoot. Look around you, even at your feet, possibly under the tree you are hiding, and if even that fails wait and give it time. Your reward could be worth more than a thousand words.
