The following images are examples of a situation where these observations come to my mind, and although I'm not sure if any of them is the perfect shot they all represent situations where photography drove me to do something I'd never do if I wasn't looking for images. In fact I'd add something to Jake's statement that would sound something like this: "although the perfect shot will find you, you can't just sit anywhere and wait for this to happen"…
I've been to Ontario several times in the course of business trips (not related to photography). Whenever possible I try to escape in order to create images.
Besides the Lonely Planet, my main guide book for the region is called Waterfalls of Ontario. This weekend, during the spring melt, I was driving from Toronto to Algonquin park and used the guide to find some waterfalls along the way. "The Gut" was a suggesting name in itself and wasn't far from the main roads so I made a quick detour there… When photographing I have days when most compositions look obvious but most times nothing seams to work, this was such a day… I knew that with the amount of water in the gorge and the mid-day light the flowing water would most probably be rendered flat white in my pictures and this sort of kept me from trying to find possible compositions.
When I got to this spot, and looked through the Bronica's wlf I almost fell due to impression caused by the water movement. The image that came to my mind was so clear that I knew I had to attempt something. I had to shot at F16 with the 50mm lens to make sure I had enough dof for rendering both the first plan rock and the background sharp.
Hoping infrared film not to go completely featureless with the fast moving water I bracketed both ways (I usually only overexpose with IR film), expecting to retain some detail on film with faster exposures without rendering the water white and leaving some room for mounting several frames if required.
The image above is the frame shot at -1. The negative is quite thin, but responds quite well to scanning and the water movement pattern is the best from all my attempts.
This same day I had the idea to drive to Basin Lake in the eastern part of Algonquin Provincial Park, that implied driving though a dirt road with some mud and snow patches and at a certain point I had to quit because the road had completely disappeared.
I decided to drive back to some lakes I had seen along the way and trying to create some images. I stopped near this pond after sunset, I was only carrying the Bronica 50mm lens in this trip and everything looked to far away in the viewfinder...
Still I was caught by the dimly lit sky and the dead tree emerging from the water. The final image results from two exposures: one for capturing detail in the sky and another for capturing detail in the trees and the foreground water. The last exposure took 15 minutes. While waiting in silence I started to see some movement in the water an noticed that a couple of beavers had been there all the time, but I was so focused in the landscape that hadn't noticed them before...Visually I like the final result, but what I like the most is the stream of emotions this image brings back whenever I look at it in my living room wall.
In the next day I woke at dawn expecting the sun to peek through the clouds. I had seen this north facing spot along highway 60 just before the east gate of Algonquin in previous trips and I had always thought it would be a good location for dawn or dusk. I had a very subtle display of color in the sky and did some attempts with slide film but them changed back to Infrared for my last attempts.
Infrared is known for rendering still water black. I've learned with experience that in overcast weather I can overexpose without burning the highlights and allowing for water reflections to be recorded, this is also due to the fact that the B+W 092 I was using lets in a marginal amount of visible light. The negative looks quite thin the water area but detail can easily be brought back after scanning…Back from the initial questions, I'm not sure any of this is the perfect shot. Still they all come from situations that I would have not lived If I where not looking for images. In the end whenever I look back, the distance... being alone in the middle of nowhere in negative temperatures... getting my feet wet and my hands frozen… It all seams to make sense…
