And speaking of putting people in some of your photographs, I was reminded on a windy day during this past workshop of another day on the Outer Banks last fall. Then, the wind was blowing like the proverbial bat out of hell. We were down along the water’s edge, and sand was everywhere, obliterating feet prints in what seemed like a nano-second.
The sun was rising, and I looked behind me, as any photographer ought to do, and this is what I saw.
There was no definition to the land. Sand was raging across the dunes, turning everything blurry. The reflections in the windows of the newly-refurbished life-saving station were magnificent and echoed the light on Arnie and his red jacket.
I studied the scene, then quickly brought my camera around and snapped this One Shot. Just as quickly, I turned my back to the wind and buried my camera in my skirt folds to protect it from further sand blasting.
Like the cobbler, we don’t have all that many shots of each other. We’re always photographing our participants. I love this shot. Arnie’s expression, even at that distance, lets the viewer know exactly what he thought of the gritty conditions, yet, like me, he was still photographing, because the light was so wonderful. I think we were finding Outer Banks sand in unimaginable places for weeks afterwards.
Tomorrow, we’ll be on the road. MooseCat and our house-sitter will keep track of the house, plants, and birds whilst we are gone for a few days. It is not likely that I’ll manage a blog tomorrow, but one never knows! Meanwhile …
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Margo,
I love this shot. It reminds me of something I say often to other photographers, especially aspiring photographers…”Weather often makes your picture.” I can’t count how many people question whether we’ll go out on a planned shoot if it’s raining or bitterly cold. My response is always, “Of course. We’ll take cold pictures.” Or, “We’ll take rainy pictures.” Now I might just add, “We’ll take wind-blown sand pictures.” I love the way it looks like Arnie is rising up out of a cloud or simply suspended atop a cloud. Great work as usual.
Thanks, Tom. I loved the effect. I remember many years ago on the Outer Banks when one of our participants was worried about the putrid weather forecast.
“What will we do if it rains?
“What do you mean, ‘What will be do if it rains?'” I responded.
“If it rains, what will we do?” he asked again, thinking I was clearly dense.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to photograph,” I replied. “Do you mean to tell me that if you go on that once-in-a-lifetime trip, and it is raining, you won’t want to capture this or that scene?”
It put it into a different perspective for him, and he did some really great images using … guess what … inclement weather!
Thanks for writing, Tom, and take care,
TBC