Find Beauty Everywhere

Landscape photography requires a great deal of patience and a significant investment of time. Unlike studio portraiture, the landscape photographer cannot control the elements. No matter how carefully a location is scouted and the shoot is planned in advance, in the end the conditions are outside of the photographer's control. It can take scores of visits to the same spot over months or even years to make the shot.

Fortunately, what one sees along the way is so beautiful it makes it all worthwhile.

The image here is a good example of a shoot that failed to yield any usable images. There was too much cloud cover, especially near the horizon, to allow pre-sunrise colors to paint the sky. (Getting up at 3:45am to head over to the coast to shoot the sky at dawn gets old when you have nothing to show for it, believe me!)

Still, this particular morning, the vivid magenta stripe peeking through at the horizon was unusual - and stunning. On the one hand, it was an unsuccessful morning - but I did get to enjoy a lovely sight. Was it a waste of time? I think not. Beauty is everywhere in nature. Just look around!