Finding Photos

Sometimes when I'm confined to the house I'll spend an hour or two going through old files. I do this mainly for the very reason the images were first made, for the memories they evoke.  On occasion I find one that makes me stop for a moment longer, which usually triggers the following thought;  "why haven't I shared this".

Today I was 'waiting in' for a call from home, and killing time by chasing memories when I happened upon this lovely shot of Elbow Lake in Kananaskis, Canada.  A good sized winter storm had just blown through and was disappearing down the valley beyond the lake, catching light as only storm clouds can. 

In it's wake a shaft of light managed to break through and light up the pine forest along the southern shoreline.  The contrast between it and the dark storm moving into the valley, and the long teal azure ribon of lake ice leading to that same location cried out for a shot.  

I remember getting home that evening, feeling disappointed that I hadn't quite got this right, and leaving the file in yet another folder on the hard drive. But today, somehow, I saw the image I was trying to make back in november 2017.  The leading line, the storm and the light were right, and the busted driftwood in the foreground added some interest.  Turns out it was a good image, good enought in fact for the portfolio, so I dressed it up and added it today.

It seems strange that it took me almost ten years to see the shot for what it was, for what I had clearly seen whilst out shooting that day, but it's far from the first time this has happened. I actually think that when I'm standing there experiencing the moment there is additional emotion, some kind of awe at the beauty of the moment, the sounds, the air the light, everything combined. When I get home I look at the images and they just don't trigger the same feeling, because they can't.  It's a two dimentional representation of the three dimentional landscape, there's no sound, no breeze on your face, no chill in the air, and the light is not the same on an image. 

So, I think when I first look through my shots, because they are missing a large part of the 'intensity' of the moment and that intensity is fresh in the memory, I then feel that I haven't captured the moment as I would like and I abandon the raw shots to the hard drive. It takes time for the memory to fade, almost ten years in this case, but when it does I can eventually 'see the light' both figuratively and literally.