That Sweet Sweet Light

While sitting in the back seat of a van, full of anxious photographers, I am still asleep.  This getting up at 4:30 a.m. is rough on my system and I don't drink coffee so you can imagine the struggle.  But I am also one of those photographers that stop shooting from about 10:00 a.m. till about 4:00 p.m.   The group is always asking me..."Shannon!?  Why are you not taking any pictures?"  The reason, is because the light is shit this time of day.  So I hang out and enjoy the scenery till that sweet light shows itself again.   

But back to 4:30 a.m. and the van.  We finally reach our destination and everyone jumps out set up their tripods and clickclickclickclick!!!  Me on the other hand...keep my stuff packed and over my shoulder as I take a walk along the shoreline and wait for an emotional response to what I am seeing.  By now the sun is starting to rise and the light is changing by the second...now it is time to get serious here!!!  I find the angle of the Island that appeals to me and set up.  I mentally decide that I want more of a silhouette look of the island and the light to frame it...a few practice shots to make sure I am awake and then.....

CLICK.

I take a few more shots of some other subjects and as I am walking back towards the van and the group the light is changing again!  here is the exact same island but from a different angle from the shoreline.  The sun is now starting to burn up the mist.

I then crawl back into the van and curl up and try to sleep until the group is ready to move on.  Then they decide to stop for breakfast and I am thinking "WHAT?!  eat now?...this is shooting time"  But because I am just a passenger I keep quiet and we stop at a restaurant and order breakfast...while waiting for our food, I see a few subject matters that please my eye and I run out to grab a couple of shots before the mid day light takes over.  After Breakfast we hit a few more spots and this is where the group is wondering why I am not shooting...

By now it is around 3:00 p.m. and we are slowly making our way back to the house where we are to pick 6 of our favorite images from the day and present them.  As we pass by a lake they stop and I say to the group..."Hey what is this place"  they all turn to me like I have 3 heads.  "Shannon, it is the first place we were at this morning."  I now wish I had taken a picture to compare the sweet light of the morning to the mid day blahhness of the afternoon sun...I didn't even recognize the location.   

Then when we arrived at the house and everyone pulled out their editing programs, I simply converted my RAW into TIFF and picked 6 of my favorite shots and saved them to a thumb drive and handed it to the host (who was putting on the slide show)  He looked at me confused and asked "What's this? Are you not going to edit and play with your pictures??"  "Umm well I did my playing with my camera hehehe"  Then I went to lay down for the next 4 hours as I waited for the group to get their 6 pictures ready.  I think I was the only one rested and all keen for the night star shoot!  But that is for another post!  

Photos by Starkgrl (shannon stark)
all photos are in camera with no editing.