Today I want to share a valuable lesson that I learned that will surely prevent me from missing great shots in the future, and I hope it will do the same for you.
The best way for me to share this lesson with you is with my own personal story of how I came about to learn it. So, it all started a few weeks ago when I noticed great clouds in the sky, so I took my bag and tripod and walked down to the beach.
I had a shot I wanted already in my mind. I wanted to catch the sunset with the great clouds along with the rocks and water. Something similar to this photo that I took over 2 years ago…
So I had everything ready, and I was trying to find the right composition, but something didn’t feel right. I don’t know what it was, but I couldn’t find the composition that felt like a winner that got me excited.
I kept walking around trying various locations, but it just wasn’t it. My frustration levels were rising pretty quickly as the sky was really amazing, and I felt that I would miss a great photo if I didn’t find something soon.
Then it hit me.
I was trying so hard to get the shot that I had in mind that I didn’t notice what was going on. I had to shoot the other amazing options, and all I needed to do was forget about the rocks, the water sunset triangle I was aiming for, and try and shoot something else.
I changed my lens from my wide-angle (10-18mm) to my zoom lens (55-210mm) and started looking for interesting compositions.
It didn’t take too long to find some and get these shots…
I’m thrilled with these shots, and if I didn’t “wake up” and stop obsessing about the shot I was “thinking” about and wanted to get, I would have missed these shots that were right in front of me.
So be sure to keep your eyes and mind open for whatever opportunity and composition as you don’t really know what you might shoot even if you go out with them with a “specific frame” in mind 😉