Many beginning photographers love to take their camera out on a sunny afternoon, not realizing that direct sunlight is the surest way to create an uninteresting picture. The light at the beginning of the day, or at the end, is far more useful.
This image was taken in deep in a forest just after sunrise. That meant getting up at an ungodly hour and carrying a tripod, setting up equipment and waiting for the right moment. Careful focus and a long shutter exposure resulted in this composition.
The sun’s early light delivered a wide palette of colour ranging from the lightest of greens to the blackest. Early rising, wandering about in muddy shoes, chilled to the bone: all of this scarcely mattered. What I learned was far more valuable.
The human eye can discern more than two million different colours, though we have only a very few names for those gradations in colour. Film, particularly slide film, can record subtleties that can only be realized on subsequent viewing. This is an integral part of the allure of film photography. Compare this to AI-enhanced digital pictures that look other-worldly but feel inauthentic.
“The things that matter most should never be at the mercy of the things that matter least. “~ Goethe
Location: Mundy Park, Coquitlam, British Columbia
Date: November 1983
Source: Pentax ME Super with Kodachrome 64 slide film
