I have written about this in the past, but I want to revisit that topic after my friend and photo-pal Jo McAvany, and I made a quick trip to a local waterfall.
As with most waterfalls in British Columbia this time of year Chase Falls is a muddy, raging, roaring torrent. My goal was make a photograph that showed that raging torrent. I wanted to capture the mood and show the great force and intensity of the spring water coming over the falls.
Jo and I were to meet at the falls. I was a bit late, and she had walked down to a location where the path to Chase Falls went under the highway and was just setting her tripod up.
I stopped and we talked, then I wandered on to the falls. It was as I expected, and I was glad I wore a hat and had brought a small towel to wipe the spray off my camera and lens. I set up as close as I could safely get at a couple of different locations and used different shutter/aperture combinations as I worked to photograph the feeling I wanted from the waterfall.
I was there for some time before Jo finally showed up. I was just collapsing my tripod and preparing to go. She said she was finding some great photos along the fast moving creek. I think she only took one photo of the waterfall before complaining about the cold wind and very wet spray.
We walked back to our cars talking about the photographs and were also deciding what time we should leave on Monday morning for a short trip to pick up some film I wanted to stock in my shop when this pandemic finally lets us get back to some kind of (new) normal.
What made me think about how I enjoy doing photography with my friend wasn’t the short trip to the falls, as much as it was seeing the photographs she had made.
Jo worked that location so very different than I. Her photos of the fast moving stream reminded me how each photographer sees and visually interprets the world. Of course I am familiar with being with another photographer at the same location where each of us produces very different images. That was the usual for the 40 plus years I spent with my wife Linda. Now it’s my friend Jo that is demonstrating how creatively different two photographers can be. It is her images I am posting with this article.
I titled this article “It is good to do photography with another photographer.” I think that is not only an enjoyable way to enjoy this exciting medium, but also a great way to keep oneself fresh and creative.
I’ll end this with a quote by American photographer Jay Maisel, “If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.”
Stay safe and be creative.
These are my thoughts for this week. Contact me at www.enmanscamera.com or emcam@telus.net.