Well, I decided not to climb the same mountain 5 days in a row as I am finding that this would take a bit too much time of my already short summer. I am keeping this idea on hold, but now I have morphed it into another idea.
I take a lot of photos. It's not like the days in which I used a large format camera and took only a handful during the day. Instead, I can take hundreds doing a variety of processes from panoramic photos to multiple exposures varying the length and time (sure it is called HDR, but I don't process it as an HDR and select only elements that I feel truly enhance my image).
So, I am going to select from my many photos of each hike a HANDFUL. And a handful means 5.
Today's hike was short. I mean really short. It was about .6 miles to Tannery Falls in the Berkshires. However, the hike took me almost three hours to complete as I was enthralled with the variety of waterfalls done this wonderful stream. There were enormous and falls with thundering water cascading and small and ever so subtle falls that trickled their way through the forest. I wandered, looked, peeped and found as many angles as I could.
I also ended up speaking to plenty of people too. Even met a woman who swam with my brother when they were kids. I also had a guy who asked to look at some of the images I was making and was truly interested in the process and fully understood just how entrancing this all was.
There was so much water today. Last year was a dry year and the streams did not race and ravage their way through the landscape as they are now. Also, the greens appear to me to be more saturated this year. I even found myself toning them down a bit when I processed them for they almost looked unnatural.
One difference in how I am photographing is that I am taking my camera out, setting it up on the tripod and then repacking compared to how I did this in the past when I just slung the camera over my shoulder. I have been falling lately. Not because I have gotten weaker, but I suspect I drag my feet a bit more and seem to have a bit less balance. Last summer I incurred $500 damage to a lens as I feel with it on the tripod and whipped it over to break my fall. Broke the fall. Broke the lens.
Three house to cover this trail seems excessive. You can't photograph like this when you go hiking with others. You'd be strung up or force to hitch home. Thus, to do one's art, and for me true photography is art, you have to go on your own or with a like minded person. There is something powerful about photographing on your own too that allows one to get a little closer to who you truly are and why you make the choices that you do.
The Berkshires today were stunning. Early morning mist, dappled rays of sun, and rain clouds as I left. The water was flowing and endless patterns and shapes revealed themselves amidst the swirls.
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