How often do you revisit a scene that you want to photograph? Is once enough? Do you set up your camera, snap a photograph, and walk away feeling as though you’ve captured the masterpiece you saw in your mind’s eye? Revisiting a scene allows you to view the same scene from a different perspective as well as in different lighting. You may be thinking, “why can’t I just spend the afternoon walking around the area I’m photographing and take a bunch of photographs from different angles?”. You very well could and should, but when you walk away from something and give it some thought you tend to have a fresh perspective when you return. The photograph above was taken the first time I visited this old sugar cane factory (sweet, right?). The following photographs were taken the next day from a different location as well as slightly different angles.
I am a huge fan of visiting the same area multiple times a year, year after year, to get every possible lighting and angle I can. This does not mean you need to revisit every thing you photograph time and time again, use your best judgement and only revisit those places you feel have potential. Had I had more time to revisit this site day after day I may have captured a stormy day with a break in the clouds and a single beam of light coming down, washing the old factory in light, or a rainbow over the mountain behind it. There are a lot of different factors that could happen to enhance a scene to make it an award-winning photograph.
I do go back when I can….as a most of my photos are taken on the road, it can be a challenge. I may not always be in the same town!
AnitaMac That does pose a challenge, I suppose if you don’t get what you want the first time it gives you an excuse to revisit some day 🙂
JohnBarbiaux AnitaMac Shhhhhh…you’re on to my secret plan! Hehehe