At the photography workshop I attended last Sunday, I stumbled onto this spot. I’m still a novice hiker at times and I just need to stop and regroup a bit before moving on. Most often these re-centering breaks follow a quick game of hang on to the camera.
This image was captured during one of those breaks at the Patapsco State Park in Maryland. Looking up river, the sun illuminated the water as it fell down off the rocks above. As I was setting up the sho, I found it hard to decide where I should focus my lens: the water or the rock.
In her comments prior to the start of our shooting session, our instructor Emily Carter Mitchell, reminded us to look closely at the surroundings when setting up our shots. A great reminder: all images tell a story so you need to see the bigger picture, even if you end up focusing on just one of the elements in the scene.
I ended up focusing on the rock. The story is simple: the rock is an obstacle to keep the water from rushing down the river at a harmful pace while proving the protection to create dry pad for the novice hiker to land.
