I think ones work says it all really,

the photos tell a story on their own

and show the Photographer’s heart and spirit. Ann
Welcome to Photo Trek,
a North Carolina Photographer’s Journal.
Greg Kiser

Four Forty-Six Photography.

GregKiser@446Photography.com

The New Photo Trek http://phototrek.446photography.com/

my newsletter A Polarized Life

Behind the Camera:

Place to Ponder

Welcome back to another edition of Behind the Camera, a monthly feature here at Photo Trek II.  In this feature I select one of my photographs to throw in the spotlight.  Each of my pictures have their own stories about how they were created as well as what they mean to me.  This month the featured photograph is more about what I see than how it was created, although there is a bit of technical information to be shared with the image.

Place to Ponder

One of my goals as a photographer is to illustrate emotion and feeling through my photography.  I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I am more successful than others, and there are times that there are several different interpretations of each photograph depending on who is viewing them.  I imagine that Place to Ponder will mean something different for most viewers than it does for me, and that’s fine by me.  However, this image is actually quite special to me and I allude to its tone with the title.

I think that from childhood most people learn that a shade tree is a great place to sit and think about things.  Maybe you are trying to make a decision, possibly reflecting on events in your life, or even pondering more profound thoughts.  This tree right next to the pond would make a great “thinking tree”…a place to ponder life’s mysteries.  This is probably the most literal interpretation of this photograph, but for me it goes much deeper than that.

The Mabry Mill which appears on the other side of the pond is the primary subject for this image.  There are some things that are immediately recognizable about this old grist mill.  First is that it shows its age.  This mill ha s been here for some time now doing the same thing day after day.  It is still a functional mill after all.  Second, the wheel has stopped moving, but only for a short time.  For all appearances, this is a dormant structure but a short time before this image was captured it was in motion and full of activity.  The activity returned shortly after the shutter was released with tourists walking around and the wheel spinning once again.

When I was viewing this photograph while going through the editing process I immediately identified with those elements.  Since 2005, I have been seriously involved with photography and have gone through many changes.  Normally, I have a lot going on at once with multiple Treks in a month and lots of new images to go through.  Recently, I have been slowing down and have been suffering from a certain amount of photographer’s block.  I have been dormant much like the Mabry Mill as seen here.

I have been using this dormant time to do some thinking and to re-evaluate some of my direction as a photographer.  Taking some time away from the camera has been like sitting under the shade tree by the pond.  It has been quiet, not demanding, and somewhat relaxing.  I have found a proverbial “place to ponder”.  Much like the mill which returned to action shortly after this exposure, I seem to only stay dormant for a short time as well.  While I am not completely out of my funk as a photographer, I think I am well on my way after this latest Trek.

Technically speaking, this photograph is not quite as simple as it appears.  As you can see, the sun was out which made getting a proper exposure quite difficult considering that the foreground is all in the shade.  As it turned out, when surveying the way the light was falling on the mill I realized that most of the really bright lighting was restricted to the actual mill which was on the verge of being overexposed based on the light meter.  There were a couple of ways to deal with this, one being correcting it through post processing…which I don’t much care to do.  The other option was my preferred method…using filters in the field to correct for the exposure issues.  I found that a 2-Stop hard edge gradual ND filter worked very well with do discernible dividing line right at the water line.

The other issue was how to control the reflection in the water.  This was easy, and required only the use of a polarizing filter.  I resisted the urge to use this filter to its full effect, and only dialed in about half of the effect.  This kept a nice clear reflection in the water while keeping the look of the water “normal”.  Paired with these two filters, my 17-40mm f/4L lens was the perfect choice to capture this image.

You can view Place to Ponder in the Rustic Room of Four Forty-Six Photography.  If there is a photograph of mine that you would like to learn more about please feel free to email me or just leave your suggestion in the comment form here.

Written by Greg A. Kiser