Choose the Right

I was hoping for a nice sunrise as a reward for getting up at 4:00 am. I had to find a place within an hour drive from Idaho Falls. I wasn't sure which direction all of the action would be happening in and where the clouds would be so I needed some place that I could shoot in many different directions. And I love reflections so somewhere with water. Decisions, decisions! I got in the car and had about 2 blocks before I had to turn and commit. And the decision is...Camas National Wildlife Refuge north of Idaho Falls.

As I enjoyed the fresh air, sounds of the abundant wildlife, and the beautiful sunrise I was reminded of Galen Rowell's famous quote,

"You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either."

and I was glad I made the decision to get up early and come to this place.

Your Turn to Shine

A MFA worker carefully cleans the Zhan Wang sculpture entitled "Artificial Rock #85" located in the Shapiro Courtyard at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. She used a small bottle of some cleaning fluid and slowly worked around the bottom of the sculpture with what looked like a Q-tip. It was fascinating to watch her carefully and meticulously work.

My challenge was to capture the scene in an interesting way. How would Jay Masiel photograph this? But then Jay would probably tell me something like "Be yourself, make the photograph unique to your style" or maybe his famous quote, "You've got photography in your life. Now put some life into your photography." ;-)

Jay really changed the way I look at photography and I hope I will always remember and use the ideas and principle he taught. The slide show below has a few more images inspired by Jay's teaching...


Click here to view a full screen slide show.

.