Been there, done that

Many are the times when I have taken an image of something and then been disappointed by the result.  When shooting with film was the norm, this sort of thing happened with (sadly) regularity for me.  It was during those film shooting days when I realized it would be good if I could revisit a subject when the resultant imagery didn’t jive with what I wanted to ‘say’ about it; so, when I could, I’d go back and try again.  The light would never be the same, mind you, but I often wanted to see if I could do better with a subject I found interesting.

Obviously, with fleeting moments, this revisiting idea isn’t possible.  Decisive moments don’t allow for do-overs but where things are going to hang around for you, revisiting can improve your image making. It forces you to deal with the same subject in different light.  It highlights how influential different light can be to creating a mood for a subject.  Going back can teach you some of the more nuanced aspects of image making and it gives you an opportunity to do the one thing that will definitely improve your photography – practice.

For the month of July (roughly), there is a subject that comes around once every 6,800 years or so.  One that will put the ‘go back and try again’ learning steps to good use.  Shooting a comet involves a variety of things; shooting at night, longer exposures, patient planning, a tripod, land and celestial navigation, weather, the list goes on.  Comet NEOWISE (named for the space telescope that found it) has been gracing our skies for a few weeks now and it is a good subject to hone your image making skills.  It isn’t going to hang around much longer (in a few days it will start heading away from us again) so it isn’t really fleeting – although it is racing at great speeds.  You may not get an image you’re happy with on your first attempt but, if the skies are going to be clear, you can always try again.