There's Nothing Here (To Photograph)

I suspect it's universal to sometimes go out photographing and in a particular location find nothing to move us (except to a different location). Nothing photogenic, nothing inspiring, nothing interesting. We pack up our bags and head off somewhere else.

Many times this is exactly the right thing to do, but what about when you know there should be something to photograph, you just can't see it.

You might know because it looks photogenic or because you've had success here before, or someone else has.

Oh, sure, you might fire off some images, with little hope of getting anything (you know you wouldn't even have bothered unpacking a 4X5, but with digital, perhaps a miracle will happen and the pixels will magically align.

So, the question is: if a spot should or could make good photographs and you can't find them, is there anything that can be done to salvage the situation and before you pack up your gear and move on?

The answer to this question could turn into an entire course on photography, but; here's some questions to ask yourself before you pack away your gear.

- have I explored the scene from every angle, including low and high? Recently I shot a tiny ice covered waterfall - don't suppose it was even two feet high. From front on it didn't amount to much, but when I waded through the snow to get above the fall, lovely arcs of ice appeared - the difference been failure and success. My friend, who photographed the scene 10 minutes after me, didn't think to check above.

- did I show up with a wide angle frame of mind and miss the telephoto shot, or the other way round? Preconceived ideas of what will work best for a scene can hurt you.

- if there are issues which prevent the scene from being workable at this time specifically - light, wind, clouds, could I either take advantage of what I thought was a problem or simply work around it. So the sky is boring - who says the picture has to include the sky? Photographing at noon with harsh shadows - what about actually making the shadows part of the picture - noon shadows on flatland are short, but on vertical surfaces they are long, hmmm...

- if there's material there, and you just can't see how to put it together. Stop searching for a few minutes and think about what makes the scene pretty or interesting or moving? Ask yourself how you might go about showing that within the limitations of what's available. So often we run around without much thought, looking for things to fall into place, when if we gave some thought to why we are here, we might better make use of it.

- consider treating the location as an assignment - you HAVE to get the best possible photograph in this 'bad' situation. Sometimes just simply starting to photograph will break you out of a slump and the first pictures which really are poor will lead to better pictures not very many minutes later.

- try and treat the scene in an abstract way - instead of photographing the rocks and trees, try photographing a mood or emotion

- make a picture of the light rather than what is lit.

If this doesn't do it for you, probably time to move on.