To Plan or Not to Plan

Things don’t always turn out the way you expect.  So, for example, during the early part of our trip to Utah I send the guys a photograph of a frisbee golf “hole” from a course at Goblin State Park (the “holes” are located on hills spread throughout the campground) and a flurry of e-mails over the next few hours ends up with Devon and Kit scheduling flights to visit us in early November (Brandon and Lauren unfortunately had another vacation scheduled during that period, so we only got 2 of the guys).  I absolutely did not expect that to happen!  And once the guys got here, instead of the nice pleasant Novembers we’ve had for the past couple of days we returned to the typical Oregon rain, rain and more rain, with the occasional break.  Still, we had a great time hanging out, running around despite the rains, and even had the opportunity to do a bit of photography.  Even then, plans didn’t work out quite like we’d hoped.  On our trip up to the Portland area we did a morning hike (before the mid-day rains started up) at a couple of sites in the Columbia Gorge and I got exactly zero photos.  However, an earlier trip, really just to get out, turned out to be more than what we expected.Both Kit and Devon came prepared to get out, which was good.  So the first weekend they were here we wound up doing our usual Brice Creek - Pinard Falls run to get a breath of fresh air.  It had recently rained so water flow was up, and the trees were well past prime, but it was more than worth the trip.  

Most of the rocks were a bit damp and more than a bit slippery, so Ann and I had to be cautious positioning ourselves for photographs.  The guys were a bit more adventurous and I noticed that they scrambled down to areas that, while fine to try in the summer, were beyond what I was willing to risk so early in their trip out.  So the both of us stayed in an upper area and I wound up working with more closer framing than usual for this beautiful stretch of creek. 

As I was finishing up at my first location, Kit came over and we started talking about the area (a place we’d found since they had last been out) and he directed me over to the spot he found most interesting.  I still had a longer lens on the camera so I framed up a shot and took it.

I showed Kit the image and he started explaining to me what he thought was so interesting about that section of rock - the lines in the rock, the transition from wet rock to light rock, and the transition from dark enclosed space to more well-lit space.  We discussed the area he was talking about, what he wanted in and out of the frame, and what he was interested in having as a final product.  After listening to him, I reached into my camera bag, pulled out a different lens and set up the next shot.

In short, Kit was the Art Director and I was the photographer trying to capture his image.  This is the result:

We decided to move onward and concluded that the rest of Brice Creek was likely just as slippery and we weren’t thrilled about the idea of risking our ankles.  So Ann suggested we go to Pinard Falls, with a decent hike in and a beautiful set of falls - just what we needed to make ourselves hungry for lunch on the way home.  It didn’t disappoint.

Fortunately, while the flow at the falls was greater than summer lows, it hadn’t quite reached the heavy gushing that makes photographing the falls really difficult in the Spring.  Still, we weren’t going to be able to get down to the base of the falls and since I’ve made quite a few broader, more distant shots in the past, I decided to use my longest zoom lens to again focus in close.  When I did, it was amazing what colors I could see.Since we were pretty much stuck at a landing on a trail down to the falls I didn’t want to stay too long, so after a couple of different compositions, I moved to let Ann get a better position and started putting things away.  As I did, Devon started telling me what he liked about the falls - the curved rock surface inside the falls, and the pocket up to the right as you look up the falls.

So I started discussing what he’d want to include in a photograph and what to exclude.  Here is the result of Art Director Devon, photographer Dan’s collaboration:

Overall not a bad morning hike with Ann and the Guys!  

Which begs the question, is it better to plan trips, or not to plan trips?  I don’t know the answer to that, but I do know that, regardless of the answer, a big dose of flexibility goes a long way!