Why Study the Masters? #5

Today’s answer:  To learn, and then implement.

Ok, that’s the obvious answer.  But that was the answer from this week’s trip out to Sweet Creek Falls.  And the lesson comes from August’s photographer of the month - David Ward.

David Ward is, for lack of a better description, a photographic buddy of Charlie Waite and Joe Cornish, who were each photographers of the month earlier this year.  And in case any of them might take offense by the description, I would analogize them to the friendship/professional relationship shared by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.  Now, no one in their right mind would object to being placed in that category (although I suspect their British modesty would lead them to argue that nobody, nonetheless they, fall into that category).  But since I’m writing this post, I get the final say on the matter and I do place them in such esteemed company.  Plus, I know I’m right because now that I’ve finished the two David Ward books I have, I’ve been reading a book written jointly by . . . go ahead, I bet you can figure it out . . . Joe Cornish, Charlie Waite and David Ward.  Yes, they're buds.  In any event, David, just like Joe and Charlie, is an incredible landscape photographer with much to offer both with his images and his thoughts on photography.  

I thought of one of his comments about observing and photographing light of varying color temperatures, which I’d read in one of his books earlier this month, when I decided to work on making an image of reflected light on water at Sweet Creek.  It was at the small set of falls where I made the Brandon Photographs and was the image I was working on before we started implementing his vision. 

David Ward repeated his photographic thought in the book I was reading a couple of days ago, so I thought I would include it before presenting the image:

“I used to use warm ups far more frequently but in recent years I have often sought out subjects that contrast cold and warm light sources.” 

Yup, that pretty much sums up one aspect of this image.

What I find particularly appealing about the image is how reflected cool light extends upward into the warm reflections of the top portion of the frame, and how the warm reflections extend down into the cool, blue-sky lit portion of the fall.  Getting that intermixing of light took a lot of attention as to camera placement. And the reason I made multiple images is that, while all of them had the yellow fingers dipping over the lip of the falls, only one had that yellowish streak that dives downward nearly to the bottom of the image.  It's subtle, but it's there.

What a wonderful lesson in light from a casual hike with my eldest son!