The Waiting Game

Deadhorse State Park, Utah

I've been playing a waiting game for the past two days at Deadhorse State Park, Utah. It's a gray, windy day in late November as I wait and hope the clouds will part and flood the canyon below me with light. It's not looking good. Photography this late in the year can make for rewarding photographs, but it can just as easily bring waiting for what may never come.

There is a common misconception that we all fall prey to; if we are in the right place, great photos are bound to come our way. This perception ignores the part that light and weather play in the final result. Being a photographer means living your whole life considering the light.

"Patience is not simply the ability to wait - it's how we behave while we're waiting." - Joyce Meyer

Light's equal partner in photography is time.

I try to time my visits to any location at what I call "the end of the weather" - that time period just before or just after a change in the weather. Often, as on this trip, it's all a bust. I'll be coming home mostly empty.

I returned almost empty where the camera is concerned, but full of experiences and learning for the next time. It's the experiences that make the photograph, not film and not pixels. The experience can stay forever; long after the photographs have faded into history.