Canola Fields Clearing Storm 0238

Waiting for it -

      If there is anything in this world (besides being a parent) that requires patience to be successful it is nature photography. We wait for everything. Seasons, light, weather, subjects to name but a few factors are all out of our control. Yet if we want to get the maximum impact out of our images we must wait in order for everything to fall into place.  Establishing the necessary discipline to wait for the right moment is not easy. When our eyes tell us there is something to be photographed what follows is a strong desire to immediately start shooting.

     While sometime we can be in the right spot at the right moment but more often times the subjects and conditions may be present (after all our eye’s saw them) but they have not yet converged to bring an image to its greatest visual potential. The task at hand is to overcome the instinct to push the shutter button and wait for a better offering.

     Such was the challenge I faced while standing on a hill in China overlooking a valley filled with green fields of growing canola plants. It was raining and the sky overcast. The storm was showing signs of breaking up but the light on the land was not right. The convergence of conditions had not yet happened. I waited some more. Behind the trailing edge of the rain the sunlight was beginning to fall on the distant hills through breaks in the clouds but the valley was still dark. It was difficult to keep my finger off the shutter button. As the storm passed by over me, an opening in the clouds lit the valley behind a fine curtain of departing rain while darkening the distant hills. The convergence had arrived. Shutter button pushed.