While I was
looking through some old images, this one brought back memories for me. It was a Friday, the last day of September
2020 in the middle of all the Covid craziness. I had just finished my day of work with my client and I was mentally and emotionally exhausted. This really had been a tough year for everyone
because of Covid but with me dealing with anxiety from my meningoencephalitis it made it
especially tough. I knew all the protocol we went through everyday was necessary but it was really wearing me down. As I drove home I
watched the sky as I always do, and observed the wonderful clouds with the sun
peeking through every now and then. The
colours in the trees and grasses were brilliant orange and yellows. The lighting and colours were perfect that
day and I wanted to find something equally great in the foreground when I came
across this old corral. I’ve attempted
to capture it on a number of occasions and I thought “this is what I want.” I slowed the car and pulled over onto the
very narrow shoulder on the side of the highway. I sat there and just took in the scene before
me. This place has always captured my
imagination, something out of a Louis L’Amour western novel. How did I want to capture this scene
today? In the past I would have crossed
the very wet ditch to get close to the corral with my Sigma 10-20mm lens on. As I said earlier I was exhausted and didn’t feel
like changing shoes and then navigating the wet ditch. I decided I’d shoot from the road. I put my Nikon 18-70 lens on my Nikon D90
camera, grabbed my tripod and crossed the highway to the opposite shoulder. I set up and shot off a dozen or more images at different exposures and at a couple different points of view along the shoulder of the highway and liked
what I was seeing on my live view. When
I had exhausted my angles I went back to the car, packed up and headed for
home. I felt I had some great images and
at the same time it had helped me to relax my brain from the stresses of that afternoon.
Later that
evening I got my camera out and put the card in the computer to show Julie. There was only one image! What had happened to them all? I looked over the one image and realized it
was the only one that I needed. It
looked amazing and to date it’s still one of my favorite shots.
You may
think that’s the end of the story but a week later I drove by the old corral and
saw that it had come down. That was so sad to see but I was happy that I had gotten that image the week previous.
