Should I stay or should I go.

El Mirage, CA

Many landscape photographers travel somewhere in the world and respond to it environment before packing up and heading off somewhere else. Others stay in a certain area and respond in a similar way, but return to a particular local spot many times to fulfill a body of work. I am definitely in the second category and have always responded to my surroundings. In doing so the work will always reflect a time in ones life when you were here, there, and everywhere. ‘Staying put’ and concentrating on a particular area allows us to work within boundaries, and therefore push them. You know what the light will be doing at a certain time of day, or where that rusty old wreck hangs out.. For me, early on, there was nothing more frustrating, and unfulfilling, than arriving somewhere with limited time while trying to find something to photograph. There’s a big difference between planning a shot or hopefully finding one. Although the process between the two is very different, both can be fulfilling, and both can go wrong.

However much you plan, no shoot is fully controlled. Its an organic process, but therein lies the joy of photography… Or the nightmare..