Photographic Projections: Chasing Light

Last Updated on August 1, 2016 by Patrick

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let me ask you a question. Do you know the purpose of the nature and landscape photographer? I know, you would say “to photograph nature and landscapes etc.”. But that’s not it.

The actual purpose is to chase light, as much as any other kind of photographer’s purpose, to reveal light in all its possibilities, to describe light visually, of course. This is because light will take the said photographer to what he or she needs to see. Remember: “to see”, not “to look at”, it’s a huge difference.

Anyway, I’m not trying to teach you, guys, anything. I just figured this out recently although I’ve heard it before from many practising photographers out there. Many said it and only now I truly understood it. I guess this is about being opened, this means receptive to the changes that happen in nature, changes in the landscape, in wildlife, changes in light, changes in the atmospheric conditions and so on. The latter influences how the light of the sun or the moon is cast upon our Earth and it influences how we perceive it due to the water cycle in nature, for once.

Water in all its forms and functions can influence just about anything in Nature. Water is soft, although it can become very powerful at times, especially when floods occur etc. Water is adaptable to any kind of change and it has the reflective quality which mirrors all the information it receives. Especially when light passes through water it is transformed and reflects what the water has within it. Water can contain lots of kinds of particles, debris and minerals etc., that are carried across the lands everyday so figure this out, light is also influenced and changed in its qualities by the changes in the water. Of course, water is the number one catalyst of life on this Earth so, go figure! :)

Clouds are no more than vaporised and condensed water spread here and there in the atmosphere and they can act like a soft box, so to say, for the sunlight, or the moonlight, or they can act like a panel blocking as much light as possible, especially the convective storm clouds.

So, the story of the picture is shaped intellectually and emotionally or what not, by the many conditions we find in Nature. In photography we look for light first, and then we read what light reveals, what light “talks about”.

So, I learned to be opened and read the landscape. I wasn’t preparing anything, instead I was receptive to whatever I may find gazing from the highest peak. I knew Nature wouldn’t let me down. I needed another kind of food, an emotional one, the food of the soul, if you will.

This time, in the second half of October, the qualities of the light speak about the natural and flamboyant changes in the landscape, in Nature, on the plateaus of the mountains. It speaks in silence and only the one who pays attention and listens to what it has to say, can finally understand it. But it’s because of the silence that the sound of the speaker can be heard loud and clear. Then, it is easy to read.

There are many ways to communicate. Photography is a silent way of communicating where another kind of sound is heard and interpret it through one’s own intuition. It’s like you speak to yourself since Nature is just a mirror of you. :)