Wildcat Bluff

Explanation

If you're looking at the tags for this picture, you'll notice the tag "bad". On occasion, I like to take pictures even though I know they won't work as well as I'd like. Part of this is to remind myself of what I could have done. Other times, I'm not totally sure if it'll work but decide it's worth doing anyways. This picture is the former, though there are still some things to think about here and any picture labelled "bad" should be something I take as a learning or a way to remember why I couldn't do what I wanted. Administration note: all "bad" pictures will only have the "bad" tag and no other tags.

Let's start with the background for how the shot came to be. This picture was taken in Amarillo at Wildcat Bluff. Wildcat Bluff is a relatively large nature area out towards the western outskirts of Amarillo. The weather this year in the area has been pretty dry and so even though Wildcat Bluff is occasionally a center for wildflowers in the Texas Panhandle, this year it ended up being quite a dry and almost barren environment instead. There are a reasonable set of trails and overall, it's a nice quiet place to spend a couple hours to relax.

Although the nature center itself was closed when I visited (Sunday morning), there isn't really anything stopping you from going and walking the trails anyways. That said, I would say it's worth donating even if they aren't open, natural areas are always worth preserving and I donated the normal amount for a visit later that night.

Anyways, I started off at the nature center and started walking down the lower bluff trail. I got a bit lost, turned around and went up towards the top of the bluff. One thing to note is that the nature center is situated right next to a high speed throughway and it's actually quite loud. However, by the time you reach the top of the bluff, the road noise fades away and it becomes pretty quiet and serene. If anyone's wondering about the "windmill" it's an old windmill that I did end up taking a picture of, stay tuned for the roll if that's interesting. There are also some cows by the windmill which is quite fun though I didn't take any pictures of them with film.

Now, let's talk about this picture. This picture was taken at the top of the bluff overlooking the lower bluff trail. Now why do I think this is a bad picture? Well for one, it's a bit too busy. What should one focus on when looking at it? What's important? Is it the grass or trees? What about that rock formation? Be honest, did you see the small park bench in the middle of the picture?

For this picture, I actually was really quite enamored by the spot. I knew that should certain conditions happen, this could be a really cool spot to take a picture. However, I also knew that given my particular constraints, I was never going to get the type of picture I wanted to take. The qualities that enamored me were that there's that small rock formation overlooking that park bench. However, what are the constraints I had?

For one, I was traveling alone. I wasn't about to wait for someone to randomly sit on that park bench, which would create a point in the frame to perhaps focus on. Two, I was shooting wide angle, 28mm. I had recently gotten the lens and was trying it out. I also don't have a telephoto lens for this camera yet. By shooting wide, I ended up elongating the distance between the rock formation and the park bench even further. Three, that shrub thing (I think it might be a species of yucca) in the foreground is likely to get in the way.

So, given that, what would I do differently with another chance? Well, I'd probably try to visit with someone else or try to accost someone to go sit on that park bench. I'd also shoot significantly telephoto, probably around 200mm+. This would of course change my position and may actually not be feasible given the trails. There's also the matter of the color in this picture. For some reason, in this picture, and some others, there's a band a bit to the left side that's discolored, in this picture it's overly yellow. It's not super obvious, but it's enough to catch my attention and I'll have to pay attention to it going forward.

All said though, I don't regret taking this picture. While it's not a successful picture to me and based off an altogether flawed image, it's one that reminds me to come back and perhaps try with different circumstances. One of my goals is to take pictures that help others experience my memories, hopefully without all this explanation I'm doing for each picture. To me, a bad picture is unable to tell a complete story. While it may properly express a memory, that memory can only be remembered by the picture taker/picture subject. There's nothing wrong with simply taking pictures to remember things, but it's hard to remember and express less tangible things meaningfully in snapshot type pictures. Part of why I'm doing all of this is to help me remember parts of my life. But I find that images can often be insufficient. How do you express solitude in an image? Unease? Excitement? These are the types of intangible things I'm often trying to chase when thinking of images and taking pictures and bad pictures simply can't do these things.

One last note, this picture was taken on Portra 160 film and I still need to remember to write down all my settings because I honestly don't remember now.