Perseverance and Patience Payoff In Photography

This week I got a good reminder on the importance of perseverance and patience in photography. This wasn’t a new lesson but one I was happy to re-visit nonetheless. A useful reminder is something we all need occasionally to help keep bad habits from slowly tarnish our photography skills.

You may have noticed that I haven’t been active lately (did you miss me?). I’ve been tied up with a lot of household projects (new roof, painting inside and out, replacing a fence, landscaping). Complicating all of this are material shortages and contractors in high demand. It’s been a frustrating time but we are thankfully, nearing the end. The point of telling you all this isn’t about home projects. Hopefully, you now have an appreciation for how eager I was to get out shooting again. I mean really eager.

Unity of Houston

A couple of weeks ago I thought I’d go photograph Unity of Houston, a non-denominational church in the Mid-West neighborhood of Houston. The building’s architecture is a sleek design that I thought would look great in a long exposure black and white photo – lots of contrasts and nice streaky clouds. Since Unity is only 37 miles away, a 45-60-minute drive one-way, (meaning it’s close by Texas standards) I went down to photograph it.

Sadly, when I arrived it was completely overcast. On a long exposure it would become a total mass of smooth gray tones. The prospect of this was so unappealing I immediately returned home.

On my next trip there were beautiful fluffy clouds. Not the ideal type but suitable. However, after a few exposures another problem became obvious. They weren’t moving, at least not very fast at all. Even with exposures of more than 6 minutes the basic shape was still discernable. So, another failed attempt.

A few days later I returned for a third time to find the exact opposite of the first trip. There was not a cloud in the sky. So much for the “The third time’s a charm” theory.

Frustrated but determined I returned the next day. There were clouds! And they were moving! Finally, the photography gods smiled on me and I got the shots.

Yes, There’s An App For That

Given this experience, I suspect some are wondering why I didn’t just use a cloud forecast app before driving down there and back 4 times. The thing is, I did.

The forecast apps I used were:

getoutcast.com which provides an hourly forecast of a number of weather-related aspects for a given location
Clear Outside app provides detailed cloud forecasts. This includes cloud cover at 3 elevation levels. It also provided wind speed and direction forecasts.

There are no doubt other apps but these are the two I use. They work to a degree. However, you always have to keep in mind they are weather forecasts. And we all know weather forecasts are frequently wrong. In addition, keep in mind that the forecast is a general one usually specific to a particular zip code or possibly just the nearest airport. Getting a good long exposure cloud effect is dependent on very specific locations. A mile away the clouds may be great but where you are, you’ve got nothing.

Like so much else in photography the apps are a guideline not an absolute. I recommend using them but give yourself a wide latitude of dependence and accuracy.

Was It Worth Four Trips?

Adding up all the driving time, time to setup and the time to take the actual shots I estimate I spent about 10 hours so far getting two photos. It should be noted that this doesn’t include processing time as I haven’t started processing them yet. It truly has been a lesson in perseverance and patience!

Was it worth it? I think so. My goal wasn’t a quick snapshot for Facebook or Instagram even though I will post them there. The goal was to get a good picture that hopefully would be worthy of printing and hanging on the wall to enjoy for a long time. Success doesn’t always come quick.

One side benefit of making four trips is that it allowed me to spend time getting to know the scene. I had ample opportunity to think about the compositions. I’ve talked before about slowing down and letting things marinate. This turned out to be a different form of marinating.

Perseverance and Patience Takes Many Forms

Abandoned Church - September, 2017 perseverance and patience — *Abandoned Church – September, 2017*

As I mentioned before this wasn’t my first lesson in perseverance and patience. Although this was the first time I had to return to a site four times to get the shot, I’ve had to return multiple times before for other shots. One particular example was an old, abandoned church in East Texas. I first visited this in September, 2017. At one time a beautiful building it was crumbling and no telling how long it would remain standing. Unfortunately, it was covered in vines that hid its beauty and more significantly hid its character. For me it was clearly not a picture worth capturing but rather one worth coming back for when conditions were right.

Abandoned Church - February, 2018 perseverance and patience — *Abandoned Church – February, 2018*

Knowing that the vines would die back in winter I decided to be patient and wait until February to come back and get a photo. This paid off as I could now see more of the actual building and get a better view of its character and condition.

Sometimes you need the perseverance to be willing to re-shoot the scene. At the same time, you may also need to temper this perseverance with the patience to go back at the right time and not just the next possible time.

Photography is a balancing act. We have to balance aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get the right exposure. We have to make compromises of competing elements to get the desired outcome. The same holds true for perseverance and patience.

Okay, So Where Are the Unity of Houston Pics?

Since this whole discussion started with my shots at Unity of Houston you may be wondering where the pics are. I hate to be a tease but you’re going to have to wait until next week. I’ve just begun the post-processing and will publish them next week. That is, of course, if they turn out as I am hoping for.