Learning To Live With Winter A Landscape Vlog

So I was just taking a walk through this bit of forest and all of a sudden some low clouds started to drift through the trees behind me and I absolutely panicked. I just got my camera out and just took the first photo, the first composition that I could see that looked semi-decent before it completely disappeared. This video is kindly sponsored by MPB. February is the month where winter finally catches up with you. It's just constantly gloomy, you feel as though you haven't seen the sun in a very very long time and you're just waiting for spring to arrive at this point. February doesn't offer much but it asks for presents and so my goal for this video, this project, is to slow down and try and find those gentle moments among the grey. This exploration isn't about making great photographs, it's about moving through the process, finding small moments of joy in the gloom and there's nothing quite like some water to keep you moving forwards. I really don't know why I thought it was a good idea to come to these waterfalls because they are so so slippery this time of year and it really is a challenge to walk around and try and find compositions without falling on my face. Oh, there's a fungus over there! Sorry, it's a scarlet cup fungus. Anyway, I've tried to get down to this bit here and it's really awkward to coordinate it because I wanted to get a low angle and try and get the waterfall reflecting in this pool here. I tried to get a shot and it was a challenge kind of holding my kit up in that position because the rocks were so wet and slippery that my tripod just wasn't staying in one place and with the spray hitting my filter I had to keep cleaning it. I don't know if I've got a shot, my camera battery just ran out so yeah hopefully there's something there. The mist you see here isn't actual fog but my polariser filter fogging up. It happened to bloom in just the right spot so I chose to keep it and let it gently soften that area of the frame. As much as I love, love a waterfall, I just, I simply don't trust myself when it's that slippy, muddy and wet because I will go in or something will go in. It's either going to be me or my camera and that won't be the first time that's happened so I guess I'll go and amuse myself with something else. Lately weather apps have taken up more of my life than I'd like to admit. I'm scanning endlessly for signs of fog, mist, frost, sun, snow, anything, really anything but rain. Winter demands endurance. You don't conquer it, you learn to co-exist with it. Rather than waiting for those rare opportune moments for a perfect shot, I'm choosing to just show up regardless to be present even when it's uncomfortable. So my primary motivation for this isn't necessarily to get photos. If I do then fantastic, that's a bonus but instead it is to find some joy in just being outdoors even in the rain and so I'm choosing locations that maybe I've been to before and I just haven't been to them in a long time so I want to see how they've changed or explore them a little more thoroughly or locations that I'm curious about but have yet to scout. Essentially it's just going out for a good old walk and usually I will come away with something whether it's inspiration, an idea or a photograph. This is the most water that I have ever seen coming down this river which gives you an indication of how much rain we've been having recently and usually you can drop a bit lower, get really close to the edge of the water to get a lower angle, a different perspective of this cascade. However there's no room down there so I'm staying up top where it's a bit safer and shooting a downward angle at the fall instead. So to make this scene a bit more interesting than just looking down at the cascade I'm trying to use some of the natural elements of the scene, this tree, the edge of the bank which has a lot of foliage growing on it as framing elements to help draw your scene and follow the flow of the water from the bridge all the way through the image and down out of the bottom right. I am going to exposure bracket this because if I expose for the brightest part of the scene which is the water the rest of the scene is incredibly underexposed so I'm going to take an image that is exposing for the water and then another one that is exposing for the rest of the scene which has a lot of these vibrant green mossy tones which I absolutely love. So this image was taken at eye level and I've learned the value of lingering after making an image because on reflection I realised that lowering the camera slightly would remove some of the empty water in the foreground and place more emphasis on the foliage along the bank. These compositions are undeniably busy and perhaps not what I would have chosen if the water had been flowing more gently but it was an enjoyable and worthwhile exploration nonetheless. Gosh that's a bit slippy. I just want to take a moment to thank MPB for sponsoring today's video. I'm sure you all know who MPB are at this point the largest online platform to buy sell and trade in used video and photo kit if not where have you been? I'm going to take you through the process of how you can sell your kit with MPB. I'm helping a friend pass on some unused kit that they don't need anymore and they're using MPB for the first time so I thought I would show you the process as well. I'm going to go to mpb.com and do an instant quote to see how much it is worth. All I need to do is type in what it is that I'm selling and choose the condition rating for each item. Once I've done that MPB will give me a quote and once I've accepted it I can decide how I'm going to send my kit to MPB. I absolutely love the home pickup option it means I can just get it all ready at home and I don't have to rush out anywhere to drop it off it just means that it's a little less time consuming for me. When MPB have the kit in their hands their team of experts will check it over they will adjust your quote if necessary and when you're happy with it you accept it and you will be paid within a couple of days and that is how simple the process really really is. So if you're looking to sell some unused kit and make a bit of money back then I highly recommend that you use MPB. I'll leave a link in the description box for you to go check them out and thank you MPB for sponsoring today's video. So because we've been having so much rain recently I've come to the wire forest because there is a stream here and locals will know what I'm talking about there is a specific stream that if there is an abundance of water there is a cascade a mini little waterfall that forms and I've never managed to catch it where with an abundance of water so I'm going to find it today out of curiosity to see what it looks like but the only problem is I haven't been here in a really really long time and I've completely forgotten where it is. So I've been walking for so long in the wrong direction mind you that the rain got bored and the sun has started to come out which is crazy but kind of nice and uh yeah I've realized where I've gone wrong if anyone's saying Courtney do you not pin things on maps do you not use what three words I do but for some reason this very specific stream I have not pinned anywhere I also trusted my ability to get back to it and I've gone completely in the wrong direction but I've realized my mistake and I know where I need to go now. Regardless of gloom or sun I realized it's not the conditions that's necessarily the problem. Winter is still winter regardless of the weather. What shapes the photographs I make the images I notice is how I arrive. The decisions I make conscious or not every time I lift the camera what I'm drawn to what I ignore how long I stay with a scene all of that comes from my mindset. I think winter can feel so drawn out and dull a lot of the time and I think it can be harder to sit with and work with those more subtle scenes that that's the more subtle side of nature in comparison to other seasons where you may be able to rely a bit more on light or color or drama and so I think it can be more challenging creatively to consistently work with it and make it work. Despite having taken quite a while to find that stream I am walking away without taking a photograph because I really just didn't come up with anything I was super excited by to be honest that I resonated but I could have taken a photo it would have been all right I probably wouldn't have done anything with the photo but you know I chose not to and that's okay because I have a few images already in this video of woodland and water that I'm pretty happy with so hey I had a pretty good walk if anything. We've all heard and said the phrases before that there is always a photograph and there's no such thing as bad light and I agree with that but I do think you can have a bad attitude and I am absolutely guilty of letting the conditions, the weather dictate my mood when I do photography. When I first set out to go do some waterfall photography for this video the light was flat and dull and I did just presume that I wasn't really going to get anything that was colorful or of interest and actually I quite like the images I have and specifically there's a an orange and green theme throughout them throughout most of the images I've taken today in this video which is quite interesting. I'm trying to be a bit more aware this winter and from now on about how I turn up to my photography shoots my mindset because it really does play a big part scarcity brings around reluctance of this looks really boring I'm not going to find anything here the weather really sucks but curiosity brings around abundance and excitement I wonder what I'm going to capture today I wonder how this image will look if I do this. This sort of mindset is what I've been focusing on and thinking about a lot so far this winter because I think it really does matter and this time of year it's very easy to lose your motivation in photography. February doesn't offer much it just asks you to look a bit more deeply and more gently. Anyway that's all I've got for you today so thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time.