Weekend Perspective
I’m in San Diego today getting ready to meet my second group of workshop clients and I can’t help but think of all the people to the north of us here who have been displaced or lost everything in the Los Angeles area fires. I have friends and family there, and fortunately they are all okay. Just like the camera viewfinder can block out our peripheral vision, it’s easy to forget that there are people just a hundred miles away suffering from a catastrophe of drastic scale.
I make a point of making sure I’ve scouted my locations before bringing clients to photograph them. Even when you know an area, things change from year to year. For example, I heard a local tell me that the pelican colony that used to hang out in the open (great for photography) has mostly moved up the shoreline a little. In Florida, I’ve seen locations that were filled with birds dry up due to hurricanes and drought. The “can’t miss” spots where I photographed birds 20 years ago are now in some cases empty.
We live in a fragile place, and you can’t take anything for granted. Have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll be back soon!