Five Frames

The Moment I Didn’t Plan For

I went on this hike for the mountain views. That’s what I told myself, anyway.

But somewhere along the trail, beside a shaded creek where the air felt cooler and time moved slower, I paused. Not for the summit. Not for the ridgeline. But for this.

Two butterflies fluttered around, dancing between wildflowers and light. I sat and watched as one landed on a cluster of yellow flowers, wings unfolding like slow-motion paper fans. Everything around me softened, the creek, the wind, even my own hurried thoughts.

This wasn’t the photo I expected to make yesterday. But it became my favorite.

There’s something to be said for moments like this, the ones that find you when you stop chasing the view and let the view come to you. The ones that remind you that beauty isn’t always overhead. Sometimes, it’s right at eye level, floating, flickering, and gone too soon if you don’t stop to notice.

A Quick Tip

Bracket Exposures in Harsh Light

In challenging lighting conditions, use exposure bracketing (±1 or 2 stops). You can blend them later or just choose the best one, insurance against tricky conditions.

Behind the Capture: Beauty in Layers

What caught my eye wasn’t just the flowers; it was the way everything came together in layers.

The purple and yellow flowers seemed to glow, not in a dramatic way, but with a quiet saturation that stood out against the deep green grass. The stems stood tall, upright and anchored, reaching just enough to catch the light filtering through the trees. Behind them, a dark, weathered log stretched diagonally across the frame, its texture rough and grounding, like a line drawn in charcoal across a painting.

That diagonal was what I wanted to emphasize. I composed this with a 16x9 crop to mirror the log and the flow of the flower cluster, drawing the eye gently downhill, letting the weight of the composition carry you through it. The wider crop also helped remove some of the dead space around the edges, a choice to stay focused on what felt most alive in the frame.

I like the image. I like how the colors work together: the cool purples, the warm yellows, the dark wood, and the greens that pull it all upright. But if I could go back, I’d try to better accentuate the way the sunlight filtered through the trees onto the flowers. It was there in the moment - soft, fleeting - but I didn’t quite capture it the way I felt it.

Still, this frame reminds me of what photography teaches again and again: that beauty doesn’t always announce itself. Sometimes it’s found in the way things layer together, quiet and unassuming, until you stop and really look.

A Thought

A scene is never the same the next day. You could come back tomorrow, but the moment won’t.

Light shifts. Leaves fall. Clouds drift. Weather changes.

What’s worth noticing now?

What won’t be here tomorrow?

Will you compose your shot more carefully, realizing this?

A Quote

"Sometimes, life beats down and crushes the soul, and art reminds you that you have one." — Stella Adler

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