Chance Finding

We are still finding new places to visit in Sussex and thereabouts. Each place visited yields a new collection of images.  Some of those images are illustrative of where we have been – images that are of that place. But there are always other images that are found at a place that are not specific to that place. They are, if you like, the chance findings, the unexpected, the results of an Eye that is always looking, thinking laterally, subconsciously saying: ‘Where’s the picture’?

Today’s image was taken at the RSPB Nature Reserve at Pulborough. I’m not really a bird watcher and I didn’t go equipped with binoculars to spot birds. We went because it would get us close to the River Arun and the wetlands that surround its meandering passage to the sea at Littlehampton. There was no real agenda. The wetlands are all but dry anyway – thanks to a very dry winter and spring (so far). But there were a few ditches where water remained, and reeds were poking their way through the quiet water. And this is one of the images I found – semi-abstract, like a few absent-minded brush strokes on a minimalist canvas (once the specks of insects were removed with the healing brush).

As photographers, wherever we go, we will always have a shopping list of potential images. We choose our camera and lens and perhaps a few accessories based on expectations and likely targets. Shoot those headline images, and then expand your vision – you may be surprised how often  your best images are peripheral to your original thinking, or completely outside the box. And that is what I find so exciting about being a photographer.