Love me some rain and love me some golf. Keeps the jackasses out of the woods! 
I was ecstatic to be able to stop in the middle of the road to make images without the fear of getting hit by tourist's cars yesterday! Why? It was raining. NOBODY around-it was lovely! Compared to the folks that think they own the site you're shooting. Like the guy who waded out in front of a waterfall a few weeks ago to get a snapshot with his camera phone. Lovely sight of a half naked man who was also half cold! 
Anyway-trust me on this. Rain and golf keep the jackasses out of the woods. 
Perfect example-3 hikes in 1 day and saw 3 people. A dad and his 2 kids on a 90 yard walk to Piney Falls in historic Fall Creek Falls State Park. That was it. Rain! What a lovely thing.

I drove the park circle several times to wait for the rain to stop as 2:00 was the weather channel's estimate. It didn't stop till nearly 3:00. The weatherman-sheesh! Regardless, it was fun making the adjustments. Traveling back and forth for the lenses you really needed and didn't bring with you the first time. Uhgg! Lesson learned. 
Rain keeps the people away but it also makes your decisions more complicated. Who wants to change lenses in the rain with an umbrella. Make sure you bring at least 16-300mm with you! Just a safe bet. Didn't feel like returning for the 300mm on this one but I think the 105mm captured this just fine. 

Then, when you find the shot-no kids, no newly weds, no engagement shots, no golfers; just you and the camera, the lens, the tripod, and the composition and you click it and you know you got it, you rush away with your umbrella and pack your gear in the car. Suddenly, you realize you can't feel your fingers from the cold. The cold from the wind, the cold from the metal legs of the tripod, the cold from the day itself. But when you chimp in the car, in the heat, and they look good, you feel good about the hike wether its 100 yards or 3 miles! A 3 miler is tuff when the ranger station presses you to be out by sunset and you start 2 hours from sunset to admire the beauty as well as shoot it. 

This was the 3 mile huff-it-hike. Booked it in and booked it out! Low water, even in the rain. The pool was special in that it had debris floating in the front. I like the "eddie" movement displayed by the 15 second exposure. Just wished I could have spent more time there but I was lost. Lost for time and lost in the beauty!  Didn't want to keep the rangers worrying since my cell phone time clock was void and didn't know the time. 
Definitely recommend this water fall during a heavy rain in the Fall. Spring would probably be best-late March early April, when the leaves start to bloom and the water is flowing! There's a shoot that performs at the lower left that makes this fall a wonder.
Bon Chance!

It all started years ago, probably in high school, I don't rightly know. My first SLR; could have been a birthday present, could have been a Christmas present, it could have been something I purchased on my own with the little amount of money I had saved working for my dad-I don't rightly know. But I do remember the boundless enthusiasm I had when it was mine and I learned to load it with a fresh roll of film from the 5 packs they used to sell. Still might-don't know, don't care-I have a DSLR now. 

You see, I had watched my dad over the years take pictures of everything, and I mean everything. Including my 3 brothers and I on Christmas morning. When all the other kids in the neighborhood were tossing wrapping paper around the room, riding big wheels up and down the street, or playing ball with all their new equipment-we were waiting at the top of the stairs for relatives to show up so dad could take pictures when they arrived. We hated that camera on Christmas.

Time passed and dad got really good with that damn thing. That's why I wanted one. I started to see the images he was printing on paper, not just the places in real life where he would take us to make them. It was truly spectacular to be in the places we were, but to be able to take a piece of paper around to show people you had been there was awesome-truly! I wanted to do that. Unfortunately, when I got my first camera (it was a Pentax), I became a Pentax owner, not a photographer.  I had to buy film, then I had to get it processed, then I had to deal with the results. They sucked! A couple of hundred dollars later and that Pentax was nothing but a paper weight. But I wasn't done yet.

Christmas before college, I got another one-a Nikon. Here we go again. Did some sporting events for the school newspaper, futzed around in the darkroom, portrait work, whatever caught my eye. Basically, I was the guy taking pictures with my Nikon like you see everyone doing today with their phones, but I was cool because I had a big'ol Nikon and no body had a camera phone. Still couldn't compete with Dad. He was making some outstanding images and I was in awe. Just beautiful-florals, landscapes, waterfalls, what ever he pointed it at turned out to be mesmerizing. Discouraged again! I believe this time, the big'ol Nikon got left out in the rain for an evening on a camping trip as my friends and I high-tailed it back to the car to spend the night as the rain was torrential! Oh well-I wasn't any good anyway and the cost. The cost was...well we all know about the COST! 

Technology-glorious technology! Digital cameras-what the hell? No film! No developing-are you kidding me? Dad made the jump to a Nikon coolpix 8800. Telephoto to macro all in one. I remember seeing a bloodroot image he made blown up to the same size as Farrah Fawcett used to be on the dorm room walls. He told me about his new camera and explained it's capabilities and yet again-I was blown away! Had to get one. So I did. EBAY was in full swing so I got that sucker for half price-$500.00. Now I'm starting to feel old. So here we go AGAIN! This time there's a positive ending because now there was little to zero cost less the price of the camera-or was there? 

I carried it all over and eventually started to impress my self. Wasn't as good as pop, but the outcomes were getting better, more often, and people started to notice. Back in the Myspace days, I was even asked to photograph a wedding from a complete stranger. Could you see me walking into one of the more special days of someone's life with a Nikon Coolpix 8800 YELLING "smile".  I declined the offer. 

Now that I'm carrying the Coolpix everywhere, I was headed home for Christmas. Christmas and cameras, as we've learned, don't mix with me. This time, the Coolpix got stolen. So like I said, "here we go again". So here we go again!

I contemplated buying a full fledged DSLR and discussed it with Pop but he showed me all the images he was making with his digital point and shoot and assured me that I didn't need one. I followed his advice and got me another Coolpix. Actually, I got both-the Coolpix 8800 and the Coolpix 8400-the wide angle version. Now I was double cool! It was the trip to Yosemite about 5 years ago when I realized how uncool I really was. I hired a guide to show me around on day one of my 4 day stint in this park of grandeur. We met at a parking area and I made my equipment switch to his vehicle and we were on our way. He pulled over in a nearby meadow with blooming wildflowers and we got out to begin my tutorial where I showed him some images I had taken on my journey from Sacramento. For the most part, he liked them, at least he said he did. He showed me his portfolio and they were obviously awesome. Who's not to make an awesome image in Yosemite. Then he pulled out a piece of card board and asked if I knew what it was. "Yea", I said-"it's one of those shirt supporters you get with a new shirt or from the dry cleaners when you have your shirts folded rather than pressed. What are you going to do with it", I asked? He corrected me, "it's an 18% grey card", and proceeded to explain the zone system. WTF! The zone system? Dude-I got a Nikon Coolpix 8800 AND a Nikon Coolpix 8400! Isn't Ansel Adams dead?  

After trying to do some macro work in the field and him trying to explain exposure through the zone system I just told him point blank that my equipment wasn't proficient enough to perform at the level of his lecture. So off we drove to capture the iconic and cliched image of the sun setting over the visor on Half Dome. Thus began my journey.

When I got home, I googled "the zone system". I even studied it a little thinking that it would make me a better Nikon owner. Then I said to myself, "self, you have a digital camera, not one that sucks the life out of your wallet-what's wrong with bracketing and deleting". That was the end of the zone system for good but not the end of studying. From that point on, I haven't stopped studying. You name it-cameras, lenses, processing, processing software, styles, photographers, composition,  portraiture, weddings, macro, wildlife, landscapes, shooting during all hours of the day and night, locations, subjects, printing, printers, papers and canvases, filters, even why the in camera noise reduction process takes twice as long before you can chimp it on the image display-dark frame subtraction boys and girls. 

Anyways, you get the point. Pop got me into this along time ago just by making the images that he made. Through it all, I learned a little about composition just through looking at his images and I know this because when I started to study composition, articles would mention things like rule of thirds, balance, leading lines, balancing elements, viewpoint, etc, etc. Never heard of these concepts but I noticed after reading through the explanations, I was already doing it without even knowing. So thanks pop for something you didn't even know you were doing. Thanks for exposing me to all those natural places! Thanks for putting up with me for all these years! Just thanks in general for being the man you are.

I digress, but thanks Pop. For however long this blog lasts, I hope to exhibit my passion for the field of photography. I'm not at all trying to convey that I am a superior photographer, but far from it. But perhaps it will help me become a better one. Perhaps it will help someone else become a better one. Perhaps it will assist you. But, if it does nothing other than to promote being kind to the natural world so that others behind us can see it in the light that I have witnessed some of in my relative youth, then perhaps that will be the best thing that I can offer. In the words of Guy Tal, "I fear that future generations will judge us harshly for our failure to place proper value on wildness, diversity, open space, spirit, solitude and other treasures of the natural world still available to us today. May they at least know that some of us tried." 

So I invite you to follow me on this unknown journey of what the natural world can gift to us: the unbridled sense of awe witnessing when she opens her skies to play peek-a-boo, the kiss of light she blows to you just before tucking herself into bed under a glowing blanket of clouds as she sinks her head into a pillow of mountain tops, the luminous night light she provides to make your travels safer in the eve, the technicolor blanket she covers you with to keep your soul comfortable during the seasons, and the things that are just plain difficult to see. 

The one thing my dad and photography have taught me is how to see. I might not be able to capture the moment with the essence and ease of the masters but by God I know when it's there. So through the course of this blog quest, perhaps we can teach and learn from each other. I invite questions, problems, solutions, suggestions, locations, and anything else that will get those of us involved closer to seeing and capturing the perfect natural image! Fortunately, if something were perfect, there would only be one, which makes for many, many, many imperfect captures. 

Good luck with yours!

Bon chance,
Ben Keys, Jr