By Deborah Jelley | October 21, 2019 |
Aren’t smart phones with fabulous cameras the best? You can shoot a wide-lens view and a close-up using the same device, without having to change lenses. I am not, by any definition, a professional photographer, but a smart phone has enabled me to feel like I could capture the big shot, (many big shots, actually), getting close to what I ultimately want.
About ten or twelve years ago, during a 2-year hiking frenzy, friends and I would go up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire once or twice a week during the summer, to tackle some of the 48, four-thousand footers, (peaks in that mountain range at or exceeding 4000 feet) and to check them off our list. (For those readers who swear by lists to get you through life, you will understand.) The hikes were exhilarating, the views breathtaking, the colors making me want to tote my pack of paints, brushes and sketch pad up the mountains. But I didn’t take photos during any of these hikes. I simply couldn’t remember to take my camera with me when heading out the door. Mind you, we were leaving our houses at around 4am to get up to the trail heads at an early enough hour so we could hike all day and get back to the cars before nightfall.
Now I mostly hike locally, and have a compact cell phone camera to carry with me to whip out when the perfect scene appears. I have it with me constantly, and take pictures all year long. However, I discovered I love those pictures the most where I’ve gone to the trouble to kneel or lie down to get the shot of small things: easy-to-overlook forest fungi, mosses, berries or a scene from the point of view of my dog.
Anyway, once you shoot the obligatory wide angle scene from the top of a hill, and try to figure out which mountain you’re looking at, how many more pictures of this scene do you really need? One per season, maybe?
Scenes like this makes me breathe easy and forget political squabbles for a while. And there’s always lots of small or close-in things to look at while you’re hiking. I don’t know about you, but once I enjoy the view, then start hiking down, I get to the bottom of the hill before I look around again. (Roots, rocks, acorns, you know…). Can’t see the mountain anymore. But I can spot this:
Or this:
If you don’t want to puff up to the top of a hill the day you’re out in the forest, look about; I mean, really look around at the trail you’re on. Exciting and amazing finds can be had if you just drop to your knees and check out the small stuff or a scene from the point of view of a dog.
I wouldn’t have noticed this shot if I hadn’t had to tie my boot lace.
Breathe easy, my friends.