A Dark Day is a Good Day
As a photographer, there are few things I dislike more than a sunny day and a clear blue sky. I know that’s roughly 180 degrees opposite from almost any other (non-camera toting) human on the planet. Every time the weather is clear, I see my social media feed blow up with phone snaps of friends out at the lake/beach/river soaking up the sun and enjoying a cold beverage. Good for them! Everyone should have some days tailor-made for their brand of entertainment, right? Sunny days just aren’t it for me. Now let me slow down for a second and throw out this disclaimer: I’m not whining about sunny weather or refusing to go out and make photos in those conditions. Yes, Youtube photographers, you’re right — a real photographer will look for ways to make great photos in any conditions. It is a challenge, and often a fun one. But… I know that deep, deep down, the Youtube photographers have a favorite set of weather conditions they hope and plan to capture when they go out, and they would probably prefer working in those conditions to dealing with the extra challenge. You can see their faces light up with joy when they click the shutter on a mountaintop in Iceland, recording a gorgeous sunrise over the delightfully rugged landscape. Can’t blame them! As for my preference, well… In the immortal words of singer Shirley Manson from the band Garbage, “I’m only happy when it rains”.
Fortunately, rain decided to visit the central Montana area in the last handful of summer days. It’s the first day of autumn as this is being written, and soon any precipitation we get will likely be of the colder, fluffier, flakier variety. The rain here was spotty, traveling over the plains in little pockets of gloriously dark clouds that contrasted well with the random spots of sunlight dappling the ground below. It’s like Bob Ross reached out from the great beyond and gifted everyone with some Happy Little Clouds to photograph.
The first shot for the afternoon was this enormous cloud amongst the mountains to the East of Great Falls. It looked like the cloud had a vendetta against one group of mountains in particular and had decided to act on it right then and there. The only thing to do for it was to capture the scene on camera. In this case the tool for the job was a Fujifilm GFX 100S camera with Fujinon 32-64mm f/4 lens. The aspect ratio of the medium format camera gave the extra vertical space needed to capture the upper limits of the cloud without having to zoom out too far. Helpful! The excellent dynamic range kept the highlights in check too, so that was a bonus. That’s not always a prime concern when shooting for a black and white result but it does provide some nice wriggle room to make creative exposure choices later on.
I have no idea what the cloud had against this mountain.
The Rainbow Dam Overlook
Just around the corner from the spot where the image above was taken is the Rainbow Dam overlook, which affords a pretty decent view out over the landscape to the East, North and South. It’s a favorite spot for shots of weather events and sky due to it being quick and easy to get to. There was a dark, ominous cloud with bits of sunlit rain sliding in from the West and heading toward a prominent butte a few miles to the North of Great Falls across the Missouri River. Behind the cloud and its odd tendrils of virga was a large patch of sun illuminating the butte, with distant puffy clouds providing a backdrop to the whole scene. It seemed worth making an image of, so I did and the result is the headliner image to this blog post. There were two elements in this scene that made me feel it would potentially turn out well: layering and contrast. The clear divisions in the photo and the stark difference in light and dark resulted in what I felt was an impactful image.
It was for similar reasons that I chose to snap the first image below of the Missouri River and its bright embankment. This was one of those opportunities that popped up right after I’d gotten back into the car and put the lens cap on with the intent of heading home. The sun popped out enough to illuminate the hillside, sandwiching it between the dark water of the Missouri and the ominous clouds behind. Something about the random electric poles and wires gave it a slightly surreal feel, so I framed up the shot to give that one element a front seat in the composition. One item that throws the overall image off just a bit is the dark, foliage-covered patch of land on the far left of the frame. It’s not terrible but it pulls the eye away from the rest. There’s a lesson in that: watch the edges of your frames for distracting elements!
The last image below is not my favorite of the day but I couldn’t resist this odd looking tree appearing to poke at the receding edge of the storm in the background. I tried working the scene a bit to find another composition until a guy in a truck pulled up, hopped out with a fishing pole and climbed right into the middle of my scene to plop his bait into the Missouri. That seemed like a good time to call it a day.
