Follow Your Inner Voice
I was riding my bike on my normal training loop and spotted a fresh field of hay. I've ridden past this field of hay very often but on this early summer day it must have been just right. The rows of grass moving in the wind with the fuzzy seed tops caught my eye enough for me to make a mental note to return later in the day. The field faced west so I also knew the low, early evening sunlight would hit it perfectly.
Early evening came and my inner voice reminded me about the possibility of a nice photograph. But by then, I was relaxing in a chair on the patio enjoying the best part of a warm, breezy summer day. I rationalized that it was windy and so the pictures probably wouldn't come out good - maybe tomorrow. There's always tomorrow. My inner voice said "Get out of the chair!" I resisted... I'm in the middle of a good book and I love reading outside. And besides, I did a three mile walk, cut the grass, and did an eighteen mile bike ride. I wasn't lazy today. Again... "Get out of the chair!". I shifted in the chair to silence that voice since it's so hard to read when you are distracted. I kept reading to the point where blinking becomes very slow - almost indistinguishable from sleep - only to be awakened by "Get out of the chair!"
This time, for some reason, I listened and sprang out of the chair and raced the car to the field I saw earlier in the day. There was only about 30 minutes of good light left and I started photographing quickly. I ended up with a couple pictures that I really liked. They are the kind of pictures I want to do more of - as much about line and color and shape as they are about the "thing" being photographed. I was glad I got out of the chair!
(Historical Note... If FSA photographer Dorothea Lange had not followed her inner voice and turned her truck around and drove 19 miles back to the sign for the "pea pickers camp", we would not have one of the most impactful photographs ever!)