Taken or Made? A Morning at High Crags…
I quiet often get asked why I get up so early to go and “take” photos. Well, when you experience a morning (and sunrise) like I did recently, then hopefully the photographs I “made” answer that question with conviction. Some people also say that they could take a similar photo with their phone and to a point they are probably right. In my world though I “take” photos with my phone, but I “make” photographs with my camera of choice.
So what is the difference between “take” and “make”? Photos that are taken, are often snapshots of a moment in time. A spur of the moment shot, with little or no planning. Photographs that are made are more considered, with planning using a proven process or methodology by a photographer to achieve a desired result.
So let’s take the morning of Saturday 21st January as an example. The process began by identifying a location that would be good for a sunrise. With some local knowledge, looking at an OS map and also Google Maps before confirming the weather forecast the night before, I decided that heading to High Crag Ridge, near Pateley Bridge would be good. I had not shot the location before, so I researched it from various sources to see possible options. I used Google Maps to decide where best to park, which would help me understand how long it would take to walk there. Sunrise was to be at 8.10am, so I knew I wanted to be there for 7.30pm at the latest. Allowing for a 15 minute walk, putting on walking boots etc, I had to be parked up by 7.10am. With a 30 minute drive from home, the alarm was set for 6am.
The first thing I do when on location, especially for sunrise or sunset is to understand where the sun will be. I use and app called Photopils, which provides this information and you can also see where the sun will be using AR. Brilliant. I put the bag down and walk around the location with my camera handheld to see what compositions might work. Once I’m comfortable with what I want to achieve, I get set up with the tripod to make my first composition. As the light evolves, I change my compositions and start to work the location to see what else I can achieve. This process goes on until I am happy with what I have captured and the light is no longer favourable. Time to return to the car and have a cup of tea and some porridge before returning home.
Once home, it is then into the digital darkroom to review, edit and process the images I am happy with. This can be quite time consuming depending on how many photographs are on the memory card and how many I like that need to be fully edited to complete the process.
Whilst this is a high-level summary of my approach, I hope it makes people understand the difference between “taking” and “making” photographs.
Here are some of the photographs I made on this particular cold and frosty morning on an exposed ridge, up above Nidderdale.
I hope you like them…
