Sometimes forests can be so surprising to me. For me to find success photographing a forest, I often need to change the way I think about photography. A forest just demands a somewhat different eye, with more patience, more open mindedness, and at least for me, more creative thinking. I often find big and vast landscapes pretty obvious when it comes to deciding how I want to approach them, but forests make me think a lot harder and juggle more ideas at the same time. It can be mentally draining, but it also means that a forest really requires me to slow down and just feel things out.
Unfortunately for me, this means that unless my head is in “forest mode” I will frequently walk right past scenes I like, and that was nearly the case here. I was hiking back along a route I’d never taken from a big vantage point, and all I was thinking about was getting to the car for a snack, since I’d missed lunch. Thankfully this tree and scene caught my eye, and I was able to shut off the part of my brain that just wanted to bash through the hike and eat snacks in the car. I could tell that it was a scene with some potential, but my head just wasn’t in “forest photography” mode and it took a while to really slow into my process. That’s easier said than done with a grumbly tummy! In the end, I was very fortunate that the qualities of the scene were clear enough to me even though I wasn’t in the right head space. It’s funny how your frame of mind will influence how you see a scene, or what you notice. Another good reminder to keep my eyes and mind open even when I’m focused on something else.