There’s more to see and photograph in Provence than lavender and sunflowers. Wanting to find more than these clichéd images requires a willingness to go off the well-worn roads and onto the smaller side roads. While scouting for a workshop I was leading, and with no particular agenda in mind, I started down one of these roads and came upon this old Cabane. For some reason, if only subconsciously at the time, the small building and the surrounding field reminded me of Andrew Wyeth’s painting, “Christina’s World.”
As I arrived, the building was shaded by passing clouds. Perhaps because of the perceived connection to Wythe’s painting, I waited, composing a few frames as the light on the land shifted with the drifting clouds above. In each of these frames, something was missing. The flat light on the scene generated little visual appeal. I continued shooting the odd frame for perhaps twenty minutes until the clouds suddenly parted and a shaft of sunlight momentarily illuminated the Cabane. In a few seconds, the light vanished, and the scene returned to the flat light of a largely overcast day. Patience is an important quality for a photographer to develop, for all the qualities of a good image rarely present themselves at the moment you happen upon an image. Patience is a crucial quality for photographers to cultivate. Sometimes, that patience is even rewarded.
(Fuji X-T4, XF 16-85 f/2.8, 1/400 sec. @ f/11 ISO 160)
pacificLIGHT photography