Cerro Castillo National Reserve, Patagonia, Chile on February 15th, 2016

Behind the scenes of this photo

Taken at Cerro Castillo National Reserve, Patagonia, Chile on February 15th, 2016

Early on in my photography career I was all about labels. “I’m a wide-angle, color, magic-hour photographer,” I’d say. And if conditions didn’t fit into my neat little labels, well then I didn’t take a picture. But as I’ve grown as a photographer I’ve realized that these kinds of expectations cause the death of creativity. And now when I shoot, I let the scene tell me what there is to photograph, instead of the other way around. As a result, I’m “luckier” in the field, and enjoy photography more. Here’s a scene a younger me would’ve passed up, lamenting the lack of magic hour color. But current me saw the lack of color as a feature of the landscape, realizing that the dead color palette, rushing white water of the stream, and dramatic clouds in the sky would lend themselves beautifully to black and white.

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