His message resonated with me on this particular day for two reasons. The first was because of the cumbersome journey I had up this mountain. To reach the top, I carried my 65-pound camera bag as I snowshoed upward. I stopped every ten to fifteen feet to catch my breath. And, about three-quarters of the way up, I wondered how likely it was that an ambulance would reach me if I dropped from a heart attack. Although, I wanted to stop where I was I thought of the message in the audiobook and asked myself if I was willing to come this far to quit at the three-quarter mark. The thought alone was enough to keep me pushing to the top.
The second reminder occured when I was all setup in what I thought was going to be the shot of the night. I had shot several frames on my panorama camera, but the light and the composition wasn’t really exciting me. I left the camera and decided to walk around a little bit with the viewfinder to see if there was anything else that jumped out at me. Keeping in mind that night was fast approaching and I was nearly ready to give up, I walked to another spot and looked through the viewfinder. About as quickly as I could get the viewfinder up to my face I was rushing back to my camera and flying over to that spot to set up and capture the view. I had just enough time to set the camera up, I readjust all my settings and fire the release cable. I took one exposure at 2 minutes and by the time that was done the light had completely faded and night was upon me.
Photographing Winter Wonderland was certainly a fight – and one that I’m so happy I fought for. Hard work is always rewarded.
See you at the top!