Sometimes, something that I find to photograph provides an even better opportunity than what I had initially intended, for a completely different reason. This happened to me a few times while out in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado recently this summer. This lone dead pine is just one such example, others included waterfalls and boulders, wildflowers and landscapes.
On this particular morning, around 11am, the bright sun was now high in the sky. I just finished shooting distant mountain scenes of the mountain pine beetle infestation in the Upper Beaver Meadows area of the park. Driving out of the area, I noticed this lone dead ponderosa pine along the hillside. Being that it succumbed to the mountain pine beetle, I thought it somewhat represented the case for all pines within the park.
While shooting the scene, a small wren kept singing from its branches. After capturing the
shot I wanted, I walked over to the dead pine, somewhat as John Muir would say “to make its acquaintance”, and enjoying the song of the wren. Without any intention of photographing the bird, I watched as it darted from branch to branch, and then to the ground nearby.
It was during this period of observation that I decided to try to shoot the branches from underneath, though I could not “find the shot”. As I continued to move around, the sun’s rays shot like an arrow through the branches overhead. Once I caught that ray of sun, the answer became obvious. The result was this sun star through the branches image, which I think is better than the initial solo tree image I was seeking. The same image without the sun star holds far less appeal.
Perhaps that’s what I enjoy most of photography. It reminds me to remain open to possibilities, as the unexpected discovery might be the just around the corner – or in this case, under the tree.
