Brenda Landrum

Last week we decided to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms which we had not been to for a few years. It felt like an entirely new garden to us which in all honesty is a good thing. Nobody likes when nothing ever changes and it’s the same. But I’m not writing to tell you all about the gardens. I want to share the why I like to do these types of activities and how they fold into being creative and spontaneous.

I don’t chase photographs. I don’t research locations, timing of sunsets or plan what I’m going to photograph. I see many photographer’s do this, seems most landscape photographer’s work in this way, which is perfectly fine but I’m not shooting for that hero image … “banger” … which is not a term I ever use. I like to just experience whatever activity I and my family are doing and look for the beauty in where I am. I photograph for the simple pleasure of it and I like exercising my spontaneous creative muscles.

For this outing to the gardens, I had just a surface level idea of what it would look like and I knew we would be in full sun for most of the time. I went into it with no plan other than to just photograph the inspiring things I see … flowers, plants and paths. The butterflies are of course a lot of fun to photograph once they sit still long enough. And we truly enjoyed finding the small snake hiding in the plant in the butterfly tent. The surprise though when I got home and started editing the images was the colors. I wasn’t looking for these colors to make diptychs but was excited to see them come together as I was working on the images. 

For me that is the joy of being spontaneous and reactive with photography and almost all of my portfolio is comprised of doing just that. It makes me very connected to the images as they hold memories of a moment with people I love. This can be a negative for me though as I want others to feel a connection to them as I do, but that is an unreasonable expectation and can lead to feeling disappointed when I may not receive a reaction I’m looking for. This is when I have to remember that these images mean something entirely different to me than someone else scrolling past them. Anyhoo … a little sidetrack note there but my main point is to not get so tied up in trying to orchestrate the perfect planned photography and image. Go to the mountains (or beach) with your family and take your camera along to simply react to the beauty of where you are. The sky and stars may align just right for you to walk away with that hero image. Or you may come away with a surprise of the colors during your outing. And yes you may not get anything you love due to circumstances not working out. It’s ok though because then the next time you go out together, it might be the perfect day.