One Place That’s an Ongoing Photo Op

by Joseph T. Sinclair

Some of the world’s great­est pho­tog­ra­phers have tak­en their pho­tos while out hik­ing. Ansell Adams is one that comes to mind. Trails are usu­al­ly con­struct­ed in places that have nat­ur­al beau­ty even if they’re with­in the city lim­its. Con­se­quent­ly, a hike on a trail near you may be a good place to think about get­ting some attrac­tive photos.

If you don’t want to car­ry a three-pound pro­fes­sion­al cam­era while hik­ing on the trail, I can under­stand that. But no wor­ries mate. You have your phone with you. No excus­es for miss­ing out on great pho­to ops.

Trails offer a vari­ety of shoot­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties. There are trees, plants, fence lines, insects, birds, ani­mals, vis­tas, oth­er hik­ers, and nat­ur­al for­ma­tions to name a few. In addi­tion, there are the four seasons.

I reg­u­lar­ly hike along the Car­quinez Strait in the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area. For about a month the Cal­i­for­nia pop­pies are in bloom start­ing in the spring. That’s real­ly the only time to pho­to­graph them.

The yel­low-orange col­or of the pop­pies is the most intense col­or you’ll ever see any­where. It’s dif­fi­cult to cap­ture the inten­si­ty of the col­or in a pho­to but I keep try­ing every year with my phone cam­era. After about a month, the col­or in the pop­pies begins to fade, and they begin to look like nor­mal flow­ers. So if you want to cap­ture the true essence of the pop­pies, you have to be there dur­ing that one-month period.

The pop­pies sim­ply illus­trate that on my trail there are dif­fer­ent things to pho­to­graph at dif­fer­ent times of the year.

There are dif­fer­ent things to pho­to­graph also in dif­fer­ent kinds of weath­er. For instance, a sun­set on a clear night is usu­al­ly not very inter­est­ing. A sun­set on a cloudy night has the poten­tial to be one the most beau­ti­ful pho­tographs you’ll ever see.

Thus, a trail is not only a place where you can get good pho­tographs but also a place that always changes, always renews, always pro­vides fresh pho­to ops. And you won’t miss any of those pho­to ops, because you’ll have your phone with you.

I don’t want to preach, but I should say that hik­ing is also very healthy. How many chances to get to do some­thing fun and pro­duc­tive while also doing some­thing healthy. Find a trail and start hik­ing sev­er­al times a week. Cap­ture the moment and cap­ture the sea­son­al and weath­er changes with your phone camera.