When I go out into the woods or fields in search of subjects to photograph, I never know if the path I choose will lead me to something special. Sometimes I take a path where I find some great subjects, and some days I come home with nothing.
I have one image that has been my most successful image I've ever shot in terms of, contest wins, selling of prints, and for commercial use, and that is a green fern growing over a burned tree trunk which was lying on the ground. It was shot in Yosemite, and on that day, my path was to a waterfall I was planning to shoot on that evening. As I was waiting for the right lighting to photograph the falls, I wondered around and found this scene of the fern and burned tree trunk.
So if I had decided not to photograph the falls on that trip, I would have missed out on finding this great fern on burn subject. The shot of the falls turned out to be nothing special, and I deleted it.
That trip to Yosemite was back in 2004, and since that trip, every time I go out to shoot, I'm always excited to think, will the path I take today lead me to my next best ever image.
