I Just Can't See It

I'm puzzled....baffled....stunned! I don't know what the problem is or rather, I know what the problem is but just don't know how to fix it. My daughter, Erin, and her family moved to Arizona about 6 years ago and since then I've visited several times. Every time I've taken some time to shoot some photos of the landscape near where they live. One time I made a special point to visit Saguaro National Park near Tucson on a shooting expedition. But there's a problem.

After all those trips and all the images I've shot I still don't have anything I am proud of. Maybe it's the light. Light has different qualities in different lattitudes and maybe I just haven't adapted to shooting that far south. Maybe it's the colors, or lack thereof in the southern deserts. Maybe it's something as simple as a mental block. I just don't know. All I know is that most of the time I feel like I'm having a good day but when I get the images downloaded to the computer my reaction is "...Good grief! Who shot this crap?"

I've been through creative dry spells before as have we all. Sometimes I get to a location and just don't see anything that excites me and makes me want to photograph the landscape. That's sort of what happened on the above mentioned trip to Saguaro. But those times are few and far between. And this is different in that sometimes when I do shoot something, the execution is faulty. Like not noticing when I take my camera out of the bag that it's inadvertently been switched from Aperture priority to Program on the settings dial. Or shooting something that requires a lot of depth of field with the lens at or near wide open.

Whatever the case, I just can't seem to create a great image in the desert of southern Arizona. And it's beginning to bother me..to the point that I'm starting to strategize my next trip. Maybe I should try shooting sunset instead of sunrise. Maybe I should try and avoid looking for specific shots and just shoot what comes my way. Perhaps I should spend more time concentrating on technique instead of just freewheeling like I usually do. Whatever the case, I'm already looking forward to the next trip. I'll get some winning images if it kills me.