Embrace The Chaos.

Embrace the chaos. This is a popular saying. People use it to mean that life is not perfect, that unexpected things will happen, and that the best thing to do is to embrace them and move through them. It is not bad advice in my opinion, life is, after all, full of unexpected surprises. There are times in life when the unexpected happens, and there is nothing to be done about it; all you can do is keep on living.

How does this advice apply to landscape photography? How does it not? We photographers sometimes tend to overplan. What are conditions like? When does the sun rise or set? Where on the horizon will the moon be at such and such time? What is the weather going to be like? (You should check that one.) All in an effort to create the “perfect” image. This is all well and good, but chaos does reign supreme. Something almost always goes wrong. And once it does, what can you do? You could pack up and head home, but what will that get you? Frustrated and with nothing to show for your efforts, that’s what. This is the time to embrace the chaos. Change the composition, rethink the subject, the angle, and the settings you had planned on. Maybe you abandon the original plan altogether and try for something completely different. Who knows, it might be better than your original plan.

Then there is the chaotic nature of nature itself. Things are not perfect in the out-of-doors. Leaf litter on the ground, branches twisted and tangled, brush and brambles scattered across the woodland floor, to say the outdoors are tidy would be untrue. All of this chaos can be overwhelming. It can be hard to find something to photograph in the midst of all the clutter. But sometimes the chaos is the beauty; it can become the subject of an image. This is a moment to embrace the chaos. Use it, let it become the subject of the image. It is, after all, everywhere. Why not take advantage of it? This is a perfect environment to let go of plans and give in to the pure, beautiful chaos all around.