It's been about a month since my wife and I left our full-time jobs to begin the next phase of our lives. During that time, I have had some personal adjustments to make having left a leadership role in a hospital to roam the country with a camper full of coffee and cameras to spend time together and see all the beautiful places this country has to offer. One of the big surprises was how many wonderful and friendly people we had run into.
None of the wonderful people we met was more welcoming and interesting than Wyatt. He runs the Crippled Spider campground near Thermopolis, Wyoming. Wyatt has a warm and weathered smile. He greeted us at this newer campground and very graciously showed us around his ranch. A collection of very well cared for farm animals including a couple of longhorn steer called Red and Blue. He also gave us a dozen fresh eggs which we enjoyed. During the all to brief time we spent with our new friend, he mentioned that a previous customer asked for the campground rules. His reply was wise, witty and appropriate for the situation he described. He has one simple rule: "Don't be a jerk", only he didn't say jerk, but this is a family blog:)
Blue the Longhorn
Fast forward a week. The other day, I found myself standing in front of the Moulton Barn on Mormon row in Grand Teton National Park. This is a very famous barn that was built by one of the original European settlers in the 1800s. It was exquisitely designed to blend in with the natural surroundings and echo the shape of the Teton mountains. I had located and scouted the barn the day before and had a shot in mind. When we rolled in before dawn to set up for the shot, I was not surprised to see a photography workshop in progress complete with a loud talking "instructor" regaling his students with all of his photographic wisdom. I did what all polite photographers do and set up well out of their way, but on a very similiar plane to the barn. Something in my viewfinder just wasn't right. I snapped a test shot. As soon as I saw the image it hit me. We (the workshop group and I) were way too close to the barn. The forepeak was protruding beyond the line of the Tetons. This breaks the whole mood of the shot and in my opinion, the intent of the original designer of the barn. Now, this instructor had just as much right to be there and set up where he pleased, as I did. It was not my place or right to question his artistic vision of the composition he choose.
The composition imposed on everyone by the expert
The Workshop
Something about this whole experience reminded me of Wyatt's simple rule though. I suppose I could have pointed out to the instructor that his composition was off and he was ruining the shot for everyone else. I also suppose the Instructor could have kept his voice down and maybe been a bit more considerate of all the other photographers that did not get the shot they wanted. Unfortunately, only one of us had spent time in the company of Wyatt.