Every year around Autumn, I always go out photographing with friends. We all, of course, are after some great shots of the Fall colors, and we inevitably end up in and around the streams in the mountains. For whatever reason though, I just never seem to walk away with many stream scenes that I’m just terribly excited about. Well, this year I decided to change that, and so I spent a lot of time working the rivers and streams, bound and determined to walk away with something I like.

So, was I successful? Well, I’ll let you be the judge of that, but I’ll say I got several this year that will get printed (something that is fairly unusual for me) for our walls here at home. What did I do differently? Well, first, I shot a LOT more images than I normally do (there is power in the odds). Next, I didn’t shoot the streams. Counter intuitive, I know, but what I decided to do was get in and near the streams, find things I liked, and then shoot that. Case in point, this week’s Picture of the Week. I always LOVE the green moss on the old logs laying around. They have such brilliant color and interesting detail, and the streams play a part in their story. By putting the log and moss first, it allowed me to forget about the stream for a minute, and simply focus on getting the log right. By nature of where I was, it worked out that the stream was in the shot, as were the brilliant colors in the background, and I had an image I was pleased with!

–Dan Thompson