you don't have too go to far to enjoy the chase

Chasing the Texas Sunset

Chasing The Texas Sunset by Rhonda Holcomb ©2011 Panoramic, H.D.R.

"Adventure can be an end in itself. Self-discovery is the secret ingredient that fuels daring. --Grace Lichtenstein"

The inspiration behind the image Chasing The Texas Sunset 

Foreplay/Longtime by Boston

You don't have to go too far to chase your dreams because sometimes 
fulfillment lies right outside your front door.  

I found this to be true one March evening after spending a dreadful day inside tackling taxes. I had put off three years of taxes while following my passion, photography.  I’ve enjoyed every minute while on my adventure but in the meantime a lot of other things were left undone.  I am this way in pursuit of most of my enjoyable endeavors.  I’m the type of person who gives a hundred percent to anything in which I find curious, enjoyable or entertaining.  But here lately, I’ve been trying to balance all the roles in my life more effectively. 
 

Anyway on this day, what I would like to call the Procrastination Monster, had taken a big bite out of my sanity.  I know that I had deserved the attack but still I wanted to save myself so late that evening I packed up my camera bag, tripod, and the song I had been listening all day, Foreplay/Longtime by Boston and headed down a familiar road.  

It’s not a destination that landscape photographers would find interesting, but it’s a place which I have found, where during springtime, I can capture a beautiful Texas Sunset.  It’s down a china berry tree lined, dead end road only about a mile from my home.  As I traveled down the road and listened to Foreplay/Longtime, my imagination wandered with the lyrics and my heart beat raced at the thought of the challenge I was about to undertake. 

Challenges and good music always get my heart racing.  I stepped out of my van, looked down the road to see if anyone was coming my way.  Then I left the door opened so I could hear the song and breathed out a long sigh and looked at the western sky.  The clouds were singing along with Boston and I knew this was going to be a perfect sunset.  I set up my tripod, put my camera on manual focus and set up my shot for a H.D.R.- Panoramic.  I knew I wanted the sun to have a star-burst effect so I set f-stop on F11.  I also wanted to silhouette the fencepost so I set my ISO at 100 and the metering mode to pattern.  I set up my composition, set my bracketing to one step over and under, plugged in the remote shutter and the show began as the sun started sitting in the horizon.  I shot several frames in horizontal and then in vertical in three stops for H.D.R. 

It seemed like time slowed down just for me while the lyrics, I’m taking my time, I’m just moving along played in the background.  :-)

After the show was over and the sun set behind the fencepost, I packed up my gear really knowing in my soul that I didn’t have to travel to a places like Switzerland or Africa in order to create wonderful images.  I could create and capture images with a since of mystery, mood and music within a mile of my home because it’s what’s in my heart and mind that truly shines through and sings out to the world. 

On this day, a day of running from the Procrastination Monster and insanity, I also found that you don’t have to go too far to enjoy the chase and getting away to pursue what you love doesn’t have to take a long time because sometimes  it’s just right outside your front door.