It’s hard while traveling about Siouxland and other points near not to enjoy the scene being photographed. Shooting at night is very different than photographing during the day. Mostly because of exposure but also composition which might take on a different point of view or aspect because of the lighting seen or absent.
The Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha, NE is a fun place to shoot. It does require timing and luck sometimes simply because weather can always be a factor. And if one is traveling any distance, it’s always nice when one can come away with exposures that made a trip worth it. The same can be said for those traveling to find various or specific bird species. Sometimes the photo gods favor the shooter and other times not.
But like many ventures, it is the journey and not the destination. But hey, the cherry on top of the sundae is always a bonus.
Many times when I am out photographing in Siouxland and headed to a destination or expecting to look for something specific like birds or deer, I don’t always think about possible black and white photos or the possibility of them. And that is a failing of just not being mindful. Or open to whatever possibilities await. And it’s also true that sometimes color becomes, if not overwhelming, inescapable as we see the world in color.
But sometimes something just strikes my visual sense like seeing someone walking on a boardwalk in a checked shirt and the late afternoon sun creating lines as it passes through a structure. And then it becomes an act of recognition and reaction and “seeing”. And that requires being present and aware. Somedays one just wants the “day off”.
Fall in Siouxland is like a lot of places throughout the U.S. Colorful trees, shorter days ad the chance to shoot sunrises and sunsets without getting up extremely early or staying up extremely late to create of those images. And for the most part, temperatures are still decent enough one doesn’t freeze their posterior off attempting the photographs.
Recently I visited Omaha, NE and walked about the newly reopened Heartland of America Riverfront area. It also has been closed a few years like the Gene Leahy Mall for a makeover. And it’s very nice. A different nice as to me it was previously nice as well. But private money and corporate donations created an opportunity to improve on what it could be as a downtown or near downtown destination.
The community has gone to great effort to make the downtown area and surrounding parts family and pedestrian friendly. And a lot of people are out just enjoying the ambiance and seeing what is new. I also enjoyed the fact that I didn’t have to leave so early in the day to drive to Omaha or stay so very late to get some images of blue hour and the downtown landscape. Beauty needs it rest, although friends would certainly say it’s wasted on me.
I live in the Siouxland area that encompasses a wide swatch of land in northwest Iowa, northeastern Nebraska and southeastern South Dakota. The people that inhabit this area are generous folk and your basic honest, Midwestern people you like to have as neighbors. I explore the area and share observations, mostly photographic, sometimes through video, and and short text. All images and video are copyrighted material of the author.
Jerry Mennenga, Sioux City, Iowa
jerrylmennenga@yahoo.com
lostinsiouxland 