Author: Lisa Carey

Welcome to my Photography blog on my webpage. I want to spend time talking about photography! My favorite! Whatever comes to mind is the topic of the day and I hope you find it useful and inspirational and a good read! 

One of my favorite photos is of the Lake Wissota Island in the fall that I took two years ago. I’ve learned over time that photography is very much in the moment. If you pass by a moment it may never happen again as you see it in that exact time. The Lake Wissota Island is a perfect example!

I always drove my son to school before he earned his driver’s license. I loved the drive and spending some time with him in the mornings. We drove by Lake Wissota that morning and it was encased beautifully in fog. The problem I usually had is that by the time I drove my son to school and had time to circle back most times the scene had changed and wasn’t dramatic enough to warrant the photo. The thought crossed my mind that it would be okay if he was late and I could call him in, but he would’ve hated that! 

I had my eye on the tree at the end of the sandbar on the Island the autumn before. The tree gets this bright neon yellow in the fall and it only lasts for a week. And it stands strong in its beautiful yellow by itself at the end of the sandbar. One of the things I look at with photography is how I can make the scene or subject something that has a wow factor. Many people have taken photos of the Lake Wissota Island. I knew to get a wow photo I would need to capture that yellow tree. And I waited all year after I first saw it the year before!

When I raced back to the foggy scene after dropping my son off at school, I was in luck! The fog had not dissipated all the way and the morning sun was shining beautifully through with a touch of blue sky above. I had noted to myself that in order to get a photo of the angle with the morning sun shining on the tree I was in for a little adventure. Knowing the scene will go away and soon the bright yellow will fade, I did a u-turn and went back. There is no more waiting, this is it!

I parked on the side of the highway, hopped the car guardrail, crossed the railroad tracks carefully looking both ways, maneuvered over big rocks without spraining my ankle, went down an embankment with a few brush scratches to the edge of the lake. A nice little worn area was presumably there by a previous fisherman. The scene was incredible! It made me stop and just soak it in for a moment!

The fog was lifting gently. The bright yellow fall tree on the edge of the sandbar had light beautifully shining through the leaves and lighting it up. The blue sky was peeking through above and reflecting in the lake water below. I was gasping at my grand adventure and was taking photos at the same time. It was crispy cold out in the fall and I was thinking of heading back to my truck. I’m sure people passing by in their cars were amused to see me making my way to the lake with my camera strapped around me! Just as I realized my fingers were getting cold and I was probably not quite dressed appropriately for the colder weather, I saw a fishing boat ever so slightly emerge from the fog to the left of the island. Wow! It is the little treasure of the photograph that if you don’t look that close you’ll miss it.

I’ve used this moment as an example many times since then for my photography. That if I don’t stop, it won’t become a photograph. Photography really is about being in the right place at the right time and stopping time with a click. So when opportunity knocks, you take the snap! It's a good motto to live by!