One of the things that frustrates me as a professional photographer is the all too common belief that great photography is just a simple matter of pointing the camera and pressing the button and then, maybe, adding some weird, digital filter to the final photo. Photography is a skill, an art, a passion. Some have it and some don’t. There is a difference between taking a photograph and making a photograph.

©Dawn J. Benko
I arrived at this spot on a cold, February morning, somewhere between 8 and 9 o’clock. I didn’t like the light, so I moved on, wandering up and down the brook all day taking photos. I would come back to this scene every so often to see if it was ready for it’s closeup. This photograph was, finally, created around 5pm. I had about a ten minute window to setup my tripod and camera and find the angle I wanted.

© Dawn J. Benko