Expectations

Ken Spencer


We were headed out to explore more of San Angelo, Texas, and Ginger asked if I wanted to see the water lily garden. “Sure,” I replied - I love to photograph gardens.” But water lilies in Texas? “I’ll just bring my toy camera and not drag the Nikon D2x around with me for this trip,” I thought to myself. I mean, what could I possibly find to photograph there?

Expectations... How many times do we think about a place, or a location or a subject, and pre-judge what we think it might be worth in terms of photographs. What time of day are we going there? High noon? What is the chance that time of day would result in great images?

I remember meeting the photographer Paul Caponigro at the Maine Photographic Workshops one year, and I asked him when he thought the best time was to photograph the low flat rocks down at the harbor’s edge. I will never forget his answer. Just go down and see what you can find, at any time. It would be strange to think that the rocks will suddenly reveal themselves to us, just because we arrived on the scene! Go and photograph - the longer you are out there photographing, the more chance you will have to find great photographs. More time in the field equals better photographs. It is now my mantra.

So we arrived at the International Water Lily Garden to fine huge tanks full of all kinds of water lilies, and some of them were just unimaginable, as these were. Someone has since said that these are most likely an African variety. Stunning photographs everywhere. This may be the single best image from a week of shooting! And what camera did I bring? My toy camera! What was I thinking! Fortunately, the little Canon S-70 produces a 20 MB file, and I can make beautiful prints from this small point-and-shoot, so all was not lost.