By Matt Lit Managing Editor
I drove across the valley last week. On deadline and in the midst of producing the January Eagle, I needed a front page photo. I had no idea what but—like love—I’ll know it when I see it. Or is art that I’ll…?
Whichever it is, it’s something like that.
Anyhow, I figured a drive across the valley would yield something. Anything. Cows on X Road? Cows on T Road? Generally, that’s a safe bet.
Zilch on X Road.
I cruised through Saguache and with nothing of note, I figured I’d as least fill my tank. I took T Road home. Surely there must be cows in the road. Zilch on Devine luck.
Now on T Road, heading into Crestone-Baca—without a single new image in my Nikon—I spied a hawk hunting up creatures.
Beggars can’t be choosy so I made that shot happen.
When I left the house earlier in the afternoon I joked to myself, “The photo will be waiting when you get home.” It was a half-joke as I felt it as much as said it to myself.
Coming up Wagon Wheel I gazed east hoping to see the “Baca herd” of elk grazing in late-afternoon light that makes us catch our breath.
And there was my photograph (to be). The elk! And not the elk.
I cut up to Carefree Way near the castle and there, east of the road was the photograph. A woman, her dog and a bonus donkey peacefully gazing at the elk from a distance. And what’s more, of all things, I knew the donkey. It was Papaya, who’d I met while visiting with Bruce Becker.
Shooting from a distance with my telephoto zoom, I framed a moment that (to me, anyhow) transcended just a photo of the elk and became a moment involving the elk.
I had my page 1 photo.
Serendipity.
As a photojournalist I learned to embrace serendipity in my photography. The moment will be right when it’s ready.
Take the cover shot. I mused the outcomes that were possible and narratized it to two. One: I could have waited until the light was “right” to search for a photo. And it’s likely the scene I came upon would not have formed. Or, two: I needed to drive across the valley, fuel my car, choose to come back on T Road, stop to photograph that hawk, then drive the Evac Route for this moment to align.
Serendipity.
It happened for me last October, too. Leaving the No Kings Rally, in Saguache, I was going to drive out Hwy. 285. But didn’t. Instead, I passed back through town. And there, a 1 little gallery on Fourth Street, was a hustle and bustle.
What I stumbled into was a moment made in heaven; a going away party for Saguache’s oldest resident, Delores Whorley, 96. I was able to capture a moment important to the town’s folks and the town’s history.
Serendipity.
It had stepped in front of my camera so often as a photojournalist that I could no longer ignore the dynamic. I even teach my first-year photography students to be on the look out for it. Let serendipity happen, just have your camera ready.
Let’s embrace serendipity in the coming year and recognize it when it’s in front of us.
Like it? Don’t like it? Let me know. Send a letter to editor@crestoneeagle.com.