Sometimes we get the shots we want.
Sometimes we don’t.
I was taking some photos at a very cool abandoned schoolhouse in Nebraska called the Neff School House recently (I made a video of my experience you can find by clicking here), and for one of the shots I just plain didn’t get it. I was reminded of this today by a fellow photographer, David, who said he wanted to see one of the shots from my video that didn’t make it in.
In the video I make a point to show a viewpoint from within the schoolhouse… and it’s pretty obvious there is a very cool tree that would have made for an awesome framing shot.
It’s this one.

Except… as you can see I missed the shot.
I remember being there with my camera, wishing the big tree was a little bit more to my left than it was so I could use framing more effectively.
What I realize now, of course, is that I could have just shifted a little to my left and taken the photo at an angle to include the tree. That’s BASIC photography, isn’t it?
Of course, I could look back and be upset with myself, but through the years I’ve learned to be kinder to my mistakes. I did miss this shot… but that’s the way it is sometimes, isn’t it?
And with it being fairly close to my home… I can always go back, which is kind of exciting and part of the fun of photography!