Why?

Why? Why indeed? I’ll tell you why.
When I am out with photography groups I always suggest to them that just before they hit the shutter button they ask themselves WHY! “Why am I taking this particular shot?” Out of this question will then come a small pause for some analysis. If you don’t really know why you are taking that particular picture then you can be reasonably certain that the folk you later show it too won’t know why either! And the whole reason for taking the picture will be lost – if it was ever there in the first place!
In taking the photo below I started off just taking random shots to show flowing water so I sort of half answered the ‘why’ question. But then I really asked myself the question again. I concluded that I wanted to illustrate water flowing both past AND over rocks so THEN my reason became clear to me. When the reason was clear my ‘plan of attack’ became clear.
I set my polariser to cut right through the reflection off the river surface to show the brown rocks beneath. I set a high aperture to drive out a long exposure (10 seconds) and bingo.
By asking myself why I was able to think through and deliver a shot that hopefully answers the question clearly enough to be understood.
Does it work? I think so…

Incidentally, this was taken in Fairy Glen on the River Conwy near Betws y Coed, North Wales.