Friday, August 4, 2023
OK, you caught me. I told a fib. The very last blog entry that I did I finished it up with saying that I was needing to change gears and wouldn’t be out on any treks for a while. I even mentioned the very real risk of draining myself creatively which is very possible after a lot of successful treks. Yeah, I said all of that like four days ago, yet here we are once again reading through a blog entry. In my defense, I really didn’t intend to go and create any new images today. In fact, the day was set up as a working day as I was doing an invitational workshop in Boone for a couple of clients. This is something that had been planned since shortly after my last decay workshop in the Fall of last year. Since that time, I had worked up a plan for a workshop and made contact with the property owners to find out the best time to photograph their property. It was a very nice botanical garden right in the middle of Boone, called Arborcrest Gardens.
I can see that you are going through my different gallery rooms in order to find where I have shot photos of flowers. I’ll save you the effort and let you know that this is not something that will typically shoot these days. There isn’t a real good reason as to why that is other than flowers don’t really get me excited on a level that I really need to be in order to photograph them. That certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t know a thing or two about flower photography though. Out of fairness though, I didn’t offer this as an open workshop because I wasn’t sure that I had enough to offer a group in this type of photography. I’m still not sure that I do, but I’m glad that I was able to put this workshop on for the small group that went with me.
Just to put this out there, the workshop almost didn’t happen due to weather. Right up until dinner time on Thursday, the rain forecast was showing a complete washout of the day. It wasn’t until about 5pm that the weather reports started to change which had been the hope after a full day of rainfall on Thursday. I think that the sky just expelled all of the moisture that it had during the day, leaving nothing left for Friday. Thankfully, the final decision was made to go ahead with the workshop as planned which was going to start at 8am. We all arrived right around that time and started with the day’s lesson plan. The clouds were thick, but there was no rain. The weather forecast was showing gradual clearing in the afternoon, which had prompted me to bring my camera. Yep, you heard right, I wasn’t planning on doing any photography during the workshop in favor of being available to the participants. That is how I prefer to roll. I only took my camera on the off chance that I got the urge to do some photography.
Well, I stayed pretty busy until we were finished up around 1pm which was about when I anticipated wrapping things up due to the heat. The heat was actually not bad at all, but we still decided to stick with that plan and call it a day. The sun was starting to come out, but the clouds were still looking really good. I’ll be honest, I was actually half wanting to stick around and do some of my own photography on the grounds, but it was getting crowded, and they had limited parking. I felt that I had tied up enough of their spaces for the first part of the day with the workshop, so I decided to go ahead and leave with the guys.
I was a little tired after going back and forth between them, but there was a smidge of creativity flowing through my head and I felt like I wanted to go and shoot something simple. Of course, I had a rough plan in place for the afternoon just in case I felt like getting my camera set up. if you will recall when I was last talking to my friend Dean during a mentorship session in East Bend, he had given me some tips on two different locations. The first one, had turned out really great and was responsible for a two-part blog entry. The second location that he had mentioned was not far from his shop and was an area that I had ridden many times on a bicycle in my younger days. I thought that I had most of that area scouted out, but apparently, I had missed something because the truck that Dean was describing to me was not something that I was familiar with. In my defense, it is pretty easy to miss things like this when you are traveling at 25mph on a 14lb bike with your heartrate up in the mid 90’s. Ah yes, the abilities of a young man.
Anyway, I had gone in and looked at the street view and had spotted the truck down a curvy driveway just like Dean had said. I knew the location now, and it wasn’t too far off the highway. Of course, it was in the opposite direction from home from where I had been through the morning. I had some time that I had set aside in case the workshop had gone longer, so I decided that as long as the weather held, it would be a good time to try a capture of that old truck.
I think it was about an hour and a half East from Boone until I got to the area where the truck was. I slowed as I got close because I wanted to spot it in person before I started pulling into any driveways. I was almost thinking that the truck was gone, but at the last minute I spotted it behind the trees just like I had seen it on the street view. Even though the sun was starting to come out in a serious way, the truck was in the shadows and looked good as I passed by. I got turned around for another look. Yeah, this could work out! I then started to pull into the house that was next to the truck but realized that it was mostly likely vacant and wasn’t being cared for all that much. The shop that was on the other side of the driveway looked all closed down with no signs of life inside either. I pulled into a church parking lot and got my map out to see where the owner could be living. There was a house at the end of the long driveway that must be the owner’s. It was a little far off the road for me to be fully comfortable with going up to the house, but I figured that if I was going to get the needed permission, I was going to have to go to the house.
I pulled into the shop’s parking lot and pondered my options. There were a lot of signs talking about “No Trespassing” and such which I understood for the location. Looking at the truck a little closer, while not in motion, I confirmed that the light around the truck would work. But I saw something that I hadn’t realized before. While I knew that this was yard art from the location, I hadn’t realized just how staged it looked until now. Whatever photos I shot of this truck were going to look like photos of yard art. This wasn’t what I really felt like dealing with, and it certainly wasn’t worth asking permission just yet. I wanted to wait for a day when the clouds were a bit thicker and more consistent because while I was looking at the satellite imagery, I could see that there were potentially other subjects further into the yard. Not knowing the lighting conditions back there, I wanted to have flatter light to work with, and that would be another time.
I was starting to feel a little bummed which surprised me. I had been out and about since 7:15 this morning, and it was now around 2:45 and I had no photos to show for it. Of course, I had not planned on getting any new photos today, so it really wasn’t all that bad at all. That’s what I told myself. I’m just not a fan of driving this much and not finding anything at all to shoot. I could have called it quits and headed home to see Toni off who was going to a wedding rehearsal (I don’t think that she is getting remarried, maybe I should have asked), but I just couldn’t throw in the towel just yet. I knew of another location close by that the property owner from my last trek had told me about.
The interesting part about this new location was that I had already been there about four years ago. Kenny had told me that that was his brother’s property and there were a couple of new cars positioned off to the side. I had no idea what they looked like, or if there was a photo to be had there. I was close, and I figured that I might as well go and scout it out to see if they were worth some photos. I was doubting that I was going to do anything with them right now because the clouds were all breaking up and the sun was shining pretty brightly at this point. All the way there, I kept telling myself to turn around and just head home to make sure that Toni wasn’t the bride to be at this wedding. Something kept drawing me forward though.
I think it was only about 10 miles until I got to the house which I was surprised I remembered how to get to it. I drove by slowly and saw lots of familiar sights there, but I also saw two Impalas sitting off by themselves on the side yard. They were unique in that they looked similar to a ’57 Chevy in a way, but there were four headlights which I was pretty sure happened to be new in 1958. A quick search when I got home showed that I was looking at two 1958 Impalas, and these were the first ones of this generation I had come across. The uniqueness of them caught my eye and I wanted to turn around to get a closer look at them, or at least a second look. I knew that they were isolated from the rest of the property which was a very good thing, but the sun was quite bright, and I wasn’t sure if that would work out here.
On the second pass, I could tell that the cars were both in the open which allowed the sun to hit them pretty evenly, or at least without dappled shadows which could confuse the body lines in a photo. The lighting actually looked pretty good considering the lack of clouds overhead. I couldn’t help but think about the next Behind the Camera which I have already started, that talks about seasonal photographers and those that only shoot certain subjects in certain conditions. Now was as good a time as any to show that I can put myself into a situation that I would normally shy away from, and make it work.
I got turned around once again and pulled into the driveway. As I was parking, I realized that there were a pair of legs underneath of a car that indicated that somebody was talking to the driver of that car. I got out and came around to say hi, and let them know that I was there, but waiting until they were finished. After the visitor left, I approached the property owner who I was pretty sure I recognized. I started in with the fact that it had been four years since I had seen him and that jogged his memory enough to remember who I was. That took a lot of the explanations out of the conversation, and I just went into letting him know that I had seen the new additions and wanted to photograph them. He didn’t have a problem with that at all, and in a few minutes, I was walking over to the side yard to see what I could do with these cars.
As I got closer to them, I was convinced that I had not seen this body style before and that made this all the sweeter of a find. Danny had let me know that a tree had fallen on one of them which had ruined the car. He had to cut the roof to get to the steering wheel which he had sold to someone else who was in need. That was a real shame, and I could see the change in body lines on that car. I was going to have to work around that somehow. The other car looked to be in pretty good shape, and I was pleased that most of the chrome was there. The patina on both of the cars was wildly different and I was looking at a car that was predominantly blue while the other one was more of a warmer and rusty tone. It was going to give me some different opportunities as far as how to deal with the colors of the two cars.
I pulled out my phone and snapped a quick photo of the pair to send to Toni at home to let her know that I was going to be here for a bit working on these two cars. I don’t think that I surprised her as I will usually find something when I am out this long. Whether or not it will factor into who is getting married tomorrow, I have no answer…yet. I can only hope that she is just in the bridal party. Now that she knew I was going to be here for a while, I started to look at the compositional options in front of me. I could see a couple of overall compositions on each car, and there were some isolation potentials as well. I was thinking that I was probably in for about a half dozen keepers between the two cars if I was lucky. The sun was going to play a big part in what I was able to capture, and I knew that I was going to have to work quickly as the light changed with the clouds overhead.
In order to get started quickly, I pulled out the camera and fixed the standard lens with a polarizer. This would give me the most flexibility and allow me to work compositions quickly. I used this lens to grab the overall shots of both cars and then I started to move in closer to get some of the details. Things were going slowly at this point because of the light, but I was determined to unlock the potential of these two cars.
In an effort to keep this blog entry kind of short, because I am tired, and need to get things finished tonight so that I am not bogged down tomorrow with typing, I am doing just a single entry here like old times, and I am not going to get into much detail on the individual photos. The photos appear in the blog in the order in which they were shot to give you an idea of the progression, but I just can’t get into the detail like I have been doing in the past with every step of the process. Just know that I bounced back and forth between the two cars pretty regularly as I found a composition that worked, I tried it on the other one to see if the light was better, or the patina would lend itself more to the particular composition. I even went through several lenses during my time with these cars. Surprisingly, I got a lot of use out of my 16-35mm lens which is one that I will rarely use for this kind of photography. It seemed to be the best choice for the shape of this car though. I also spent a good deal of time with the telephoto lens which I’ve come to realize is a very useful lens for these old cars whether the photo be an isolation, or a full body shot.
I found myself trying the overall compositions with each of the lenses which I’m very glad that I did. Doing this will give me a lot of variety when I get the images home and plenty of images to choose from with similar compositional themes. Something that I found strange was the fact that what used to be my most used lens for automotive photography created more duds than successful images with this car. Even odder, I had equal amounts of luck with the wide-angle and the telephoto lenses. You can even see that the overall photos of both cars were done with both of those lenses for some dramatically different effects that I really liked for the two cars. The deciding factors came down to the background in the majority of the cases. Where the trees were, and what was behind the cars dictated the focal lengths that I shot at more than anything else. The perspective was just a side benefit of the other choices being made.
I felt like it was taking a long time to get familiar with this car, and after a morning of working through flower compositions, this seemed almost alien to me in a way. I wasn’t feeling like I was getting many good shots, and I wasn’t sticking with compositions like I would normally. I would find something where the light was looking good and set up to shoot it quickly. After a frame or two, I would move on to something else. I didn’t feel like anything that I was shooting was hitting the mark, but I was pretty sure that when it was all finished, I would have a handful of keepers from these two beauties.
I didn’t just focus on the overall shots, but I also came in close to get some isolations. Since I had yet to photograph one of these cars, I had to work on variations of compositions that I knew and find others that I had not had the reason to shoot until now. this took some time, and I was bouncing between the cars quickly and even changing lenses when I felt that a change was needed for the composition. I wasn’t paying attention to the image counter, but I was seeing 20, then 30, then 40 exposures in what seemed like no time as I would pull an image up to see what changes I could make to the compositions. I didn’t take the time to really keep up with what I had been shooting, but it was still feeling like I was trying a lot of things without much success.
I’m all too familiar with this routine and I know that it could mean one of two things. On the one hand, moving around quickly like this could very well be my mind telling me that the compositions just aren’t working and that I need to slow down and find something better. On the other hand, it could mean that I was nailing the compositions one after another and had no need to stick around and try for variations. I couldn’t really determine which scenario was playing out at this point, but if I was lucky, I would be looking at a small number of keepers so that I could get to bed kind of early since I was going to need to be up tomorrow to go to a wedding. I need to figure out if I’m giving away the bride I guess. Is there a bill of sale I need to draft? I’m still hoping that Toni is just one of the wedding party.
As I moved through the various isolations of the cars, I couldn’t help but see the similarities between these cars as the ’57 Chevys that I have photographed so many times before. It was really a logical design evolution between the bodies and as time went on, I was feeling more and more comfortable with these cars. It was kind of like dealing with a sibling of an old friend. I just kept looking for the body lines that I was familiar with which would then bring me to the different aspects of the car. Most of my basic formulas worked out great for these cars, and I enjoyed having roughly the same car to work with, but in different stages of decay for the variety.
To enhance the difference of the cars and to improve my hit rate, I decided early on that some of the compositions were going to be black and white images. I decided this because in the high contrast sunlight, the black and white presentations can look much more impressive. I also knew that I could get totally different looks by getting rid of the colors in the photos. I noticed when I was all finished, I tended to process the warmer toned car in black and white more often than the blue one because I do love that Chevy blue from the era. I think that it looks great with the rust tones, and they balance each other out very well. The warmer toned car didn’t have the same presence in color, and that made it a little less evocative until I converted some of the images over to black and white.
A notable exception was a close in, wide-angle shot of the blue car which I did as black and white. The reason was simple with that one. Because of the extreme perspective distortion, I didn’t want the focus to be on the blue color. Instead, I wanted the viewer to pay attention to the shape of the car and how it dominated the scene. This was a much easier story to tell without the color and that is why that one appears as it does. No matter what you are photographing, the choice between color and black and white is a very important one, and there are many different things to look at to determine which will work for you particular situation. In general, though, I did shoot the majority of the photos in color for these cars. I do like the colors of rust, and they translate better in color usually.
After about an hour or so, I found myself recycling compositions as the light changed. One composition in particular that I went back to at least four times was the rear corner of the blue car. The taillights and the fin detail interested me on this car. I recognized the use of the triple lights on either side as a characteristic of the Impala and the stubby little fins were also quite unique to this car. The problem that I was having was that the sun was causing some deep shadows on the back of the car which was making the intended composition quite difficult. Every time a cloud would cover the sun, I would rush to the back corner and elevate the camera as high as it would go to frame the shot. It was the very last time that I attempted to do this that I actually found success. At least by this time, I had gotten the composition down pretty much to a science.
As you look through the photos here, there are a lot of different studies in the side trim work because I really liked how the Impala emblem appeared on the quarters framed by other chrome. Because of the direction of the sun, I shot both cars on the same side for this bit of detail. If you look closely, you can see which is which. One car has part of the “I” broken off, while the other car has part of the trim missing. The patina is different, of course, but you might not see that difference right off.
This is a great example why I love to photograph old cars. Had you visited a showroom in 1958, you could have very easily seen these exact same cars sitting on the floor. I think that the colors between them were the same, and likely many other details. The two would have been indistinguishable in photos 95% of the time at that point. These days, no matter what part of the car you are looking at, you are seeing the results of a very specific aging process for that particular car. the results are two very different examples of the same car. You would be hard pressed to find a doppelganger for either of these cars, and that makes them idea photographic subjects as I don’t think that anyone else has photographed them before. To add to that, if I were to come back in a year, they would look different again, and I could go through the exact same compositions once again, but they would be unique photos, just like this time. For that reason alone, decay photography can be quite rewarding over time.
I know that I have been making a point not to dwell too much on specific photographs during this blog entry, and I appreciate your understanding on this. We are coming to the conclusion of this entry, and I think that I have been very light on the words in relation to how many photographs I have shared here. There is one photo I would like to talk specifically about because it is one that is totally different for me, and one that I didn’t think was going to work out at all when I shot it. That photo appears above, and you might notice that it is totally out of focus. Yep, this was an accident, and I didn’t bother to focus the camera before snapping the photo. Heck, it even looks like I paid no attention to the composition because you really can’t see a car here, or at least not a recognizable shape of one. Of course, I’m kidding here and this was all very intentional.
What happened was while working on the quarter panel emblems and body lines, I happened to look inside of the blue car to see that the trim and emblem were still in place between the two rear seats. This was a cool little detail and something that was at least as interesting as the other interior shots that I had created over the years. The question was how to compose an image that made sense and told a story. I tried from the obvious locations like the side windows, but that just didn’t work out. There was no flow to the composition, and nothing to really tell the story. I just kept moving around the car until something hit me. The compositional idea that I had was something that I had never considered before, but I thought that it might just work. The idea was to shoot through the front windshield which was actually missing which made this very easy to do. There was a spotlight on the fender right in front of the driver’s door that I thought might make for an interesting element because this was also something not often seen on a car.
I started to frame this idea up but realized that the part of the image that I was really wanting to showcase was getting lost. I could zoom in and fill the frame with it, but it would lose the story that I was trying to capture. It took a minute or two to come about a solution. What I decided to do was a little unorthodox for me but is something that I have learned through portraiture over the past couple of years. I harnessed the power of limited depth of field to put the attention right on that emblem and trim at the rear seat. The result was an out of focus foreground leading to a sharp visual anchor that happened to be my main subject. To arrive at the depth of field, I used the Depth of Field Preview button to stop the lens down to see how it was looking and moved through the aperture settings until I found the one that looked right. I only shot two of this composition because I really thought that it was a wasted effort. That turned out not to be the case at all, and this quirky image is one of my favorites from the day. It captured the story perfectly, and all the elements that I wanted to have in place came through. The lack of color made sure that there was a bit of an abstract quality to the image which forced more questions and more time to view it. What do you think of this one?
I had spent not quite an hour and a half here photographing just two cars. I finally looked at the image review and paid attention to the final number which was 57 frames. That was more than I thought I would have had, but then again, I had been moving around quickly and capturing a lot of different compositions very quickly. I thought it was going to be pretty optimistic to look for 10% of the images to be keepers, but that was fine by me. I didn’t want to spend long editing, and certainly didn’t want to be up too late writing a blog entry. Yet here we are at 11:24pm looking at a dozen keepers from this short session in the bright sunlight. I still have no idea how I managed to get so many worthwhile images, but I am not going to question it either. I am glad that I was able to do a short version of the blog entry to cover everything that I needed to cover for my own memory. I do refer back to these entries from time to time to remember my frame of mind at the time of the particular captures, as well as using them for the short story that I put in with each print that is purchased.
You thought that when you ordered a print, you were just getting a photograph to hang on the wall? Nope, with each print order, I’ll do a full-page story about how the photograph came to be and share a little about why it is special to me. Think of it as a “thank you” note that I include. It is one of those little things that I do for my clients where I share yet another part of me. Photography is my language these days, and I realize more than ever that the photos are a window of sorts into who I am as a person. The short stories just help to put things into context.
I do hope that you have enjoyed this trek and the photos that resulted from it. It might just be the long day talking, but I am really happy with how these turned out. I’m also pretty stoked that I was able to have such a successful outing under some less than ideal conditions for how I usually like to work. It just goes to show that if you are motivated to create, you will find a way. I’m not sure how much more creating I’ll be doing over the next weeks because I do have a pretty full schedule with a couple of travel days involved, but it is all good news because these are paying gigs which I am in need of right now. I’ll be back at trekking soon enough, and as you see, I might just slip one in there when you aren’t expecting one.
For now, I need to figure out this wedding thing for tomorrow. I know I’m invited, and I know Toni is involved in it. If I’m lucky, she’ll still be coming home with me at the end of the day. My fingers are crossed.
Until next time…..
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