Thursday, July 30, 2026
So, maybe I need a chaperone, or some form of adult supervision. I think it is going to be painfully obvious that I just can’t be trusted at my favorite little spot for rust in Yadkin County. You see, today was one of those days when I just wanted to get out and do some photography. I wasn’t all that concerned with planning, but I did need a destination. With the weather being fully sunny all day long, there was really nothing that jumped out at me. Clear days are the kinds of days that most people love for getting outside and enjoying this time of year. For a photographer though, this is one of the roughest kinds of days to go out. The light is harsh and rather unforgiving. There is only a little bit of time at the beginning and the end of the day that has some softer light. This is called golden hour because of the quality of the light as it goes through the atmosphere at an angle which diffuses the sunlight nicely. Contemporary wisdom suggests that these bookend parts of the day are the best time to go out with a camera when there are no clouds.
I’m not going to argue that point because quite frankly, sunny days are my least favorite kind of days to work with. I find the sky to be boring with no interest, and the light is very specific in direction which limits my compositional choices. However, since I have been a photographer for many years now, I am more than capable of working with this less-than-ideal light and understand the kinds of compositions that work with it. Of course, I’ve not too long ago talked about which is more important to a photograph, the light, or the composition. I still stand by my conclusion that composition is the most important because you can really make use of any type of light if you understand how to read it and then compose accordingly.
With this in mind, I started to think about places that I could go where I could get some good compositions with the harsh lighting during the later morning hours. I might have been inclined to get out for golden hour, but Toni and I were watching TV until kind of late last night which meant that I wasn’t getting up early enough for a 6:30 sunrise just so I could shoot for 30 minutes or so. Realistically, I was going to be going out during the mid-morning hours and probably winding things down around midday. I mean, noon on a sunny day is about the worst for a photographer, so there was no reason that I would need to be out there then. I was already pushing it by going out later in the morning.
The locations that I could go were kind of slim and seemed to be restricted to the locations that I like to do photo walks through from time to dime. It seems that I have better luck on sunny days when I do photo walks because I get a chance to really work with the shadows. However, that wasn’t really appealing to me for the moment. I’ve done enough oddball treks here lately with a studio session around a chess set, and then a sunny day trek to a parking lot to work with a handicapped sign on the pavement. Both of those turned out very well in my opinion, but the expected lack of response for those treks has been noted. I felt it was time to go out and do what I am known for so that I could possibly finish up the month a bit stronger than things have been in the last week or so as far as traffic to my website.
Doing decay photography around rusted vehicles is something that I can do in the sun as long as I’m not including the sky. The bright light helps to saturate the colors of the rust a bit more than a cloudy day and it does give a different look to the images which I like to see from time to time. I just needed to think about where to go. With the light being more difficult to work with, I knew that I didn’t want to go exploring to find new subjects today. I hate to waste the ask when the conditions aren’t really good for the subject that I’m wanting to photograph. A better bet would be going to a place that I was familiar with and knew that I could revisit any time if the photos turned out horrible.
The spot that came to mind was Outlawed Restorations which is a great little shop owned by my friend Dean Cornelius. I’ve been going here some something like 2017 if memory serves. During that time, I have lost count of the number of times that I have been there, and I’ve taught more workshops here than any other location. In fact, I’ve already been here twice during 2026 with one of the times being in the snow, and the other one experimenting with seeing things differently. It is not uncommon for me to visit the shop a few times a year, but normally some of those visits are for workshops. This year, I have decided not to do any workshops to keep that time open for mentorship clients. One would think that with all the times that I have been here, I would be running out of things to photograph.
In a way, that is true as there aren’t a lot of new subjects out there to work with. However, because I am so familiar with the different scenes there, I feel very comfortable in trying some more risky compositions that might just not work out. I mean, I have shot all the low hanging fruit there many times over the years. I’ve delved into working abstracts as well, many times over. What was I hoping to get different on a sunny day when common sense said to just stay at home and enjoy the air conditioning?
Well, I had noticed that Ol Stitch was pulled into the barn the last time that I was there. I hadn’t really thought about photographing it sitting there at the time, but I was thinking that it might turn out to be a good shot with the morning sun hitting the large front end of the truck while the rest of it was in the shade. It was a concept that I had shot many times, and actually turned into one of my favorites from a recent trek into Taylorsville. That was pretty much it, the one and only shot that I had in mind for the day.
Now, I knew that was the idea that would get me out there. I also knew that there was a really good chance that I was going to find some other things to shoot while I was there which usually happened. Historically, I’ve always gone here and come back with so many more than I had expected and usually have to do a multi-part blog entry to cover them all. There was no way that was going to happen when going out at the worst time of day on a day that is just not a good photography day to start with. If I came back with three or four, I would consider myself very fortunate indeed.
I left the house a little after 9am and was on the way to East Bend with my sunglasses on. This is usually a good indication that the light is too strong for me to be working with a camera. I knew that to be true, but I didn’t worry about it. It was going to be a chance to get by and see Dean again and check on the status on the Hudson Hornet that he was restoring. You might remember that car from previous treks both here at Outlawed Restorations and as the previous owner’s home. I always have a good time when I go out there and spend some time talking with Dean.
Ironically, I pulled into the driveway just ahead of Dean, so the timing was perfect to get to chat with him before I got started. I did take note of the sun’s angle on Stich in the barn which was just about right. It was showing a bit more of the truck than I really wanted, so I knew I had some time before I really needed to be in position. Here I was giving up the lower angle of the sun on a clear day while waiting for it to climb higher in the sky. I think that every camera club member is looking at me and shaking their heads as they try and tell me that I’m doing it wrong. I don’t disagree with them, but I also know what I am capable of when I am clicking on all cylinders. If I am reading my state of mind correctly, I will in good shape once I pull the camera out. I had that creative energy pulsing through me, and I was still feeling very good about the prospects ahead of me.
While I was talking with Dean in the shop, we were also looking at a pre-war Chevy sedan that he has been working on for a while. The front end was now mostly back together, and I was looking at the curves of the fenders and grill along with the headlight housings that were perched atop the fenders. There was something beautiful about the angle that I was seeing the car from, and I made a choice that I was going to come back inside the shop before I left to get that photo. I now had two concepts for photos before I even pulled the camera out. Like I said, I was feeling lucky today.
When we were all caught up and it was time for us both to get to work, I went back to the truck and pulled out the camera gear. I went over to the barn where Stitch was parked and started to size things up. Figuring I would go big or go home, I went ahead and fitted the wide-angle lens which is one of those pieces of kit that I have been wanting to get more well versed in this year. With the front of the truck widened through some creative bodywork, I wanted to really emphasize that aspect of it. The wide-angle would give me the distortion that I needed while allowing me to get the full interior of the barn which I wanted for the contrasts.
I moved in close and got the camera down pretty low to the ground. From there, I started to frame up the composition as I had envisioned it. It mostly worked out the way that I had wanted it to. There was a little bit of fiddling with the angles and height of the camera before I got it all lined up the way that I wanted it. It took a few exposures to get the highlights under control as I was exposing to the right very heavily to get the shadow detail that I wanted in the image. Once I had that all figured out, I started to look at the composition a bit closer and I found that I might like it even tigher.
With that in mind, I moved in a bit closer and changed the zoom on the lens to fill the frame more with Stitch. It really put the emphasis on the front end, and I started to really like how that was looking as well. In no time at all, I had two images that I figured were quite possibly going to be keepers. That was just the first five frames of the day. When I got them back home, I did find that one of each of the compositional variations worked well. I saw them very differently though. The larger view seemed better suited for black and white because there was more going on in the frame and the story was more about the light and shadow. The closer crop seemed to call for color though because there was more of the rusty essence filling the frame which seemed to make more sense in color. That is why I ended up processing the two images the way that I did. I’m really happy with both of them, but I think that the color one wins my heart this time.
One other subject that I was wanting to work with was an old Chevy truck parked behind the barn. This is basically just the partial cab as the frame has been cut right behind the cab. I’ve shot this truck on a number of occasions both during the day as well as during the night. I’ve even used it as a subject for workshops, so I’ve had a lot of experienced with this truck over the years. I knew that I wanted to work with the door art on the passenger door and do a composition that I have worked with before a few times. The funny thing about this composition is that I’ve shot it with every lens in my bag with the exception of the 14mm prime. This time, I wanted to shoot it with the wide-angle lens to give a bit more umph to the door art while still including the barn as a background.
The wide lens brought in more of the scene, but that was kind of what I was looking for this time. I thought that the scaling would work better with the door art and it would make the shadows from the barn make more sense by viewing more of the structure that was creating the shadow. I knew that the most important part of this was getting the timing right. If I waited too long, the shadow would just be on the barn, and the grass would all be illuminated from the sun. I needed the grass to be partially in the shadows to give depth to the barn while still keeping the truck in full light. The time was perfect at this point in the morning, and I was glad that I was able to get into position when I did.
This is not really an easy composition to work with, so I was really happy when I was able to get things all dialed in with just a couple of frames. While I was working on this composition, I also started to pay attention to the interior of the truck. Now, this is not something that I would usually consider with the sun out so strong. The shadows inside of vehicles are usually quite intense during the sunny parts of a day, but I was seeing some decent lighting coming into the cab. This got me thinking about doing an interior shot, but not the way that I would normally do it. I had the wide-angle lens attached and I felt that there was a good chance that I could make that work for the truck.
I got in close and started to work out the angles for how things needed to appear inside the truck. The door frame was used as the framework for the interior with the steering wheel place far off to the left of that frame. Instead of just having the interior in the shot, I decided to make use of the large fender for a bit more context to the overall composition. This brought two different compositional ideas together in a single frame which really seemed interesting to me. I played around with the camera positioning for a bit to get things lined up the way that I wanted them before I started to make exposures.
The histogram really surprised me because even though this was a high contrast scene, there was plenty of tonal range being represented without clipping the highlights or the shadows. This was likely going to turn out very well by how the histogram was looking and I was excited to get the photos home to look at. As you know, interior shots have always been difficult for me to compose in a way that looks like wall art. I’m not really trying to create a magazine style photo that just shows the layout. I’m looking for that artistic flair to really make it worth hanging on the wall. The idea of adding that bit of the fender for an exterior element gave a great sense of depth and a new dimension to the photo in my mind.
Now speaking of wall art, don’t forget that any of these photos can be had as a print. They can be done on photo paper, art rag, canvas, or metal depending on your personal style and existing interior design elements in your home. This has always been the backbone of my photography as it was started with the intention of creating wall art for myself and for others. These days, my walls are filled with my prints (all for sale by the say), and I’m left with waiting on client prints to be done to see these photos in their true form. There is just no replacing an actual print that hangs on the wall much larger than a computer monitor or dare I say, a cell phone screen. I’ll die on the hill that there is no comparison between the two. Only through an actual print can a photograph truly be appreciated for what the photographer intended. I’m always thrilled to send one of my prints to a new home and have had many satisfied clients over the years all across the US and even one print going to Australia. Don’t you think it is time for you to join that group of collectors and get your hands on one of my prints? Let’s chat about it and get that order started!
Now that we have had a word from our sponsor, it is time to get back to the trek at hand. The interior shot of the large truck turned out really nice and there was more than enough detail in the interior to pull out all the little nuances that I was hoping to get while keeping the background and the exterior of the truck in a suitable exposure as well. Some may look at this and think that it is HDR, but I’ve found more and more that there is no need for bracketing and blending of images. My ancient Canon 5DS R does a remarkable job when it comes to dynamic range and being able to capture both highlights and shadows. With my long experience using it, I’ve figured out how to massage every last bit on tonal range out of the body.
It was time to move onto the next subject though. I still hadn’t really done my normal walk around of the property before getting started. I was just kind of reacting to what I saw as it came into view. Just a few steps away from the old furniture truck was a red Pontiac Firebird that has been a rather interesting story over the years. It started out as a distraction that I did everything that I could to eliminate from the compositions that I shot of neighboring vehicles. It was modern, it was red, and it stuck out like a sore thumb. There was one night that I actually propped the tripod on the trunk in order to get the angle on the truck next to it without actually having the Pontiac intrude into the frame. These are the lengths that I went to in order to avoid the car.
As the years went on though, I started to realize that this car was getting some age on it. With it now around 40 years old, I’m not so reluctant to capture it in a photo. I’ve done a few compositions with the car over the past couple of years, and they have mainly been isolations because of the vehicles parked on either side of it. As I walked by it this time, I noticed that the vegetation was pretty well grown over the car creating a situation where the neighboring vehicles couldn’t be seen. This was my chance to get more than just a small snippet of the car.
With the wide-angle lens still attached, I got down low and close to the car and started to make a composition. This was going to be a very simple composition compared to the ones that I had shot up to this point. It was based on the colors that I was seeing with the red of the car and the green of the leaves. The color contrast worked for me and the vegetation helped to frame the front of the car quite nicely. The flip up headlights were kind of obscured by the weeds, but the emblem on the bumper was in full view which I really liked. The shape of the F-body was recognizable and that meant that I didn’t need an unencumbered view of it to work. In fact, since there wasn’t any rust or other texture to the car, the greenery actually helped give some visual interest to the photo.
Now, I know that this is going to be one of those forgotten photos from this trek and I agree that there is nothing all that special about it. However, these Firebirds were some of my early favorite cars as a teen and I’ve always liked the design of them. They are essentially one of the cars that defined my generation, so it will always have a special place in my heart as well as in front of my lens.
The subject that will likely interest more of you was just to the side of this Firebird. This is an early ’50’s Chevy truck that has had a very interesting life here at Outlawed Restorations. The front clip that you see on it is not the original one that started out here. This is actually the Clemmons Fire Department’s front end off of one of the trucks that they had Dean restore a few years ago. Dean had this truck sitting outside and it had nicer front clip on it than the firetruck did which meant that for the restoration, Dean switched the panels. This gave a more solid foundation for the restoration on the firetruck and gave Dean the pieces that he wanted to make a rat rod version of the firetruck later on using the original dented panels.
Since the switch, this truck has been sporting the red panels of the firetruck which has made for some very interesting photos with the very different colored panels. In all the time that I have seen it sitting there on the side of the property, it has always been in full view with another truck to the right of it. This time, I was noticing that the same brush that had overgrown the Firebird had also taken over the Chevy truck. This created a unique situation that I felt inclined to act on while I was here.
With the overgrowth, the truck was now isolated from the surroundings in a way that it never had been before. I was still using my wide-angle lens which I knew would help give that front clip a bit more presence to go along with the red colors that it possessed. Much like the Firebird, the color contrasts looked nice, and I thought that this was a natural composition for the truck.
I actually tried this same concept from two different heights to change the perspective. If I’m being totally honest here, this was my first attempt, and I lowered the camera for the subsequent frames. I felt that the height of the camera was too expected with it being near eye level. There was a much more impactful view from lower which was the composition that I preferred in the field. Even through the culling, I leaned towards the lower position as being my favorite. I even started to process that frame and was happy that I was working with that one instead of the one from nearly eye level.
That happiness faded quickly when I realized that I had cropped too close to the bottom, cutting off part of the fender. I had not realized this when setting up the composition because of the brush obscuring the view. I thought that I had it all in the frame, but now that I was starting to really look at it, I found that the missing part of the fender was a bit of a distraction to me. It looked accidental, which it most certainly was. I couldn’t let that go out as a keeper, so I checked the other lower composition and found that it suffered from the same problem. The only one that had the full fender in it was the one from eye level where it had been much easier to see the composition.
After a lot of thought, I decided that I would process that first composition from higher up. It worked well enough and showed more of the shape of the truck which wasn’t a bad thing at all. By the time I was done, I was very happy with how it looked and this was actually Toni’s favorite from the trek. With that seal of approval, I felt confident that I had made the correct decision with the swap.
By this point, I had shot 16 frames and of those, six were keepers. That was already more than I had hoped to get from this trek considering I was going out at a time when most photographers would just hang up their cameras and spend the day doing other things. The best part was that I wasn’t done yet. Like I have said many times before, this is one of those locations that I can just keep on shooting at and keep coming back with fresh photos that I’ve never tried before. It is probably the most versatile location that I worked at which is why I keep coming back and bringing groups with me from time to time. I’m currently in the process of putting together a mentorship for a new client at this location and I’m really looking forward to spending a portion of the day out there teaching a photographer some of the tricks that I use to make my images. If that is something that sounds like fun to you, let’s have a conversation about a mentorship out there. These are the replacements for my workshops as I can cover more material quicker when I can tailor it to a single person, or a small group rather than planning a curriculum and then trying to make it benefit a large group of folks that are at very different experience levels. If you are wanting to learn decay photography or just want to have a chance to photograph at this location, I’m ready to talk with you and will never turn down an opportunity to go out here and play in the rust.
As far as the rest of this trek goes, I’m just getting warmed up, so stick around and I’ll have the next chapter out sometime tomorrow. I’m still not sure how I’m going to break all of this up, but I’ll try and keep it in digestible bits as I go. I’ve also got the latest Behind the Camera installment, which is scheduled to be released on August 1st, so keep your eyes out for that one as well. If you want to make sure that you don’t miss a single blog entry, the best way to get notifications is to subscribe directly to the blog. It costs nothing at all and allows the system to send you an email with every new blog entry. That way, you never miss any of the new photos or any of my features.
I’ll see you back here again tomorrow…
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