Tuesday, March 10, 2026
Things were just starting to get interesting when I last left you at the end of my last blog. I would like to just jump back in with where I ended up going next on my little unscheduled photo walk. However, there is a quick detour that I need to take us on before we get to that point. If you will remember how things started out, I had found myself at the top of the hill at the Post Office and had found that I liked the blue panels of the fascia and how they went with the warmer tones of the brick. The first shot that I made of the day was from across the street while the clouds were still over the building. I thought that this was a good starting point, but it lacked something in the execution. I continued to try different things with the concept and eventually broke away to shoot a trio of mailboxes while I figured out what I wanted to do with the building. I was able to come back to the original concept and get a composition that worked which you saw as the opening of the last entry in black and white.
It was the original set of compositions that I deemed too boring and had culled out of the mix by the time I was doing the final edits. As I was closing out the previous blog and getting it posted, I went back through my Lightroom filmstrip to prepare for deleting the unused files and saw the four-star image which I had done a preliminary edit on before discarding it. It was actually the first image that I had shot for the day, and the only one that had good clouds in the frame. The colors struck me just as they had when I had seen the building from the bottom of the hill. I loved the soft textures of the clouds, just as I had to begin with. It seemed a shame to toss this photo because it still represented a very pretty scene to me.
I pulled it back into the develop module and started to fine tune the edit. I pulled back the effect of the color profile that I had assigned to it which helped to change the intensity of the blues while giving a bit more variation to the different tonalities of the blues. That started to make things look better right away. I then pulled a mask off of the dark wall which I had darkened even further which changed that black box into a navy blue that complimented the other shades of blue much better. I then worked the bricks to bring out more color in that section as well as some more contrast. I still wasn’t 100% happy with it and started to look at the crop. There was something off with the proportions because the building was just taking up too much space in the frame. To fix that, I decided to go with a 16:9 aspect ratio, but that didn’t feel right either. The solution came in the form of a 16:10 aspect ratio which brought a little more height to the frame and that was what made it work.
After spending another five or so minutes on the photo, I was now happy with how it turned out. After some exporting and file management steps, I had this first image ready to upload to the blog, but the first part was already published and out there. It was simple enough to just add it here at the beginning of the second chapter and it was a good way of revisiting how this all got started roughly an hour before the point that we find ourselves at now.
When we last left off, I had been working on a building that had a lot of really interesting colors to deal with. After failing to capture this building well enough years ago, I had tried again with some new ideas. They worked out great and I had two images from that illusive building for my collection. I was really starting to feel good about this photo walk and was feeling the creative energy washing over me. What was really cool about this adventure up to this point was that I had been photographing subjects that I have not shown in previous treks to the area. In fact, everything that I was shooting was something new and different from what I have shown before. One of my worries about doing photo walks in this location is that I have been out here many times over now and I worry that I’ll start falling into the same routine. I kind of did when I went out a couple of weeks ago and shot a lamp by the police department. Even before that, I seemed to always go back to the same areas to work again and again. I didn’t want to do that this time because the whole point was to learn to see things differently and part of that is learning to see things that I have never really paid attention to in the past.
One of those areas is a restaurant that is on the far end of the town. It is a very rustic building, and it had caught my eyes a number of times over the years. I’ve considered photographing it, but there are a few little details that really show the commercial nature of the building and distract from the rustic look. I had never really thought much about doing isolations here before, but with my new mindset, that seemed to be the only thing that made sense. I spent a few minutes looking at the front of the building to see what about it really caught my eyes.
The thing that seemed to affect me the most was the wooden barrels along the front of the business. They were positioned next to benches, and they were all done in this wonderful wood tone. The problems here was that the benches had advertisements on the seat backs and several of the barrels had items sitting on top. To photograph the barrels and the benches would bring me into an overly complex composition with distractions abounding. However, if I were to incorporate the theory of synecdoche here, I could pick out some very small details to speak for the entire scene. I liked the idea and started to look to see what I really liked. Just picking a portion of the barrel was going to be boring and a little too blah for my tastes. However, the benches sitting next to the barrels had a really nice shape to the side that I thought complimented the shape of the barrels quite nicely.
Once I landed on that aspect as a possible concept for a composition, I looked at all of the potential subjects to see which ones were in the best light and had the best textures. Once I landed on that resolution, I started to work out a composition. I started with a horizontal frame because I liked how the curve of the bench seemed to frame the straps on the barrel. It was largely monochromatic, but the dominant color was this wonderful warm tone that just felt homey to me. However, when I started looking at this first composition in post, I thought it was more about the shapes and textures than the color. Once I converted it to black and white, I felt that the horizontal version made much more sense. The final adjustment that I made to make the image that you are seeing here is to flip it from left to right. I felt that the side of the bench was introducing the barrel and made better use of the lighting.
Now, I also did some vertical compositions of the same scene which seemed to carry a much different feeling to them. This was one of the later attempts that I made, and I felt that it just told a much different story than the same view, but with a vertical composition. With this one, I just genuinely loved the wood tones and the overall warm look that the image possessed. I found that the straps did a great job at leading your eyes to the bench side, so I left the photo in the original configuration unlike the flipped black and white.
Looking at these two images you can see how very different they both feel even though they are essentially the same subject and composition. Simple changes like framing and color rendition have so much to do with how an image is viewed and received which is why to be an effective photographer, you really need to understand how the images are read by the viewer. Small changes go a long way to making a completely different image as we can see here. In fact, the opening image in this entry will show another example of this concept when compared to the black and white photo that opened up the first part. Several small changes to the same basic scene created a very different pair of photos that say completely different things. The best part about it is that with two subjects, I’ve now got images that will fit very different decors and since my goal is to see all of my photos as prints on the wall, this is something that I see a lot of value in.
With the conclusion of the last subject, I was feeling even better about my creative abilities for the day. With every success, I build my own confidence. Yep, even after 20 years of doing this, I still need to prove to myself that I can create strong images on the day that I am shooting. Everything that has happened in the past prepares me for what I am about to create, but I can’t afford to let my past speak for my present. Ideally, every photo that I create will be better than the one before it. That isn’t a realistic approach though because I still make mistakes and capture images that just don’t work. However, if you look over the body of my work, I think that you will see that the images get better and better as we go when looked at as a whole. That is the best that I can hope for, but with each time I go out I worry that I might not be able to improve. It takes a few successful captures to alleviate that concern and put me in the place where I can freely create knowing that I still have the creative mojo that I need.
While I was walking around, I had my eyes open for anything that might make a good photo. This next one I’m about to talk about will certainly illustrate that statement because up to this point, I have been looking at buildings and other manmade subjects. On my way out to the old depot, I spotted a root system at the base of a tree next to a parking lot that caught my eye. This was not something that I had primed my eyes to see, yet I had spotted it among many other trees. I scanned the surrounding trees to see if maybe I had missed something else interesting about them. When I was satisfied that I had spotted the most interesting one, I started to consider a composition.
The telephoto lens was still fitted to the camera which is great for pulling details out of a very complex scene, and it was the right lens for this subject as well. Once I found the angle and the height that the camera needed to be, I locked the tripod down and started to fine tune the composition. All I could think about was Toni who loves trees and has always enjoyed my abstract captures of them. Normally I do images like this in black and white, but the roots of the tree were almost an albino color which added to the contrast in the scene with the warm ground around the cooler toned roots. I liked the color contrast and decided to go forward with that, keeping the image in color.
When I finally got the photos home and started to process this one, I was happily surprised that there were a couple of dark sections that I hadn’t really taken that much notice of in the field, but they helped to frame the main structure of the roots while giving a functional vignette for the image. It all just worked so well, and there was really no debate about adding this one as a keeper even though it didn’t really go along with the theme for the rest of the photo walk with the exception of being an isolated detail with a bit of an abstract feel. Everything is fair game on a photo walk and that is why I have turned into a huge proponent of doing them. If you are a photographer, you owe it to yourself to go out to an area that you would not think of photographing and work on finding the hidden photos within things that we see every day. It is a great exercise and one that will make you a better photographer.
When I was done with the roots of the tree, I continued on towards the depot but got sidetracked on the access road behind the businesses. When I was walking by, there was a van in the road with a few people talking. I could hear one of them talking about the guy with a camera. After looking around, I realized that he was talking about me. I said hi as I passed by while they were getting into the van. As they pulled off, I looked where they had been parked. There was one detail that caught my eye sitting there on the platform. There was a jug that had been decorated with “XXX” paying tribute to the time of moonshine in Wilkes County. It was just one of those things that I had to capture because it was just a stroke of luck to see something like this sitting out when I happened to be on a photo walk.
It is the details like this that will always go unnoticed as you drive by places. Even walking quickly with a destination in mind will cause you to miss the little things like this. Now that I was walking with no real destination in mind and just looking for photos anywhere I happened to be, things like this were almost obvious. I had to spend some time looking for a composition that would work with this jug. I didn’t want to do the standard postcard shot where I just filled the frame with the jug and called it a day. I wanted to include the setting and use the power of “and” with this one.
For those that aren’t sure what the power of “and” is, it is when I find a subject and I look for different elements that I can add to help tell the story. In the case of this jug, the first “and” was the corner of the concrete platform that it was sitting on. The ninety-degree angle of the corner would frame the jug quite well with two diagonals. This introduced another “and” that now made sense with the piece of metal railing that was laying to the side of the jug. This was another diagonal that helped to draw the eyes to the jug. The next “and” that was added was the stack of tires behind the jug which then made a vertical composition possible with something dark in the background. Fortunately, the light was giving a subtle rim light on the jug to separate it from the tires. The last “and” that was added was a long metal tube that was propped by the tires. This seemingly distracting element actually pointed to the jug while providing some visual tension with the tires. The tonal contrast was just enough to make it an actual element on its own. All of these “ands” worked together to provide context for the jug. To make sure that the jug didn’t get lost in the frame, I went with a very shallow depth of field keeping the focus just on the jug, letting everything else go soft in the frame. In the end, I was very happy with how this turned out and even more pleased that I was able to spot it when most would have never noticed it at all.
While I was working with the jug, I couldn’t help but notice the tires as a subject all to themselves. I was watching how the light was moving across the scene and could see that when the sunlight shone through, there were some really cool shadows on the wall that pointed to the tires. The tires had patterns in the tread that worked with the bricks and the colors complimented themselves in the frame very well. The decision was made to make a composition that included these tires and the bricks with the shadows when I was done with the jug. The only thing was, I needed to figure out a composition that made sense with some seemingly random elements. The shadows were going to help, but I had to figure out how to incorporate them first.
I had to get the camera moved into a different position to get started. When I had the angle right, I started to look at the cropping that I would use. I liked the idea of a vertical frame for this scene and started to figure out where my edges needed to be. The first consideration was the tires. I needed to avoid including an even number of them. I needed to have three ideally in the frame because we all know that follow the rule of odds whenever I can. Now, I didn’t need to have the entire tire in the frame and decided to crop through on the lower one right at the point where the tread stopped. This gave the impression of that third tire and fit my needs.
The next step was figuring out the top and sides of the frame. Since I wasn’t including the entire bottom tire, I had to crop into the side of the tires to keep the balance in the frame. That defined the left side while I made sure that I had enough room on the right side for the bricks and shadows. There was also a bit of rebar that was coming out of the wall that was making one of the shadows that I really wanted to include in the frame as well. That left me with the top of the frame including a dark portion of tar from the looks of it. This was ideal and could be used as a natural vignette for the image. It also pointed out that there was a corner to the walls here because that tar line came down as a “V” that pointed to the tires. I made sure that I had the frame overshot enough that I could crop it down to a 5:7 aspect ratio in post for that final touch.
This is the image that surprised me the most out of all that I shot. It was another one where the main subject was an unlikely one, and the setting just screamed junk. However, through careful planning of the composition and waiting on the light to hit just right, I was rewarded with a pretty strong photo. The composition and the light worked in my favor and kind of defined the subject of the image which was more of a feeling and atmosphere than a physical subject. I think that counts and works along the same lines as the ones that I had shot earlier of the structure that was in ruins with the vegetation growing through the crevices. For me, the colors are the star here and that is fully thanks to the sunlight that was hitting the bricks. Again, most photographers wouldn’t be out with the strong sunlight in the middle of day. I’m here to tell you that this doesn’t have to be a bad time to do a bit of photography. You just have to see what the light is doing and react to that more than what you see as a subject.
I did eventually make it down to the depot and started to scope the different doorways out for a few shots that I had in mind for the model shoot coming up. I liked what I saw, but they just weren’t going to work as a photo on their own this time. I’ve shot the doors successfully in the past, but the lighting wasn’t right this time, so I didn’t spend much time looking. However, there was a closed shop of some sorts across the street that I had recently taken notice of driving through the area. Now that I was on foot, I walked over to check it out.
The building was actually pretty great from a decay standpoint, but the light wasn’t working with, and I didn’t like the compositional options that were open to me for the entire shop. Since I wasn’t able to shoot the entire building, I started to look at options for details that might work. The first one that I landed on was a wallpack light at the top of the building near the apex of the roof. I actually spent some time looking at compositional options for this light and shot a few frames here. I thought that I was going to like them, but in all honesty, they just didn’t work at all when seen on the large screen. It did get me thinking about the details and when I started to look from the other side, I saw what was to become my next composition.
Right beside this building was a brick building which was really close. The distance between them was probably something like five inches or so which made them look like a single structure from the side. The siding suggested otherwise with the building that I was working with in ribbed metal siding. I liked how the buildings looked at the point where they joined together, and the brick building had this very interesting little detail at the top of the fascia wall. It looked like a small little house at the top corner and that detail was right next to some piping coming from the other building. All of this was visually interesting, and I thought that when paired with the contrasting sidings that it might make for an interesting photo.
I worked out the composition as a horizontal shot to really take advantage of the ribbed metal siding to introduce the join and the brick neighbor. there were two different lines that defined a triangle on that building that pointed to the wall that had the little house at the top. There were even some clouds overhead to break up the blue sky. The bad thing was that the light was behind the buildings putting the part that I was photographing in shadows. I had plenty of light to get a workable exposure even with the buildings in the shadows, but I wanted to see what the difference would be between when the sun was behind the clouds and when it was shining free.
The sky itself didn’t change with the intensity of the sun, but there was just enough light reflecting off of the pavement to brighten the buildings by a 1/3 of a stop or so. This was just enough to give a little bit more depth to the scene and it was worth waiting for the sun to become uncovered to make the exposure. This happened in degrees and it was hard to tell what was going on with the sun since it was out of my view thanks to the building. However, I could see the histogram moving in the shadowed portion which indicated when there was additional light coming into the scene. I based my exposure on the histogram and every time it moved showing more light, I would fire off an exposure.
There was a total of 11 attempts at getting this composition to be lit correctly and the one that you see here is attempt number 10. This also brought my day to a close because I realized that I was tired and hot. It had been a while since I had sweated like this doing photography, but I was actually dripping at this point. I was happy to load up and head back to the house to see what I had captured. I could think of about four images that I was really excited to see and hoped that I would have about five keepers from the day.
I had been shooting for 1:50 in total which wasn’t really that long, but the heat had certainly gotten to me. In that time, I had rattled off 63 exposures with each one being of a subject that I have either never photographed before or had failed to get a workable image of. My hope for five keepers turned out to be a far cry from the actual number of 14 for the day. There is no denying the fact that even after coming to a place like this many times over when most photographers would say that there is nothing worth shooting, there are always interesting photos to be had. These are actually some of my strongest from North Wilkesboro and I consider this one of my most successful photo walks to date. The only reason that I can come up with is that I am growing yet again as a photographer and really finding different way of seeing and getting better at capturing what I do see.
Thank you for joining me on this trek. I do hope that you have enjoyed the photos and the story that went along with them. If you think that you might want to go on a photo walk, you don’t need much at all. In fact, you can do this very easily with a cell phone. You only need to condition your eyes to see things that would normally not register to your mind. It is a skill and one that every photographer needs to have and is something that even non-photographers can develop.
Until next time…
