Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Well, I thought that I had my last photo of 2024 done a couple of days ago when I did the smoke session in the studio. While the photos turned out pretty decent, they just lacked the look that I was going for when it came to the last images of the year. It had been such a rough year that I felt that I needed to have something a little more impressive and something that was closer to the type of photography that I usually do. Of course, that is dependent on the weather for the most part, so there was no guarantee that I was going to have a good day before the new year. In fact, I was looking at the weather for New Year’s Day as I would like to go out and get a few photos to start the year off and realized that it was going to be sunny, cold, and windy. None of those things work well for photography. The weather for New Year’s Eve was looking like partly cloudy skies with mainly low clouds, but that could produce some interesting photos. If I had to skip January 1st, I could at least get out on the day before and get something good.
That was the thought as I woke up this morning and looked outside at a mostly clear sky. It was looking like the clouds weren’t going to be thick enough to do anything worthwhile, but the longer the morning went, the more clouds started to pile in. There was even a chance of rain during the afternoon. That could be good to work with, and the partly cloudy conditions would make for an interesting sky. I was thinking that recently, Toni and I had come up one of the main roads from Mocksville to Yadkinville and I had spotted a lot of potential out there which would be great for these types of conditions. Just like that, I had my destination in mind.
When I got done doing my end of the quarter tax filings for sales tax as well as getting the year-end report ready to file taxes soon, I got ready to head out. When I pulled out of the garage, there was a light mist falling on the windshield which I wasn’t expecting. If I was lucky, the mist would stop falling when I got to Yadkin County and pulled the camera out. The closer I got, the heavier the mist became, and the conditions quickly turned foggy. It was looking like the spots that I was going to photograph were not going to work because each of them was going to require an interesting sky to make them work. I still plowed on and hoped to find something that would work in an area that was free from precipitation.
Shortly after exiting the highway, I saw an old favorite barn off on the right side of the road. Now, this barn is one that I photographed many years ago on a sunny day. I think I was even still working as a Police Officer then, so 2018 possibly. The photo had turned out OK, but I always wanted to give it another try with better conditions. When Toni and I passed it by a week or so ago, I noticed that there was a truck parked in front of it, and it looked like they were tearing it down. The closer we got, I realized that I might be wrong, and the pile of wood could have been just that.
Now that I could slow down and really look, I could tell that the truck had just been parked there and was most likely derelict which spoke to me. It was a little newer than I would have hoped, but it was showing its age and the green color of the cab fit the scene really well. The pile of wood to the side was something that could very well provide some visual interest to the frame as well. I drove past but still kept thinking about it. Within a minute or two, I had decided that I would turn around and give it a try. There was very little precipitation at this point, and I felt that it was worth a try. I knew the composition that I wanted which would make this a quick stop.
I pulled off on the shoulder of the road and got my camera ready with the standard zoom because I was wanting to show more of the background as well as making the truck a bit larger in the frame. Because there was so much moisture on the metal, I added a polarizer to reduce the glare even though it made things much more difficult with the slight mist falling. After I climbed up the embankment, I started to work the scene from further away to a bit closer until I got the perspective that felt right while still maintaining a respectable distance. Nothing was moving, so there wasn’t any reason to take multiple exposures which made this a very fast process.
When I got closest, I was seeing more motion in the weeds around the wood pile, and that forced me to take a few different exposures to make sure that I could get them relatively still with a fast enough shutter speed and a lull in the breeze. When it was all done, I had shot only eight frames with several different compositions. The one that you see here is the very last one that I shot. I was pretty sure that I had nailed it after that one, and I was right. I had been shooting for only five minutes, and I was done.
I packed things back up and was right back on the road again. Within a mile, I spotted another barn that I had shot before around the same time that I had shot the previous one. I had pretty good light that day and have always liked the photo. This time, the sky was pretty much blank above it, but the bare trees worked well, and I liked the boat in the shelter to the side. It wasn’t really hitting me all that strongly though, and since the rain was back, I just kept on driving down the road.
I passed by several of the locations that I had seen with Toni and found them to be completely unshootable because of the conditions, but they still had a lot of promise for different skies. I ended up well into Davie County and spotted about four spots that I wanted to photograph, but none of them were going to work. I decided that I was going to go visit my dad since I was already about halfway to his house. That was going to take me back to 421 and passed that other barn again. I decided that if the rain had stopped, I would stop and give it a few frames just for good measure.
When I got to the barn, not a lot had changed in terms of lighting and atmosphere, but the rain had slacked off to a mild mist that I could deal with. I got turned around and pulled off the road. I set the camera up the same way that I had before with the standard zoom and climbed up the embankment. There was a large billboard positioned about where I wanted to be which kind of dictated my proximity to the barn. This time, I got in a bit closer than I had previously but still kept a respectable distance from the barn. The compositions that I came up with were very similar to what I had done before with it, but I tried to introduce a bit more angle to it this time.
As I was setting things up, the blank sky above really bothered me because I don’t like white skies in my photos. The trees were still very good in the background, but not tall enough to cover the sky the way I would have wanted. Then it hit me, this was a great time to shoot in black and white because there was really no color left to this barn. It had been red, and that would have been a shame to omit, but now, the majority of the color was flaked off of the wood. What was left was almost more of a distraction in the bland surroundings. I switched the camera over to B&W and things started to come together. I knew exactly how I could deal with the sky in post, and it didn’t bother me at all now.
As I fine-tuned the positioning of everything in the frame, I went through another half dozen frames for a total of 14 shot to this point. After the last one, I was sure that I had the best photo and packed it up. Just like the previous barn, it was that last frame that turned out to be the keeper. As planned, I did this one in black and white which I now see as very fitting. The first photo of the year was a black and white, and now the last one is done the same. After a year of trying to improve on my black and white photographs, I found this to be a perfect ending to the year.
Speaking of that, I need to get over to my year-end review and make a quick revision before tomorrow morning. Glad I got these photos processed early enough in the evening. This was indeed the last photo of 2024 as the rain just got heavier and heavier forcing me to call it a day in the field. I’m certainly not complaining because I had a great visit with Dad, and it turned into a very nice day. I was also able to meet up with Toni and the grands for dinner on the way back home as they were in Winston for the afternoon.
So, with that, thank you all for being with me during 2024. I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year.
Until 2025….
