I Was Asked to Leave

Thursday, September 22, 2022

So, there I was standing behind the camera, which was mounted to the tripod, fully elevated above my head.  I had been here for about 10 minutes at this point working out a composition that I had been considering for about a week now.  I would wait for the sun to peek out from behind the clouds just enough to light up the scene and I would make an exposure.  I had already tweaked the composition twice before and was getting closer to what I wanted but wanted to get the right exposure with this composition before trying something different.  I was just about to move the tripod over slightly when I saw a truck pull into the driveway next to where my truck was parked.  From what I had been told, the property owner was not local, and I had no way of contacting them, so I doubted that this was the owner, but they were definitely coming to talk to me.  The truck stopped about 20 feet from me, and I went over to meet with the driver.  He bluntly asked what was I doing?  My smartassed nature wanted to respond by saying I was drilling for oil, but I knew that would end all kinds of badly for me.  I just simply stated that I was there getting some photographs.  The follow up question was who sent me to take photographs.  That was a new one for me, but I answered that nobody “sent” me, I was doing this for my own reasons, and that I had attempted to make contact with the property owner.  The response was pretty definitive that he wanted me to leave.  I’m good at reading folks and deciding when there is a chance I can talk them into letting me stay.  This wasn’t one of those times, so I quickly volunteered to gather my gear and leave.

I might be getting ahead of myself here as you know nothing about this trek so far.  It all started about a week ago when I was out driving my Miata through the countryside.  With the sun out as strong as it was, there wasn’t much else I could do but just drive and enjoy it.  I ended up going into Yadkin County and directing myself Northbound until I found a road that would take me back to the West.  As I was driving North, I happened to see a glimpse of a black car in front of a single-wide.  My gut told me that it was something in 60’s from the long angular design, but I didn’t get a good look at all.  I got turned around and drove by slowly and saw that there was a two door Mercury sitting in front of the home.  The property was obviously vacant, and even the house next door was empty.  I turned around again and got a quick reference photo with my cell phone so that I could study the scene and decide if I wanted to try and photograph it later on.

I continued with my ride and largely forgot about the old car because I knew that it was going to be a while before I could have a chance of photographing it with decent weather.  The days clicked by, and by Wednesday evening, I was seeing the possibility of some clouds in the forecast for Thursday afternoon.  I did the responsible thing and checked with one of my mentorship clients to see if they were wanting to go out and shoot something.  Unfortunately, they were unable to break away during the time that there would be clouds.  That meant that I was on my own and could choose what I wanted to photograph.  I went through the normal list of areas that I might want to work but found that the clouds would be cooperating here in Western Wilkes for the longest period of time.  I did check the area of Elkin which showed some good clouds, but they were going to be ending after a few hours.  It was enough of a window that I might be able to get out and work that Mercury.  I was needing to get out there around 2-4pm to make sure that I had good clouds.

I decided to head out shortly before 2 when the clouds were starting to build up around the area of home.  I took the scenic route to Yadkin County because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to access the property or not, and I wanted something that would make use of the nice clouds that I could do.  I kind of followed the same route that I had driven in the Miata because there was a lot of potential along that route which I wanted to look at under these clouds.  As it turns out, I found a location that looked pretty good under the clouds.  I had photographed these two barns once before but had never really liked the images.  As I look back at the blog entry, it was dated September 30, 2019.  For those that are keeping track on the date, that is almost three years to the day difference.  The photos aren’t bad at all, but they are missing something in the foreground.  The field had been recently mowed and everything had been cleared away which made for a manicured appearance that didn’t really help the overall look of the scene.  What I was seeing different this time was that the field had been cut, but there were rows of hay basically.  This gave some really nice leading lines and some foreground interest to the scene.  It was worth stopping to see what I could do with the location this time.  If nothing else, I would have much higher resolution images from the attempt.

Looking at the scene, I figured that my 24-70mm lens would work the best.  I was trying to recall what I had used previously, but that detail escaped me.  I didn’t know if I was going down the same road or a different one this time, but looking at the scene, that was the lens that I needed to be using.  Thinking back to what I didn’t like about the photos, I recalled that the horizon line was kind of boring and I hadn’t included enough sky.  Maybe it was that the sky didn’t fit the scene, but I remember something centering around the sky being an aspect that I didn’t like.  The lighting was also not the best if I recalled correctly.  I definitely had better light this time, and the sky was quite nice to boot.

I fit the camera with a polarizer and a 3-stop soft ND Grad to make sure that the sky blended with the scene evenly.  I started to get some photographs from the side of the road and remembered some of the issues that I had before with the compositions.  From the distance, I wasn’t able to really render the barn as big as I wanted it to be, and I wasn’t able to have it break the horizon line which I really wanted to do this time.  I tried to photograph the scene from down low and up high with very little success.  Wanting to add the rows of hay was another difficulty entirely.  I just kept moving around trying to figure out how best to capture this barn, and even tried to capture the secondary shed off to the side as I had done before, but that composition lacked a cohesive quality to it.

While I was moving around trying to find the right spot to place the camera, a truck pulled up into the driveway leading into the barn.  I went over to meet the driver who exited the truck.  We exchanged greetings and he asked what I was doing.  I explained that I was there taking photos of the barn and asked if he was the property owner.  He indicated that it belonged to the lady across the street.  I asked if I causing any issues taking photos and if I could possibly get in closer as photographing from the shoulder wasn’t quite working out like I had hoped.  We ended up meeting with the owner and she had no problem with me doing what I needed to do for some photos.  She apologized for the condition of the barn and said that it was not in very good shape these days.  I assured her that I preferred them to look just like this one.

With the owner’s blessing, I moved in much closer to the barn and started to look at compositions.  The first one that struck me was the shed off to the side.  I had yet to be able to get a good composition of this little building, but by getting in close, I was able to get a very nice perspective on it using the wide-angle end of my zoom lens.  The lighting wasn’t the best on this subject, so I was going to have to use the shadows as part of my story.  I had good light everywhere else in the scene, so I made the shadows on the primary element the contrast that defined the subject.  The door and the siding were missing large portions which would show detail within the shed.  I didn’t really want that detail and really wanted the contents of the shed to be a mystery to the viewer.  That was where the shadows came into play.  The made the dominant subject an element that brought about questions and a want to explore more.

I tried this composition as a vertical, square, and horizontal image in an attempt to get things organized logically.  What I determined was that a square crop was going to be my best bet looking at the image on the LCD.  It just so happened that I had shot the square crop after doing a vertical one, so the RAW file was another vertical one with a slightly different width to the frame.  When I got the image home, I agreed that the square crop was the strongest and that was the one that I processed.  As I got everything finalized, I went into the crop tool to do a fine adjustment to the position of the square and started to see another possibility.  I expanded the crop to a 4:5 ratio and applied the golden spiral to the scene.  The composition fell into place very well with that overlay, and just to make sure, the golden mean also suited the composition.  That sealed the deal, the 4:5 ratio was what worked the best, and it was positioned so that the image fell into both of those compositional rules.

After getting the shed captured to my satisfaction, I again moved my attention to the larger barn which I had yet to get an image that I really liked.  I moved around within the rows of hay trying to get the leading lines in a good place which allowed a good angle on the barn itself.  What I determined was that for the hay to be perfect leading lines, I was going to lose the proper angle on the barn which I didn’t like.  It was also going to isolate a part of the horizon that was largely straight, which would lead to yet another boring element in this scene similar to the last time.  The more compelling composition was after I stepped over several rows of the hay and found a darker section as a visual anchor.  That dark section of the hay matched up well to the darker trees that I was using to frame the sides of the composition giving three framing elements in the shape of an upside-down triangle that contrasted with the triangle formed by the barn itself.  The horizon had a nice dip to it on the left that helped give a little bit of visual balance on that side of the frame.  All that was left was finding the right height for the camera.

I had started out just below eye level as that was where I had ended up from the shed composition.  This wasn’t a good height for the barn because the top of the roof was well below the horizon line which generally would have been a good thing, but in this case, I really wanted the roof to crack that horizon line for a bit of visual interest, and to make the barn more dominant in the scene.  I lowered the camera to just a few feet off the ground and found that I had lost the lines in the field that were quite important to the composition.  They weren’t so much leading lines at this point, but they were a repeating pattern that showed depth and added visual interest.  It was an important element that my first attempt had missed out on.  I raised the camera a bit and found that sweet spot where I had the horizon line cracked, but still had plenty of definition with the lines of hay in the foreground.

Once I had all of that lined up, I just had to wait for the sky to do the right thing.  The clouds were looking very good, but there were areas that were much brighter than others that I waited to for them to pass by.  When the majority of the sky was filled with darker clouds, that was when I started to make exposures.  The ND Grad that was still attached added to the bite that the sky had while making sure that the foreground got enough exposure.  It was all working out pretty great until a very bright part of the sky started to enter the frame at the upper right corner.  This started to cause all kinds of problems and that was where I stopped making exposures.

At this point, the sky was starting to clear up and the light was getting a little harsh for my tastes.  Having photographed both barns together, and then separately, I was confident that I had all I needed from this location.  I was hoping for three images, but I figured that I had the best chance for two to result from this location.  I was happy with it and felt that this was a successful stop for the day.  More importantly, I had the always crucial first images in the bag.  That is the hardest part on these treks because there is always this false sense of importance on the first scene to be captured.  Now that I had that first scene, it was time to move on down the road to my main destination in Yadkin County.

It took me a little while to work my way to where I needed to be.  When I got there, it was slightly after 3 and the clouds were still looking pretty good.  I had good light, and the property still looked like I remembered it.  I looked at the first house next door and confirmed that nobody lived there.  There was certainly nobody in the single-wide.  It was the next house that had signs of life where I stopped.  Before I could get to the door, I was greeted by the owner.  I asked if he had any connection with the property next door.  He replied that he didn’t, but that he knew the owner.  He didn’t have any contact information for her but knew that she lived a good distance away.  Since he at least knew her, I asked if he thought that I would be ok to enter the property to take a few photographs.  He didn’t think that would be a problem since he hadn’t seen her visit the property in a very long time.

Knowing that I was in a gray area at this point, I thanked him and went back to the truck.  He had offered to let me leave the truck in his driveway, but I wanted it with me, so it didn’t look like I was trying to be sneaky.  A big white 4Runner sitting on the side of the road is not that subtle.  Having it behind trees next door, looks rather suspect.  I got it parked in the driveway and took a moment to look around.  I saw no signs indicated that trespassing would be an issue.  There were no fences, and nothing that I could see that would indicate that they didn’t want anyone on the property.  As I said, I was in a gray area, and this is one of those times when I have to just go with my gut.  Ideally, I would have the owner’s permission to enter the property, but since I was interested in something in the front yard in full view of the neighborhood, I felt better about being there than if I was needing to get in the back yard.  had the car been in the back yard, there would be no way that I would have gone back there without permission because there is a greater expectation of privacy.

Hoping that I would be lucky, I grabbed my camera which still had the 24-70mm lens attached, and I added just a polarizer to it this time.  I went to the area where I was pretty sure that the composition was going to work out.  I got things lined up and started to make exposures as the sun dipped in and out.  After a couple of exposures, I realized that I wanted a different relationship between the car and the stairs going up to the mobile home.  I shifter the camera position slightly and elevated it about 16 inches which put it well above eye level.  This gave me the right perspective and things were looking good.  I made a quick exposure and checked how the histogram was looking.  I dropped the exposure a third of a stop and released the shutter once again.  This time, I had the exposure right, but I was wanting the light to hit the car which I was going to have to wait for.

As I was waiting, I saw something else with the composition that I really wanted to change and as I got ready to move the tripod a truck pulled into the driveway next to the 4Runner.  You remember how that went from the opening of this blog.  Well, knowing that I was in a very gray area having accessed the property, I didn’t feel like I needed to plead my case.  I just very graciously said that I will move on.  He said that would be the best, and that the property owner was a little hinky about things like this.  He was responsible for looking after the property which I totally respect.  I grabbed my camera knowing that I was one move away from getting the composition perfect but was satisfied that I did have a half dozen images of this car already which hopefully would yield a keeper.

As I started to break the camera down, the truck drove over to where I was at.  I fully expected him to rush me off at this point as I’ve had owners not want to give me time to put the camera away before.  That wasn’t the case at all.  He started inquiring about why I was taking photographs and if I had a card.  I could tell that he was warming up to me at this point because I had not caused him any grief, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable enough to ask permission to continue at this point.  He had been very clear about the owner’s stand on things, and I didn’t want to cause any more problems than I already had.  I gave him one of my cards and he said that he would definitely talk with the owner and that if she didn’t mind me photographing the property, she would get in touch with me.  I really couldn’t ask for more than that.  I don’t think I would have gotten that curtesy had I tried to get the permission right then and there.  Once I was asked to leave the property, I was on his time and at that point, I was in the wrong.  I’m still very aware of the trespass laws and don’t want to push them under any circumstances.  I had gotten a few frames, and more importantly, I had opened the door to speak with the owner at another time, so I might be able to come back here and try again.

I was still feeling quite creative after that experience, and I wanted to get some more photographs while I was out.  The sky was still looking quite good, and as the afternoon wore on, it got even better to the West.  I kept finding good subjects and scenes to photograph, but they were always situated in the wrong direction from the interesting sky.  When I had a good view of the sky, there was nothing of interest to put under that sky.  In short, I was coming up with nothing to photograph, but I was enjoying the light show that I was seeing in the sky.  Eventually, logic prevailed, and I realized that I was done with photography for the day.  Nothing else was coming together and I didn’t want to try and force anything.  Plus, I was running out of gas and needed to fill up.  That is usually my official ending point to a trek.  I had been 113 miles and that was enough for a day.

I hope that you have enjoyed this trek and the resulting images.  As always, if you connect with any of these photographs, I would love to talk with you about matching you up with the perfect print for your wall.  You can order stock sizes for prints here on the website, or you can contact me directly to talk about larger prints, or specialty media such as canvas or metal.  Either way you choose to go, know that you will receive a high-quality piece of art that represents exactly what I intended the image to look like.  There is just no comparison when viewing on different computer monitors or your mobile device because these screens are not necessarily calibrated.  When you get a print from me, you are assured that the colors and general look of the image are exactly as I intended them to be.  Not to mention, you get so much more detail in a print than you can see on a web sized image file.

If you are interested in furthering your own knowledge about photography, I invite you to check out my workshops, or my mentorship programs.  I do really enjoy teaching the art of photography, so whether you want to learn about the photographic process, or the editing process, I have programs that will benefit you.  I’ve taught beginners, as well as enthusiast photographers.  If there is something that you are wanting to improve on, give me a call [(336) 681-0220] and let’s see if I’m a good fit for what you need.

I’m also available to do portrait sessions through the Fall.  We can schedule something in the studio, or on location depending on your needs.  In certain situations, I can still offer a pretty good discount if it is something that I haven’t done before.  Get in touch with me to discuss what you are wanting and let’s see if we can make it happen!

Until next time…