Sunday, July 10, 2022
One of the things that I love about studio photography is that it really doesn’t matter what the weather is like, or even the time of day. If I want to pull the camera out and make some new photos, I can do just that. The catch is, I am very limited on subject matter when it comes to studio photography, and what I really enjoy doing is going out to find meaningful rural scenes and landscapes to photograph. While there are plenty of those subjects around, I am left with a limited window of opportunity when it comes to weather conditions and times of day. It would appear that I just can’t have it all when it comes to photography. Well, I have been wanting to get out and do some landscape and/or decay photography for a while now, but have been running into mostly sunny days, or clouds just long enough to bring storms. I’ve also been kind of tied up with other things that have kept me from going out as much here recently. With a Sunday that was looking wide open, I was looking at the weather and saw that there was a chance of rain throughout the day, but the clouds were looking to be the low altitude variety and there was a good chance of fog on the mountain. I was rather excited about working with the fog during the early morning and I started to get a list of subjects that I wanted to shoot.
Having just come back from a few days in Boone with Toni, I had some new areas that I had seen that I was interested in exploring more. One of those areas had several barns that had caught my eye and I thought that a nice foggy day would be a good time to photograph them. I had also gotten the idea to work Raven Rock Overlook in the fog which these areas weren’t too far apart. About a week ago, Toni and I had driving out to Lenoir and checked out a small church that she had wanted to visit and while we were there, I was thinking about how best to photograph it. Again, a foggy morning seemed to be just perfect for the shape of the church. It wasn’t looking like the fog was going to be that far South, so I wasn’t really counting on going out there, but it was in the back of my mind. She had also spotted an old truck not too far from the church that I might be able to work with on a nice cloudy day as long as I could get permission from the property owners. I had some good ideas about places to go depending on what the weather did, so we turned in early and I set my clock for 4:45 so that I could get up and out early enough to take advantage of the fog.
Well, when the alarm rang, I checked the weather and immediately saw most of my hopes dashed. I knew that there was a chance of rain, but it was looking like the entire Western part of the state was under some pretty heavy rainfall without hope of it slacking off any time soon. I just rolled over and went back to sleep figuring that I would check again later in the day. It was still going to be cloudy all day which I liked, but I was probably going to have to bid farewell to my fog chances.
When we finally woke up, I checked the weather again and it was still raining, and it looked like it was raining in Boone as well. The radar was showing that the edge of the rain was about to clear out of the Boone area which looked like it would provide me with a couple of hours of good conditions. I made the decision to head out that way and try what I could while the rain held off. I loaded my gear in the truck and I was off. It was drizzling when I left the house, but I expected that because I was headed towards the edge of the radar indicated rain. The closer I got to Boone, the heavier the mist became though. I was looking at the radar image on the screen in the truck and it showed that I was out of the area of rain, but yet I was running my wipers regularly at this point. I just crossed my fingers and hoped that the weather would improve enough that I could get the camera out. I was regretting not having brought my lens hoods and the screw-on polarizer which I had sitting next to the shelf in the studio. It wouldn’t make or break the day, but the lens hoods would definitely help matters if the rain continued.
I entered the Parkway and headed out to Aho Gap where my first set of subjects were located. I started to work my way around the back roads that I had just recently explored until I found the first barn that I wanted to photograph. It was a derelict barn up on a hill which had caught my eyes. It was still looking quite good sitting there and the composition was almost a gimme, but in order for it to work well, I was going to need to include an interesting sky. I didn’t have a good sky at all, and the angle that I would be shooting in put the front lens element right in the path of the falling rain. The mist was heavy enough that I was concerned about keeping the spots at bay on the lens. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this wasn’t the time to shoot this barn. I have a good idea what will make for a good day though and I’m sure that I will be back soon.
I just kept on going down the road because I knew that there were other barns that were possibilities in these conditions. There was even a bit of fog rolling in which was kind of what I was looking for. The mist kept getting heavier though, and I was starting to really worry about keeping the rain spots off of the lens. I knew that I was going to be using my umbrella as I was composing and taking the shots which was going to make the operation very cumbersome to say the least. I played out in my mind how I was going to have to operate the rig while holding the umbrella so that if the time came, I could do it as fluidly as possible.
After a few miles, I arrived at the red barn that I had been counting on after seeing it. It was surrounded on two sides by the road, and I was going to have my choice of the angle of which I created the image. That is a luxury to say the least in this type of photography and I was really hoping that I was going to see something that would work out here. I slowly drove by and looked at the barn from all angles to determine what suited the scene the best. I finally decided on working the back side of the barn with the fence as a foreground interest. There just happened to be a gravel pull off between two sets of mailboxes that I parked in. I got out to look at the composition angles a little closer and found that I liked this one angle beside a tree. I considered the mist that was not just falling, it was floating in the air. There was no direction to the water particles, and they just went wherever the breeze blew. I even saw updrafts happen when the falling mist rose back into the air. It was going to be nearly impossible to keep the lens clear since I wouldn’t have a direction to block with the umbrella.
I went back to the truck and just sat inside for a while hoping to wait out the rain. The mist got heavier though, and it was now a full-on rain. Remembering the old mantra for the NC Mountains, I figured if I didn’t like the weather, all I needed to do was wait five minutes for it to change. Well, I waited there about 15 minutes and saw the rain change in intensity several times, but never stop. I was starting to attract attention from the neighbors at this point and I figured that if I waited much longer, I was going to be in a conversation that would prevent me from getting a shot at all. I decided to brave the mist and get the camera set up. I opted for the 24-70mm lens as it was going to give me the most options for a composition, and I added a polarizer to it. With the umbrella blocking the lens the best that I could manage, I moved into the position that I had scoped out earlier. I got the tripod set up and started to fine tune the composition while holding the umbrella over the camera. It was cumbersome and I didn’t take the time that I normally would, but I found a composition that worked and started to work that angle.
I made a few changes here and there making sure that the metal building to the right was out of the frame and changed the exposure a little bit from frame to frame. I ended up with six images of this barn before I noticed that the filter was now full of water drops that had been blown back towards it. I had been keeping the umbrella out in front and just out of view of the camera, but that wasn’t enough to keep the lens clear. Believing that there was really nothing else that I could do here in these conditions, I went back to the truck and cleaned off the filter before putting everything away. I had managed to get a few photographs, but I was feeling kind of defeated from the experience. I didn’t have the ability to really work the scene, and I wasn’t sure if the filter stayed clear enough to make good images. I would have to wait until I got home to really see what I had captured.
I wasn’t done yet though. I had driven all the way out here and was really wanting to find something to photograph that got me excited. I wasn’t sure if that was going to happen though because the rain was really causing problems. Looking at the radar, I was actually well out of the precipitation areas and there shouldn’t be anything falling. As I was driving around in the area, I began to think that I needed to get off the mountain and out of the clouds in order to leave the rain behind. I worked my way into Blowing Rock and eventually ended up on 321. Toni and I had just visited the Crystal Wedding Chapel where we had gotten married a little over 11 years ago and I remembered seeing an old Chevrolet truck out front which was being used as yard art for the businesses there. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to get an overall shot of the truck, but with the wet conditions, I was interested to see what the patina was going to look like. I was also considering photographing the chapel as well since it was starting to deteriorate after being vacant for a number of years.
When I arrived, the rain was still falling, but it was a much lighter mist that it had been. I didn’t think too much about it and just grabbed my camera, tripod, and umbrella and got set up at the front of the truck. I was familiar enough with the design of these trucks that I pretty sure of the compositions that I would be shooting. While normally I would include the front bumper, I didn’t think that was a very good idea since it was so bright in comparison to the rest of the truck. I just knew that I would have to minimize it as best I could or eliminate it from the composition to focus the attention on the truck itself.
Getting the compositions set up with the umbrella was not the easiest task to do. I really needed three hands to get the camera in position, the exposure set, and the filter rotated into position. I made do and got the camera situated in a number of positions for some very different compositions. Most of the changes that I did was to the altitude of the camera and whether or not I was shooting vertical or horizontal. Most of these compositions I was trying have been proven over the years to be effective in my eyes, but I was feeling like I was missing something.
The more I looked at this truck, the more I realized that it wasn’t the headlight and the grill that I most liked. Sure, they really stood out in their white tones, but I was finding that I was pushing the compositions more and more to the patina of the paint. The rain had really saturated the colors, and the textures seemed to really jump out even more with the wetness. I had been working a variation on a favorite composition of the headlight which was vertically oriented while shifting the weight of the image to the top. This allowed me to eliminate the white bumper from the bottom of the frame, but it also allowed more of the color of the truck to shine through. I loved how this was looking but felt that the composition was a little top-heavy despite my conscious decision to place the headlight and grill at the bottom.
As I evaluated the composition, I decided to do something that I had never done before and make a composition completely out of the patina. There would be no emblems to anchor the image, and no real structure to it. In fact, the only real elements that I wanted to include was the panel gap between the hood and the fender and the character bulge along the top of the hood. The rest would just be the play of light over the curves of the hood. I framed up a composition that looked surprisingly good on the LCD and dialed in the polarizer to get the sheen right where I wanted it. I got the exposure set in a way that would have the nearest and furthest portions slightly soft in focus to add to the depth and dimension. I fired off two frames just to be sure that the passing traffic didn’t cause any strange reflections in the patina. When I got done with those two frames, the rain started to fall a bit heavier again. That was my clue to call it a day. I went back to the truck and packed the camera away. I was happy to see that the filter had stayed dry during this last subject.
I headed home and stopped at a few other locations in hopes that I might get lucky with the rain, but it was coming down much too hard at this point and I eventually decided to call it quits. When I got home, I found out that I had only shot 19 frames during the day and figured that if I was lucky, I would have two keepers out of the mix. That was probably the right number, but I found that I loved the colors of the old truck so much that I convinced myself to keep three of the frames that I shot of it that each showed a different quality to the truck. The edits didn’t take long at all, and I was really happy with the four images that resulted from the day’s excursion.
It felt good to get back out and go on the hunt for subjects to photograph. With gas prices like they have been, I just haven’t been able to do that as much as I would like to. That brings me to a way that you can help me find these great scenes to photograph. By purchasing a print of any of my photographs, you are not only telling me what images you like most, you are also helping to fund the process that leads to the creation of these images. Whenever I go out on these treks and create these images, I always create them with the intention of making prints to hang on the walls. Of course, my walls are filled up currently which means that in order for me to see these photographs as I intended them, I have to wait for print orders to come in. I do love making prints and seeing my visions take on a physical life of their own. I’m always thrilled to be able to share these visions with my clients and hope that the prints provide as much joy to them as they do to me.
Don’t forget my workshops that will be starting up when the weather starts getting cooler. One of the workshops that is scheduled will be my highly anticipated Decay Workshop in East Bend that will focus on subjects such as this old Chevy truck. Slots are already filling up for that one, so if you want to have the opportunity to photograph some fantastic rusty subjects while learning different techniques, get signed up soon. This one typically is at capacity when I offer it and I would hate for you to miss out and have to wait a year or more for the next opportunity.
Thanks for joining me for this trek and I really hope that you enjoyed the new photos which have been added to my collection. I’m still hoping to get out a bit more often than I have been here lately since my portrait appointments are starting to ease up a bit. There should be some more days here in the near future with decent weather which hopefully will allow me the opportunity to get back out again to capture some more new images. Stick around to see what happens next.
Until next time….
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