Wednesday, August 6, 2025
I’m assuming that you have noticed the title and might have even opened this blog up because of the title. It all stems back to the fact that the last time I went out I planned on getting a handful of photos and ended up with a four-part blog with something like 22 photos to talk about. It took me three days to get all of that finished up so I could move on to the next thing. I knew that whatever the next thing was going to be, I wanted it to be a short and simple trek. There was no reason to have another multi-part blog. That was certainly something I wanted to avoid. I assure you that this will not be a multi-part blog because I’m tired and have a lot of other irons in the fire right now.
As luck would have it, the weather was keeping me from doing outside work at home and when Wednesday rolled around with Toni at work, I wanted to go out and get a few photos to work on through the day. Nothing serious mind you, just something that I could work on and share with you by the end of the day. Remember, I wanted to keep it simple, and not to time demanding. I really didn’t have the time to do much more than that because I was still working with a couple of portrait clients that I had done a session with a couple of weekends ago and it was time to help them chose the size prints that would work in the space that they were wanting them. Yep, I provide that service as well for my clients. I was also working on a commissioned shoot for another client for a landscape photo which I was waiting for the weather to work out so I could even see the view at the distance I was needing to photograph it from. In the middle of all of this, I started talking to another client who was wanting a birthday photo shoot in the studio. She is actually wanting to work with hard light, which is something that I really enjoy doing, but it does take a certain kind of client to really make it work well, so I am pretty excited to see how this turns out.
As you can see, I have a lot going on, but Wednesday was kind of wide open for me. The plan was kind of simple and had been started during a ride in the Miata on Monday when the sun was out for a brief time. I was driving down one of the main roads through the area that we live, and I gone past a location that I had shot some years ago because there was a boat in the front yard with some tall grass grown up around it. The boat is still there, but there was an old logging truck that had been moved from the other side of the yard to beside the boat. This truck had always appealed to me, and even Toni had pointed it out before, but I never really liked where it was parked for a photo. Now that it had been moved, I had considered the compositions with it and they were a bit easier to come by, but I still hadn’t decided to shoot it. It was during my ride that I thought that with the right clouds, I might be able to get out there with the tree full of leaves and get a shot of it before it was hauled away for that Dollar General that will eventually be built there.
As I thought about the truck, I also considered the house which was a vacant house and was starting to look like something I should think about photographing. Right beside the house was a van which normally I wouldn’t care to photograph, but in this setting it kind of made sense. In short, I could see two photos worth trying at this location and I felt that it would make for a quick trek, especially since it was maybe six miles from the house. It was also something that I felt would look good in the rain for a very dreary mood to the images. That was pretty much the start of my Wednesday plans, I just needed the weather to hold as forecasted for it to work.
When Wednesday rolled around there was rain falling when I got up shortly after Toni left. It was hard enough to keep me in the house, but I was still looking at going out when it eased up. I even loaded the truck up with the camera to get it acclimated to the humidity and decided to toss in my rain kit. In case you are interested, my rain kit includes lens hoods, the 82mm screw-on polarizer rather than the 105mm version that fits on my filter holder. This allows me to change up my filter mounting so that I can run lens hoods which do help in the rain, only I can’t use a filter with the telephoto lens because it is a 77mm filter thread, so the hood won’t fit over the filter when using a step-up ring.
OK, enough gear babble, sorry about that. I was ready for the rain but didn’t want a downpour to have to deal with. The rain did slack up enough for me to go out around 9am if memory serves. My plan was to go out to this house and get the couple of photos that I was really thinking about, but I also had plans of going out to the same location where I had shot the barn on the last trek. I had seen a land yacht of a car in the back yard of an abandoned house but knew that I was going to need permission to get that deep in the property. If luck was with me, I would be able to secure that permission and get another frame or two for the collection. I was also thinking about dropping by the shop that was very close to the house to see if I could locate the owner after about three or four other tries in the past. That would give me three locations, and probably about six photos which would be perfect.
When I left the house, the rain got a bit heavier and looking at the hourly forecast, it was going to be around for the next hour. My hopes were that it would slack off enough to allow me to get the photos while the sheen of the water was still on the rusty logging truck. When I got to the house, I noticed something very odd. It was still raining to the point that I really didn’t want to get out in it, but the truck was essentially staying dry and there was no sheen on it. That was disappointing, but I stopped here briefly to really look at the situation. I wasn’t sure that I could get the composition on the truck that I was after, and the angle on the house had a lot of power lines draping down from the power pole. All of that kind of took the wind out of my sails for this spot. Since it was still raining kind of hard, I decided to plow on and try the old car behind the house.
I don’t think that location was more than about four miles away, so it took no time at all to get there. It was very hard to get a good look at the car from the road, but I was pretty sure that there would be several compositions that I could come up with around the car. I went to the house next door that made the most sense for finding a property owner. I knocked on the door which had a ring doorbell. I do love those for what I do, but nobody answered the ring. I waited there for a minute thinking they were actually coming to the door, but there were no signs of any movement inside. I announced myself loudly because there was a shop next to the house, but it didn’t look like anyone was in there either. I figured that there was just nobody home, so I pulled out and with to the house across the intersection which would be the closest house on the other side. I pulled into the driveway and saw a sign that said something like “We have dogs, they bite, no solicitation, no trespassing, etc.” I just had a simple question, but I didn’t feel like discussing it with the two German Shepherds, so I put the truck in reverse as the two dogs were starting to get interested in the Doordash delivery that was apparently coming to them. Not wanting to give up just yet, I went to the house on the far side of the first house I had checked with. There was no answer at the door, and that exhausted my logical choices for linked homes in the area.
I got back on the road and went to the shop near the house and knocked on the house where I had been a couple of times before. Again, there was no answer and no signs of any movement on the inside. I’m now kicking myself for not doing more to make contact with the Honda that was pulling out of the driveway a week or so ago. I might not ever have that chance again. Here I was, driving around for about an hour with nothing to show for it. It wasn’t the end of the world because if I only managed to get a single photo today, I was going to be more than happy. I was not about to do a multi-part blog again. That is just too many words to have to come up with and my word savings account is running dry.
The rain was starting to slow to something I could more easily deal with, and I headed back out to the old house that I had started the trek at. The rain was moving in that direction, so it was the last area to see the precipitation clear out. When I got there, I noted all the issues that I had seen before, but with no real pressure to create a lot of entries, I went ahead and turned the truck off and decided to make it happen.
Since there was still rain falling, I went for the option of using the lens hoods and the smaller polarizer with the 24-70mm lens to give me some options for compositions, especially when dealing with the house. I started off with that because I honestly thought that there would be more potential with the van and house than just the truck. I found the angle that I liked for the scene and started to frame up the composition. No matter what I did, the power lines were very pervasive in the composition. Yeah, I could have removed them in post, but they actually took up quite a bit of room and went through areas of important detail. All of these considerations make it less appealing to remove them in post. Of course, the marketing makes it look simple and effortless to remove power lines, but in all actuality, it takes a bit of work because you can see anomalies where they had been which have to be massaged out through several other steps. There were too many lines taking up too much area in the frame for me to feel comfortable doing that, so I composed in a way that made the power lines fit the scene.
I tried a few different variations and even did one that included the power pole to really give them context, but that changed the visual weight of the main subjects in a way that didn’t help the composition. It was actually the first frame that I shot that turned into the keeper. This kind of makes sense because I had been thinking about the composition for a while and before I pressed the button, I was pretty sure that I had the right choices made. The subsequent exposures were more or less just in case that one didn’t work out for some reason.
Once I had that in the bag, I went on to the truck on the other side of the property. Now, I’m still feet from the road and well in the easement, so I am not worried about trespassing, though there are no signs indicating that I shouldn’t be there. I tried to get the truck from near the road, but with the lens zoomed in at 70mm, it was looking like a snapshot with no real composition to the frame. I needed to get in closer for this to work because I really needed to make the cab of the truck larger than the rear since there wasn’t much to the rear of the truck. I slowly worked my way in closer just knowing that at any moment I was going to get approached by somebody.
That didn’t happen and after a few minutes I got in close enough that I managed to get the composition that I was after. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it was balanced and showed the truck off rather well. I was especially happy that the sky behind the trees was dark enough that it didn’t overexpose in the image review. I grabbed another quick shot of the truck and boat together just in case I wanted to work that out and went back to the truck to break everything back down.
As I was putting the camera away, I noticed a neighbor across the street sitting on their porch looking at me. They didn’t seem concerned, just curious. Since they weren’t indicating that they wanted to talk to me, I just went about my business and hopped in the truck before heading back down the road. I had maybe three images to work with, and I was happy with that. Remember, I wasn’t looking for anything big to have to deal with after I was done capturing the photos. I still felt that I wanted something a little more impressive than what I had just shot, so I decided to go and drive around for a bit longer.
I wasn’t really finding anything much, so I started going down roads that I don’t travel often, and I did them in the opposite direction from normal to see if I could see anything different. One of the roads that I went down looked completely different from what I remembered because I was going North rather than South. I came upon a property that has a lot of cars on it, and I was pretty sure it was some kind of repair shop, but I had never really paid that much attention to it before because all of the cars looked kind of newer and they didn’t really interest me that much. This time though, I spotted an orange 240 Z which reminded me of the ’72 I had in college. It was originally an orange car but had been painted black before I bought it. The car I was looking at had the same ugly chrome dished wheels that originally came with a wire rim dish to complete the look. I hated them on my car, but the nostalgia of seeing them on this car really made it interesting.
Of course, the car wasn’t in a position to be able to shoot as an overall shot, but I wanted to get some isolations on it for the sake of nostalgia. I pulled into the driveway and went down to the shop. On the way, I spotted several other cars that were fantastic subjects, and I started to get really excited about the possibilities here. It was the middle of the day, and this looked like a commercial property, on a weekday so I was sure that I would be able to talk to somebody. I got out and approached the shop door which was closed. There were signs all over indicating that the property was under video surveillance and other signs indicating that any criminal activity would be frowned on. It seemed overkill for a commercial property, but I got the message for sure. That message was received so well that I knocked on the shop door rather than opening it as I would a commercial property. There was no answer to the door, but this was a big building, and I figured there might be too much noise going on inside. Since this appeared to be a commercial property, I checked the door when I could see that the deadbolt wasn’t engaged. The knob turned and I was able to open the door, but the lights inside were turned off and there were no signs of life inside at all.
I closed the door and got back in the truck not feeling comfortable being on the property at this point. Once I got back to the top of the driveway, I looked at the sign and saw a local number on it. I called the number and it went to voicemail. I left a long message about why I was wanting to speak to the owner and let them know that the door was unlocked to the shop. Looking at the grass, I could tell that the house next door was closely associated with the shop property, so I went over there and knocked on the door. There was no answer there either, so decided that I wasn’t going to get a Z photo today. As I pulled back out in the road, I spotted a guy coming down the driveway looking at me. Finally, maybe I could find somebody that knew about this property.
I rolled the window down and asked if they were associated with the shop. He turned out to be the owner and I expressed my happiness that I was meeting him. I pulled off the road and got out of the truck to talk with him. It was a brief conversation, and he advised that he would be back in the shop shortly and I could come back then. I wasn’t sure if that meant that I was going to get permission, or if I was going to be investigated. Either way, I could tell that this property was worth the potential hassle if there was a possibility that I could get a few photos. I didn’t want many because I was looking for an easy day that could come to a close by time for bed.
I did have some time to kill and decided to continue on the road I was on and take some other familiar routes that would eventually put me back here about the right time. I was looking for anything quick that I could photograph just to fill that time, and it wasn’t until I made it to the next major road that I found something that interested me. Now, to be fair, this subject is one that I have been looking at for about three years. The best I could tell, it was a Chevy square body pickup sitting in the woods on the side of the yard. It was just my kind of scene, but usually when I was by here the light was too harsh, and things just didn’t quite seem right for the asking. Today, with the deep cloud cover and the fact that I was only looking for a few photos anyway, the old truck struck me as very photogenic.
I decided to pull in and see if I could get permission to photograph the truck. I knocked on the screen door which was showing an opened entry door to the house, so I knew that someone was home. It was a good start to this evolution. A guy came to the door and from behind the screen door greeted me. I’ve seen this before and I’m used to talking through doors, and the expression on his fact said that he wasn’t going to put up with any BS. I got right to the point and after he agreed to let me photograph the truck, I wanted to give him a business card so that he could contact me if he wanted to get a free print as thanks for letting me capture the truck.
As I handed the card over, he saw the name and immediately said that he knew me and had seen my work on Facebook. He was very complimentary of my work and his whole demeanor changed when he realized who it was. I’ve always figured that I’m the last guy you want to see knocking on your door because that means that you have something on your property that the neighbors aren’t particular fond of. This was far from the case, and I was treated to several stories about this truck and how it had been his father’s who had used it for business. It was eventually sold and ended up in an estate sale where the current owner ran into it again and was able to buy it back. The plan is to restore it, and he has all of the parts to it and a plan of action on the process. This was the truck that he learned to drive a straight drive, and he had a lot of great stories about adventures in the truck. Of course, he explained that he gets a lot of people knocking on the door asking if the truck is for sale, which it never will be due to the family connection with it. I totally got where he was coming from and was really excited to be able to capture photos of something that meant this much to the owner.
With his blessing, I grabbed my camera and started to work on the truck. It was in a bit more difficult of a location that I had given it credit for from the road. It was nestled between trees that made it very difficult to get a good angle on. My first though was to get in very close and use a wide-angle lens to avoid the trees on one side. I managed to get this done and with the help of a grad filter to control the sky got a pretty good composition to start with. I wasn’t sure if that was going to be the best option, so I stuck with it for a while longer and worked the angles and altitude of the camera to make sure that I had what I wanted.
When I was satisfied that I had the wide-angle shots taken care of, I switched over to the telephoto lens and started working isolations, but those were kind of hard to deal with because of the close quarters. I did manage to get an interior shot that highlighted the steering wheel and dash quite well with lots of great color surrounding it. When I realized that the lens was requiring more working distance than I really had, I swapped over to the standard zoom and began working those same isolation ideas once again. They weren’t really working out like I wanted, and I decided to get a less distorted view of the truck emerging from the woods. This took a little work to get the trees in the right place in relation to the truck, and it really came down to a combination of my position and the chosen focal length. The nice thing with this shot was that there wasn’t nearly as much sky showing which made it unnecessary to add the grad filter for this composition. Of course, with heavy woodland, grad filters are not great because they darken everything, so I was very happy not to have to deal with extra shadows in post to remove the evidence of the grad filter.
It was this photo that turned into my favorite out of the batch from the day. I was pretty sure that I had about six workable images and that was all I really wanted for the day. That would easily be processed and uploaded to the website for the blog to be written before bed. I couldn’t ask for more than that, and I was happy for how the day had gone. There was the issue of going back to the other location as I had said that I would though. I was pretty sure I was going to get turned down, but I also knew that not showing would make me look kind of suspicious and I don’t want to give that impression to anyone. Even though I was about 30 minutes late for the time that he suggested I return, I decided to go by there and see what would happen. I mean worst case scenario, I get told “no” and I’m left with the number of photos that I’m happy with. Best case, he says “yes”, and I get another few keepers for the day and have a bit longer blog which might have to wait until Thursday to get finished. Either way, I had to go back there and properly talk to the owner as I said I would.
A few minutes later I was pulling int the driveway. Since I remembered it being rather tight near the shop, I just parked at the top of the drive and walked down to the shop. The bay door was open, and he was with a customer, so I just stayed visible and let him finish what he was doing. In short order he acknowledged me and asked for more information on what I was wanting to do. I was still not getting a good read on the situation, but if he was asking questions, there was always a chance to get permission, so I did what I always tell people to do. I answered truthfully and completely every question that he asked and even answered some that I knew would be coming eventually.
That pretty much brings us to the end of this blog entry. As I stated clearly at the beginning, this is NOT a part 1 of a series. There should be no question about that, so you can guess how the rest of the conversation went. I mean if I had gotten permission, there would be a photo of an orange Z here as well as a blue Malibu, and a really nice Chrysler, all of which I had seen on the way down to the shop. But you don’t see any of that do you?
Just remember that this is NOT part 1. I’ll see you tomorrow for not part 2.
See you soon…
