Sunday, February 2, 2025
OK, this one is going to be a little different from what you might be used to. Nothing worked as planned, but in the end, something magical happened. We shall count this blog as the early part of the day that took place in the area that I had planned on working. I’ll be back soon with the follow-up entry that will talk about the final stop. I’m still working on those photos, but wanted to get this one out before the day was done.
So, how did this all start out. Well, a couple of days ago, I was starting to look at the weather and found that there were clouds in the forecast. I had no idea what I wanted to shoot, so I spent most of the night trying to figure it out. I didn’t have anything planned by the time I went to sleep. The next day I still had no idea what I wanted to shoot. By that night, I was again looking at some cloudy conditions, potentially, and wanted to get out to enjoy them. The only thing that I could come up with was a location not far from home that has a collection of of Chevy’s, most of which are restored. I’ve passed by this location many times over the years that we have lived out here, but never really felt like stopping to see if they would let me work the property. Since I really didn’t have anything else in mind and wanted to pick something kind of close to home, I started to plan on going out there. It would more than likely be good for a handful of photos which was really all that I was after.
When Friday morning rolled around, the light wasn’t quite right and I wasn’t feeling very motivated to go out for photos. I stayed at the house all day and had no regrets. I was now planning on going Saturday morning when there were more clouds forecasted. Of course when Saturday rolled around, the clouds were thinner than expected and the sun was causing too many issues for me. Once again, I stayed at home, but this time I put together an educational video which will be released tomorrow morning, so keep an eye out for that.
If you are keeping track, I have had plans for three different days to go out and do some photography, but haven’t left the house once. This was not the trend that I wanted to start with this early in the year. Fortunately, there were clouds expected again for Sunday morning. When morning rolled around, I was out of bed right after Toni left for work. It was still dark outside, but the clouds were still supposed to show up. In fact, I was seeing reports of clouds all day with drizzle mixed in. I could do without the drizzle for sure, but I was wanting to see the clouds happen. When I got done with my stuff down in the studio, I came upstairs to see what the light was looking like. It was only about 30 minutes past sunrise, but the light looked good for what I was after. Everything looked dry which was a plus.
I got myself together and grabbed the camera. Before I rolled out of the garage, I stepped outside to see what it was doing. Well, there was a light mist falling and it was kind of chilly, but not nearly as bad as some of the mornings that I have been used to here lately. After about 15 minutes of debating, I hopped in the truck and headed out towards Hays and Traphill. The drive was pretty uneventful which was a very good thing since I had removed my front sway bar on the truck a couple of days ago for a bit more articulation with the suspension. I’m happy to report that while it didn’t improve the handling on the road, it didn’t affect it too negatively.
Anyway, it didn’t take long and I arrived at the location that I was planning on shooting. After a quick pass by, I got turned around convinced that I could do something with the cars that were there. After so many days of planning this, I owed it to myself to give it a try. I parked on the shoulder of the road because I didn’t trust the bridge that linked the driveway to the road. I walked across and worked my way through the cars to get to the front door of the house. I could see the door, but there was a fence which was closed on the walkway. There was a sign warning of a big dog. While I didn’t see any dogs, I also didn’t want my first meeting with the owners to be because I let his dog out of the fence, or that I had become a snack for him. I could see lights on in the house, but no signs of movement. I stayed there for a few minutes and waved and tried to make myself known. Still no dog, but I didn’t feel comfortable going through the fence just in case the sign was a legitimate warning to visitors.
Looking around the property, I decided that there wasn’t any real need to push the issue. There wasn’t anything jumping out at me that I would want to photograph anyway. I just made my way back to the truck and continued down the road. I wasn’t sure where I was going to end up, but I knew that there were some decent subjects out this way. I think it was about five miles or so down the road and I saw a house in the woods that I didn’t recall seeing before. This is the benefit to going out in the winter because the trees are empty and you can see so much more. This house was well inside the woodline, and actually across a small creek which was on the other side of a field. I considered my options and eventually got turned around and parked on the side of the road.
I looked around for any signs saying that I wasn’t welcome, but didn’t find any. I grabbed my gear and started walking down what was once the driveway. It was a kind of long walk and when I got to the stream, I could see an old and faded sign saying no trespassing. I didn’t cross over the stream at this point. I continued along the wood line until I found a foot bridge that I could cross. There was no sign here, and this would be the only way to cross over without getting wet. I weighed my options. My truck was plainly visible at the road and I wasn’t needing to go into the house, just needed to get on the other side of the trees. I went ahead and walked over the bridge and looked for any other signs which might indicate that I needed to turn around. There were none, and I planned on staying right at the trees.
It took me a while to locate an angle that I liked with the house because there were two barns behind it, and the sky above was kind of bright. What I found was on the other side of the driveway still right in the trees, next to the stream. I got the tripod set up and the standard zoom fitted to the camera. I worked through three different compositions here that played with the positioning of the house within the frame.
I didn’t overstay my welcome and figured after the three compositions, I was satisfied. I knew that I had something that I could work with when I got back home, and I saw nothing else that I could really do without just really getting in close. That wasn’t an option because I had seen another faded sign further into the property. My assumption was that these signs had been up for many decades now and it kind of looked like they may have been forgotten about. I could guess all day long, but I knew that there was a good chance that I might cause some problems if I stuck around any longer so I made a quick trip back to the bridge and back to the open field.
I spent some time looking for a shot through the trees, but none developed. I was happy with what I had in the camera and felt that there was really no real reason to remain here any longer. At least I had my first shot of the day in the bag. It felt good, and if I had nothing else, I would at least have something to process and blog about when I got home. I wasn’t quite done though. I had been expecting around four photos to work, and felt that I could find more if I just kept looking as I traveled the road.
There was a barn a bit further down that I had photographed before, and I knew of a couple of other old buildings that might work out with the current lighting. They were a bit closer to Traphill, but not too far at all. I just kept on going down the road. One by one, my options were reduced for one reason or another. Everything that I was passing just didn’t work out for a photograph. At least that was my reaction as I was passing by each and every one of the potential stops that I had in mind.
Feeling that I was at a complete loss, I figured that I would head out to another spot that I had photographed several years ago and felt comfortable working some of the cars near the road which I had been given permission to do previously. It was at least something, and I was kind of thinking about one car in particular that I wanted to try and photograph again. It was enough to give me a destination. I just had to get down to the main road from where I was.
Maybe a block from the main road, I happened to see an old car sitting in a cow pasture by a tree and barn. It had what looked to be barn residue on the side of it and looking quickly, I liked the potential composition that was presenting itself. I got turned around and came back to the location. When I pulled off the road, I was really liking what I was seeing with this scene. I found a vantage point that I could work with and grabbed the camera. This time, I was using the telephoto lens because I needed the reach for this particular composition. As it turned out, I would have shot it from this distance anyway for the compression to keep the barn large enough to make sense in the frame.
As I was setting the camera up, I realized that there were cows in the frame. I knew I needed to work quickly because cows have a tendency to be nosey and I figured that they were going to come to me sooner rather than later. For now, they weren’t moving much which made me happy. With the dim light I wasn’t going to be able to work with a fast shutter speed all that easily. Once I got the camera all set up, I started to make exposures and dialed in a shutter speed that kept the cows frozen in the frame. After the first handful of attempts, I tightened up the composition and cropped through some of the taller trees, while keeping the one dominant tree in the midground fully in the frame. This helped to remove some of the sky from the shot because the clouds really had no texture at this point. With the change in composition, I fired off another handful of shots just to make sure that I had the cows captured well, and in the right positions.
I ended up with nine frames from this basic concept and felt that was good enough. I did move around to the side so that I could get another composition with the car and a different barn. This one felt better when I was shooting it, and I only had to expose three frames before I was sure that I had a keeper. As it turned out, the more complex composition that I had started with was the more solid option for processing. It had a better flow and I really liked the elements that were present with it.
Feeling that I was in good shape at this point with possibly three keepers out of the two locations, I was reasonably satisfied with the day. It would not have been the end of the world to head back to the house and start processing. However, I had to go past the spot that I had considered, so I thought I would stop and check it out on the way home. After about a half dozen times trying to make contact with the owner I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to get permission anyway.
On the way, I also remembered an old Ford parked on the side of the road which I had shot a couple times in the past. If it was still there, it would be a quick grab shot and I would have another subject for the day. It was worth stopping and checking on. When I got there, I pulled off the road pretty sure I knew how I wanted to photograph the old car. As I was getting the tripod placed where I was going to work, there were three dogs that came running to see what I was up to. While these were not aggressive dogs, they had no sense of personal space. Knowing that there was going to be no way that I could work with them around me, I grabbed the tripod and went back to the truck. This one was a wash. Maybe it was time to head home.
Well, I had captured more subjects that I thought I might when I set out this morning, even though none of them were what I intended. It was still a good morning because I really did like this light and enjoyed working in it. I was about 30 minutes from home and that would give me plenty of time to work the photos before Toni got home.
I did stop by the other location which was behind a shop on my way. I decided I wasn’t going to photograph the same vehicles that I had done before because I would rather just go home. However, since I was here, I decided to drive on down to the owner’s house and see if they were there. I had the right weather to shoot the cars if I could get permission, but I knew that I wasn’t going to talk with the owner. I’ve tried more times than I can remember.
However, there was a car in front of the house that I didn’t recall seeing there before. I got parked and went to the front door. I rang the doorbell and as I remembered there were dogs that came to the window to see who was there. It was like deja vu from all the other times I’ve been here. There was something different though. Somebody was coming to the door and the door opened.
I’ll be back here again soon with the results of what happened next.
Until then….
