Monday, August 15, 2022
I know that you have come to expect an easy-to-follow blog from my treks that outlines the thought process before the trek, and what happened during the trek. I’m quite good with the details after 20 years of report writing which has helped me be able to do this so reliably. I know that many of you come here for my story telling just as much as the photography, and if you like the stories better than the photography, then I need to reconsider my creative outlet. Anyway, I would love to sit down here and tell all the glorious details about this trek and how each photograph came to be. I would love to, but I really can’t. There is just no way that I can put this day into a narrative that would make sense. You see, I didn’t really plan on going out today, but then I did. I left earlier than I wanted to and found myself uninspired by the location. Then I was inspired, which caused me to jump from scene to scene like I was on meth. I found myself shooting with no regard for any planning and couldn’t even stay on track with what I was shooting. Is ADD contagious? Could I have caught it from Toni? Should I seek medication? How about that tree over there? No wait, I like the tree in the background of the Lodge better. Let me just get this fence first. Squirrel!!!
OK, so you have the idea that this is going to be a little disjointed to say the least. I guess you could say that this started last night while Toni and I were watching the last few episodes of Evil on TV. It was to be her last night of freedom before she begins here nursing classes. In all actuality, she had been studying most of the day even though classes hadn’t started. Her Mondays were going to be her classroom day each week which meant that she was going to be gone for most of the day. I got to thinking since I have been on a pretty good run with photography that I might want to go out and get some more pictures if the weather was looking good. A quick check showed that there was going to be rain pretty much all day. I decided that I would stay down in the office and work on finishing up my newest installment of Behind the Camera. As we went to sleep, I had no plans at all of going out and when morning came, I just lingered in bed while Toni got ready to go to school. Of course, I looked at the weather and saw that the rain was being pushed back to about noon which would give me a little bit of time to get some photos done if I could figure out where I wanted to go.
With the dominant weather pattern being that of cloudy with some rain here and there, I was looking for something kind of moody. For some reason The Bluffs Lodge popped into my head. This historic landmark near the Doughton Park picnic ground is quite familiar to me, but I really haven’t done many photos of it at all. In fact, there has been only one that I can think of which was done a couple of years ago. That made the thought of going out there for that specific subject kind of odd to me, but it was an idea should I decide to go. I was actually thinking that I could do some interesting photos of it in the rain which again was something that threw me for a loop.
I wasn’t all that excited about going because I just didn’t really know what I wanted to create, and this was going to be a trek more because I had the opportunity rather than the inspiration. I just put the idea in the back of my head as I went down to get the morning business stuff taken care of. Surprisingly, it didn’t take long to get everything done and I was back upstairs to see Toni off for her first day of school. To put that in context, our youngest isn’t even looking for a first day of school this year. Anyway, as I was telling Toni goodbye, I let her know that I might head out to Doughton Park to work the Lodge at some point during the day, although I was still not very convinced that was going to happen.
Well, I started to look at the weather and saw that there were low clouds and fog rolling over Doughton at the moment and that would remain the case for the next couple of hours. I love working with fog when I get the chance, so I decided that I would head out that way. I still had no idea what I was going to shoot, I was just being drawn to the lodge for some crazy reason. The trip out there was quick, and I saw a variety of weather along the way. The closer I got, the bluer the skies appeared and that was in completely opposition to what I was kind of thinking I wanted to do when it came to mood and atmosphere. The last little bit of Hwy 18 ended me up in a lot of low clouds which was more what I was looking for, but there was no detail in the clouds at all.
When I pulled into the Lodge parking lot, the sky was rather boring and there wasn’t much atmosphere to be had. In fact, the sun was actually trying to break through the clouds, and it was causing a bit of light to show up which made the gray sky even worse. I really didn’t know why I was here, and I didn’t know what I was wanting to focus my attention on. I just started to walk around and let the lodge talk to me. I’ve found over the years that when I don’t know what to photograph, if I just open my mind and listen, the location will tell me what to photograph in many cases. Well, that eventually did happen, and the answer might surprise you.
I was just looking all around for something to catch my attention, and when I say, “all around,” that is exactly what mean. My eyes went left to right, and up and down. It was on one of the “ups” that my eyes caught the wooden beams that made up the ceiling for the covered porch and breezeway. The wood was in surprisingly good condition for the age, but what caught my eyes were the patterns that were formed by the beams. It was very organized, yet somehow completely random in places. It was the first thing to spark my creative soul, but it was nothing like what I had come out here to capture. I pulled out the camera dutifully since I had been told what to photograph by the old building. I knew that I wanted to focus on the details, so I went ahead and loaded up the long lens and I put on a polarizer just to try and eke out a bit more contrast in the scene. Before I mounted the camera to my tripod, I went around to look at the different areas to get an idea of what section would make the best photograph. I landed on the area that I thought had the best design for an abstract photo. I got the tripod set up and began to frame up the image that I thought would work the best.
There wasn’t much planning to these, and I just dialed in a narrow aperture so that I had everything in focus and started to play with the angles. I had no idea if any of this was going to work or not, but I moved forward like I had been planning this shoot for months. It was surprising how little thought went into these first images. I just moved the camera around until I thought that the right balance was achieved, then I would focus and press the button. It was just that simple. before I knew it, I had about 10 frames in the bag and was feeling pretty good about the start of the day even though I had no idea how I was going to process the images I had just shot. I did think about it as I was looking around for my next subject and the more I thought about it, the more I figured that black and white would be the way to go since the wood was all pretty much a uniform color. That is my rule of thumb when it comes to photographs, if the color doesn’t matter, or it doesn’t add anything, then it must be a distraction. I felt that the colors of the wood would be a distraction from the textures that I wanted to showcase.
SQUIRREL!!
I interrupted myself during the debate on color vs black and white when I saw the cylindrical stairs at the rear of the building. This was not the first time I had seen these stairs, and it wasn’t even the first time I had thought about photographing them. This was the first time that I thought about photographing them in black and white with a very moody feeling to them. I got the camera set up near the bottom of the steps and moved the frayed caution tape out of the way as it was just blowing in the wind. I still had the long lens and polarizer attached which was perfect for what I was after. Much like the ceiling I had just photographed, I was looking for a small section of interest to make an abstract of sorts since the sky was still not looking all that great. I struggled with this composition quite a bit and while I did make several exposures, none of them seemed to hit home for me. Maybe they would when I got home. I was looking around the stairs for different areas that I might be able to concentrate on and saw that some fog was starting to roll in. This could be fun for the stairs, but I had found myself walking in the grass looking at the outside wall of the stairs.
SQUIRREL!!
I was liking the view of the lodge from just beside the steps looking towards a tree in the distance that was going to be covered with fog shortly. I went back to my previous location to get my bag so that I could swap lenses in preparation for the shot that I had just seen.
SQUIRREL!!
Looking back over in the direction of the meadow, the fog that was approaching was stalled out just on the other side of the trees. I saw a single bush, or dwarf tree standing by itself right at the point where the fog was sitting. The light was really good, and I love doing foggy pictures in black and white. Oh, did I mention that I had changed the camera over to the B&W picture style to help me with my compositions on the steps. Nope, I must have forgotten that part. Well, I framed up the photo and really liked how it looked in black and white. I had time to shoot three variations on the composition before the fog overtook the trees. Not once did I consider doing this one in color, but when I got home and looked at the RAW file (they all show in color regardless of what picture style I select), the color struck me because of the warm sunlight. That photo was the only one from the day that got processed as a color photo. Usually, the ratio is reversed, but hey….SQUIRREL!!
With the fog coming in, I moved over to the stairs once again and decided to change things up from what I had originally tried to do. Since the isolation compositions were not really working for me, I swapped my lens out for my 24-70mm and moved the polarizer over to that lens. My idea was to get the stairs winding up to the sky above that would hopefully have some detail and work to set the mood for the image. I was still looking through live view in black and white mode which helped me visualize how this was going to look after I processed it. I tried three different compositions that I committed to and waited for the lighting and sky to change around it. Each composition was probably about 10-15 minutes’ worth of work. The composition that I liked the best was the last one, and that is what you see here. The clouds have the needed detail, and the even light on the stonework makes it interesting because of the textures. The railing adds another dimension of detail to look at and the best part is the atmosphere that was established. I liked this composition so much better than the isolation that I had started out trying to capture.
With the fog rolling in seriously now, I decided to go back to the other composition that I had in mind for the lodge that included the tree in the background. It should be getting near that time when it was going to work out. I turned around to grab my bag and
SQUIRREL!!
There was a tree on the other side of the lodge which had a fence going under it. The fog was almost fully enveloping that tree and it looked amazing. I moved in closer to it until I could get the right amount of fog diffusing the details of the bark. I got the camera set up low so that I could use the lowest branch to frame the fence that was just beyond the tree. I wanted to go with a horizontal composition because the tree had a very defined shape going off to the right and I wanted to highlight that more than the height of the tree. The breeze was staring to pick up, so I was worried about movement in the leaves. I boosted the ISO to 200 which helped the shutter speed a little bit, but not enough. Since there wasn’t much need in increasing contrast at this point, I pulled off the polarizer and stuck it in my bag.
That did the trick, and my shutter speed was now 1/250 of a second which was sufficient to freeze the leaves and branches of the tree. I tried a few variations on the composition as I tried different ways of incorporating the fence. There was a section of the fence that I found particularly interesting and as I tried to figure out how to include it with the composition, I just accepted that this was another….
SQUIRREL!!
I abandoned the tree as an element and started to focus my attention on the fence. I got in close and elevated the camera as high as I could while racking the 24-70mm out to its widest focal length. I made slight movements as I watched the different elements change their relationships. This fence was looking too good in the LCD since I was still looking at things in black and white. I thought that it was actually better than the tree photos that I had been working on, and very possibly better than the stairs photos from before that. I started to experiment a bit with this fence and eventually started to include a smaller tree to the right of this section. Before I could land on a composition that I liked, you know what happened.
Yep…
SQUIRREL!!
I was now facing the direction of the back of the lodge where I had seen a possible composition before the fog rolled in. Now that the fog was here, the composition was gone. The tree had disappeared, but I knew that the fog was coming in waves and would thin out eventually. It was going to take me a while to get the composition dialed in anyway, so I had better get started for when the fog thinned. I had the right lens on the camera for this, so it was just a matter of finding the right framing and focal length. I knew that I wanted the stone wall and the chimney included for the needed texture to the image. That necessitated the inclusion of the two windows on either side of the chimney. From there, I tried really hard to not block any of the doors or windows in the closest proximity to the camera. I had to estimate where the tree was going to be and how much of the frame it was going to take up. It was a guess, but I had a composition laid out and I was ready.
In a few minutes, the fog started to thin, and I was able to start making exposures. As I was able to see the tree well enough, I was happy with the framing and how I had set the composition up. I just kept making exposures as the conditions changed until the fog covered the tree back up once again. When I couldn’t see the tree, I started to go back through the shots that I had made to see if there was anything that I needed to change for the next round. I decided that I had a bit too much breathing room at the tree, so I tightened up the framing just a little bit and waited once again.
The next round came, and the fog started to thin out once again. I liked the breathing room better here, so I committed to that composition for this round. This time, the sky because visible and there was a bit of blue in the sky which I liked seeing through the fog. I knew that it would give me the option of having some darkness in the sky should I want it that way. When the fog lifted and everything was clear, I again looked at the images in review to see what I had. I really liked the conditions of the second round, but I realized that there was a bit of perspective distortion that had been added to the photo at 35mm. It wasn’t bad, but it was enough that I was going to want to correct it in Lightroom. That pretty much assured me of having to use the first-round photos because I was going to need that extra breathing room in order to use the guided transformation tool to correct the distortion. Spoiler, it worked like a charm, and I actually liked the overall foggy sky the best anyway.
SQUIRREL!!
I forgot to mention that early on when I was searching for something to shoot, I had spent some time at a window between the two buildings which was flanked by the chimney and a tree which was growing in the dirt by the window. This had not worked well at all, and I had abandoned the idea quickly. As I was standing in the grass shooting the previous photo, I was again intrigued by the idea of the tree next to the window on an upper level. I decided to go back up there and try it again with the 24-70mm lens. I got the rough composition figured out and decided to shoot it at an angle this time and not concentrate on the tree as much as the window. In this version of the composition, the main reason to shoot the image because but a supporting character in the overall story. It was the window that turned into the visual anchor which was surrounded by signs of neglect and decay. Still shooting in black and white, this composition was looking really good.
It was at this point that Toni called to tell me how her day had been going up to this point. She was headed home to get a jacket because she was sitting in a wind tunnel in the classroom and was getting cold. She was having a good time and getting into the rhythm of the day as I knew that she would. We spoke for a bit as she drove home and as the light started to change, I started making more exposures while talking to her. Since she knew I was working with the changing light, she let me get back to it.
Shortly after getting off the phone with her, I felt that I was coming to the end of the day. My creativity was getting tired after bouncing from one subject to another like I had been. I didn’t pack things up just yet though. The fog was still coming in pretty good at this point and I wanted to see if I could do anything with the large tree just off of the parking lot. I got up to it and found the best composition was one that I had shot before, but the full leaves were not doing this composition any favors this time. However, the trees in the background were looking really good in the fog.
SQUIRREL!!
I just walked across the street to get to the trees without giving much thought to the event. I walked into the wood line and started to look at the trees critically to see what stood out to me. There were a couple of interesting trees, but most didn’t have an interesting background to work with. It was a good setup for some woodland images which I had not shot in quite some time. I changed the picture style in my camera back to color because the greens were looking really nice in the fog, and I wanted to capture those tones rather than just textures. Since it was starting to drizzle, I didn’t worry about putting the polarizer back on which didn’t bother me much. I’ve found that woodland images tend to look a little better without a polarizer because the glare actually adds to the interest in some situations.
The routine went something like this. I would find a tree, get a composition set up, move a few fallen branches, take several exposures and move to a different composition or to a different tree. I slowly worked my way from once end to the other with the fog getting so thick that I couldn’t see back across the road to where my truck was parked. I stayed conscious of the fact that the rain was falling at an increasing rate and that the forecast had been calling for rain in the early afternoon.
I found one more tree that stood out and worked out a composition around it. I managed to get three exposures made at ISO320 because of the wind that was now causing everything to move, but with the low light, I was still only shooting at 1/50 of a second…just enough to freeze everything. After that third exposure, the raindrops were getting bigger, and I was going to have to start worrying about drops getting on the lens. I had 140 frames from the day, but it only felt like maybe 80. It was way more than I had thought I would get from this simple undirected trek. With that in mind I didn’t feel bad at all about calling it a day. I walked back to the truck…well, in the direction of the truck because I couldn’t see it knowing it was only 150 feet or so in front of me.
By the time I got to the truck it was starting to pour. I opened the hatch and used it as a shelter as I pulled the camera apart and put things back where they were supposed to go. I then ran around to get in the driver’s seat. The bottom had fallen out and there was no way I was going to get any more photos at this point. I just put the truck in drive and headed home with my eyes peeled for any more squirrels along the way that might not be in the rain.
Well, there were no more squirrels for this trip, but it was certainly a fun one. It was kind of freeing to just let loose and shoot whatever came to mind. It was also really nice to spend a day doing nothing but black and white photography, with the exception of the one landscape that just simply looked better in color. The edits all went surprisingly fast as well considering I did a total of 12 full edits on the images. Two of them didn’t make the cut, one of which was canned in favor of a similar image with different lighting that just worked better once I got the edit done.
I do hope that you have enjoyed this trek, as well as the photographs. Remember, if any of these speak to you, I would love to talk with you about getting you matched up with a print. If you enjoy my photography, but would prefer the subject to be you, or your family, I can certainly do that as well. If you are a photographer and want to learn some of my techniques, as luck would have it, I can help you out there as well. In addition to offering a mentorship program, I have three more workshops scheduled for the remainder of 2022. You can choose between landscapes, waterfalls, or decay for the subject matter. You can also choose to do all of them if you like. There are still slots available for each of the workshops but get signed up soon as I expect them to sell out.
Until next time…
SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!
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