Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Here we are; a week into the new year already, and I’m now finished with my second trek. This might not really constitute as a full-on trek though. It took place roughly five miles from home, included just 14 frames shot of a single subject, and one keeper out of those. In all fairness though, this was pretty much how I expected things to go, and I consider this a really big success. The concept for it started last week when I was out doing a little exploring on some dirt roads near the house. I had been out here a few times in the past and had seen some potential, but nothing that really made me want to return with the camera. This particular time, however, I spotted what I thought was an old Lincoln sitting in a small shed in a ravine off to the side of the road. I don’t recall ever seeing it before, but there was something about it that caught my attention. The way the sun was hitting it at the time made only the very front of the car visible against the shadows, but it was enough to get me thinking.
Since that ride, I have been pondering the options on how to shoot it. I was thinking that a good cloudy day would work for getting the car out of the shadows, but that would likely make the image feel very flat. To incorporate the sun into the shot would bring heavy shadows and would absolutely require a low sun in the morning which would shine into the shelter just enough to bring life to the car. Of course, that would mean that I was going to have to worry about shadows being cast from across the street as well as myself, so the sun couldn’t be too low. Just exactly how much sun was going to be a guess in the best of circumstances.
To add difficulty to this shot, the area that I was in was one where I fully expected to be questioned by the neighbors as to why I was out there. While this particular spot had no “No Trespassing” signs, the areas around it did. For what I was needing, I just needed access to the shoulder of the road and had no intention of getting any closer than that. While I’m legally able to do that, I know that I would be drawing attention which meant that I didn’t want to linger there and cause anyone to really become suspicious of my activity. There wasn’t going to be time to wait for the sun to change positions much, so I was going to have to pretty much guess it right and get the shot.
There were two mornings that I contemplated going out and shooting this car. The first was a cloudy morning with some nice atmosphere, but as I thought about how the photo would look, I didn’t want this to be a cloudy photo with limited contrast which is my usual style. Since the car was in the shadow of the shelter, the lack of shadows in it would reduce the depth of the main subject and I didn’t think that would work. A sunny day was going to be better.
The next morning was sunny, but cold. I was up in time to go out and give it a try, but I was thinking that some thin clouds might help to bridge that gap and provide lighting that would be easier to work with. There were clouds forecasted for early afternoon which might work out for me. I waited and when the clouds came, I saw no change to the light which negated this idea completely. I had passed up on a cloudy day, a clear morning, and thin clouds in the afternoon. My lighting options were starting to get kind of thin and I was wondering if I really wanted to shoot the old car or not.
I had taken a quick cell photo of the scene when I spotted it originally. I had used this for reference and previsualization. I kept going back to it and trying to decide if I was talking myself into or out of going to get the photo. I really couldn’t answer this for myself which was a little unsettling to say the least. I kept batting around the idea and every night, I had gone to sleep thinking that I would shoot it the next morning. When morning would come, I would talk myself out of going.
This morning was the morning that I decided to sh*t or get off the pot as they say. I woke up in time to get out there shortly after sunrise, so I got dressed and went through my morning as the sun was rising. I left around 8am and got to the spot shortly thereafter. The sun was looking good, providing lighting on the whole scene, but plenty of shadows in the woods. The car was in full sun, but the shelter was giving the rear of the car a bit of mystery in the deep shadows. In short, this was looking pretty good to me. I parked on the side of the road and bundled myself up for the 19-degree outside that awaited. The camera was built using the standard lens because I wanted to include a bit of the surroundings in the frame to really show the full story of the car. I just added a polarizer which was not going to do too much considering the sun was at my back.
I walked along the shoulder back and forth until I had the angle that I thought worked the best and moved in slightly, still within about 10 feet of the road though. I confirmed the angle and framing before setting the exposure. I fired off a test shot and looked through everything to see if it worked as I wanted it to. With a few alterations, I was happy with it and fired off another couple of frames. It was the third one that I ended up liking the best during the editing process. I did shoot nearly a dozen more with some different framing choices just so I had options when I got home. It was hard to see exactly what I was dealing with the frame because of the glare from the sun on the LCD. I wasn’t able to use the viewfinder because of how high up the camera was mounted, but I could see well enough that I could change up the composition slightly here and there.
After about 10 minutes on the side of the road, I decided I had what I needed, and I was getting very cold. I went back to the truck and broke down the camera with the exception of the polarizer which I didn’t have enough dexterity in my fingers to remove from the filter mount. I just placed that on the floor of the truck until I got my hands warm enough to pull it apart after getting back home. There was no sense in looking for any more photo opportunities because the sun was very bright and harsh by this point. It had been perfect for what I was shooting, but without a plan on where to go, the light was just too specific to wander around looking for something else.
When I got back home, I got the polarizer separated from the mount and put everything away. After doing a few things on the computer, I imported the series of images into Lightroom and started to cull them down. I ended up with one from early on, and one from nearly the end. The difference was the latter one had more of the surroundings in the photo which I thought I might like better. When I started comparing them, I realized that the car was getting lost in the scene, so the earlier one was the better choice for processing.
I started off doing this as a color presentation because the green tones in the windshield and bumper played nicely with the warmer tones of the scene. The more I worked the image, the more I realized that there was no balance between those colors and the greens were more of a distraction than a compliment. I switched things over to one of my favorite B&W profiles and took a minute to consider that option. It made more sense to me with the contrast in the scene, and by removing the generally warm color tones, the feeling of the photo came back into focus. This was the presentation that struck me as being right, while the color one just looked kind of blah.
The processing was tweaked and finalized in black and white with attention being paid to how the different tones worked throughout the scene. The end result is one that I really like and I’m happy that I picked a sunny morning to get out and work this scene. It was the sun which provided the focus of the eye. Had I gone out on a cloudy day as is my usual preference, the car would have been totally lost in the scene without some very heavy Lightroom work which I don’t think would have worked well here at all.
I hope you agree with me that this was the right way to do this photo, and I do hope that you have enjoyed it as well as the narrative behind it. If you find yourself staring at this one and visually exploring it, might I suggest ordering a print so that you can have it mounted on the wall to be enjoyed any time you would like. There really is no better way to enjoy photography than in the printed form.
Until next time….
