Saturday, March 15, 2025
The title gives away the punchline to this joke in several ways. However, the journey to get to this point is worth talking about. It seems that March has been the month of very significant treks. I started it off with a ride out to Wilkes Community College to do a little something different and came back with way more photos than I had intended to get. It had been a very sunny day, and I just wanted to get out and shoot. I never expected to come home with ten keepers from that trek. That was followed up with a ride out to the area of Hays where I wasn’t really convinced that the light was working for me. To make matters worse, my first two ideas for the day had fallen through leaving me with a location that I stopped at because I spotted the property owner outside. That stop turned into an epic experience with 23 keepers being added to the collection. That was also the first three-part blog that I did for the month. I usually don’t do these multiple part blogs often, but it seems like they are becoming a bit more frequent these days. I used to reserve them for trips that took multiple days as a way to organize the events both for me, and for you as you follow along. It would seem that I’m starting to get more and more photos from some of the locations that I am going to. The surprising part is that many of these fruitful treks are coming from the most unlikely of places when I look at them from the street.
After working at the computer for several days on that previous trek, I decided I wanted to take advantage of a bit of clouds the next week. I went back to try my luck at getting permission to access a property that I have been after for about a year. Looking at things from the road, I was thinking an hour or so there to capture some photos with a handful to process. That little property had some hidden gems out of sight though and I ended up with 18 keepers from the day. This of course, ended up in another few days at the computer processing and typing blogs. Because there were so many new images, I opted to go with a three-part blog once again which made two in a row in as many weeks.
While I love being able to work with so many subjects, there does come a time when I get tired of being so focused on a single trek. I mean these are taking roughly three days’ worth of work each, to get the photos shot, edited, and uploaded through the blog. In just three treks in the month of March, I have added like 51 photos to my collection! That is just no small task, and I was ready for a break. You might remember that one of my goals was more frequent treks with fewer photos captured in each. So far, I’ve been failing here at the end of winter as the spring is just getting started.
That brings us up to the end of the second full week of the month, and I was almost recovered from my last trek. Toni and I went out for a date night in Hiddenite to a restaurant that was recommended to us. We had a great time, and it was a very unique experience. Coming home, we went through Taylorsville where I have spent quite a bit of time over the years on different treks. I was pretty sure that I had a decent handle on what the area had to offer, and there are several little locations that I still want to figure out how to photograph.
One of those locations just happened to be near the restaurant, and as we drove by I remembered that I have been wanting to figure out a composition there. It was a pair of barns off to the side of the road. The problem that I have run into is that they are a good distance away from the road, and there is quite a bit of brush between the railroad tracks and the property that I would have to shoot over. In the past, I have not had the ability to get the camera high enough to do that. Now that I was looking at it, the brush had died down a good bit, and now that I have a truck, I would be able to get into the bed of it for a bit more elevation. My mind started to think through things, and I started to figure out a composition that would work at the distance. By keeping the barns kind of small, I would open the composition up to include the sky and the trees in the background. For this, I would need light on the barns, and ideally a bit of color in the trees from the new growth. I would also need an interesting sky that would come from partly cloudy skies overhead.
I filed those ideas away in my soon to be executed file within my brain.
As we moved out of Taylorsville and towards the Northern end of Alexander County, I saw what could be, an old store, or possibly a barn that I had noticed before as a possible subject for a photo. There had been some things propped up against it that ruined the appearance for me, but those things were gone now. The resulting clean surroundings made for a much more interesting composition. I just wasn’t sure what exactly would make for the best conditions. I was going to need the sun on the right side of the road, so this would likely be a morning subject, much like the barn that we had passed shortly before.
Just like that, after dinner, I had two locations in mind for a quick trek. If the weather cooperated, I could actually hit both locations and shoot probably 20 frames between the two, and come home with two solid keepers. This was the kind of trek that I was looking for. It would be quick out in the field and even quicker back at the computer. It would almost be like a vacation for me after two very intense treks which I wasn’t looking to have a repeat performance of.
It all just came down to the weather. My thoughts were that I would have a partly cloudy morning with some puffy clouds to the West while the sun was shining through from the East. This would be the right light, and the background needed for the two barns. I also thought that if the light was really good and the sky was cooperating, I could drive down the driveway to one of the two houses to find out if I could get access into the property for some different perspective shots. This might add a photo or two to the day, but would be well worth it, and possibly be better than the idea that I was already cooking.
The other structure that I was interested in would look good in similar lighting, but the sun would have to be higher in the sky to avoid the shade from the opposite side of the street. This meant that I could go later in the morning and grab that shot. Having just a bit of interest in the sky would give me some options on how to photograph the building. There was a very good possibility that I could get both of them shot on the same outing which would be nice, and still not produce a lot of photos to go through.
As I was looking at the weather to see when I might be able to get these subjects photographed, it appeared that Friday might be the day. there were some clouds in the forecast until about 11am which would be perfect for me. It was showing partly cloudy with mostly high-level clouds that would let the sun light the subject while the sky would have some interest. With that, I made plans to get up and head out kind of early on Friday to see if I could make these locations work.
Well, when I got up and saw the first light outside, the clouds were more a haze and weren’t providing much interest at all. In fact, it was rather bright outside, and the sun was a little harsh already. Looking at the hourly forecast, the clouds were supposed to build up into the afternoon now. While this wouldn’t be ideal because the sun would be behind my subjects, if there were enough clouds, that wouldn’t matter. The determining part would be the visual interest in the sky. If it remained just overcast, my ideas would not work out as I needed interest in the sky in any scenario that I planned on shooting.
Throughout the day, I was looking at the weather and found that nothing was really going to change during the afternoon. It was just a solid day of high overcast clouds that weren’t doing anything at all for me creatively. The weekend was looking a little better though with partly cloudy skies during the morning on Saturday with a good many of those clouds being lower-level ones which I was actually wanting for the texture. There might not be as much sunlight on the scene, but it might still work out. With Toni going to work early on Saturday, I was certainly going to be up before the first light so that I could make my decision about when to leave based on the light and the clouds.
There was a part of me that really thought that the light wasn’t going to work out well for these subjects as I really wanted to have a bit of warm morning light shining on the scenes. I was thinking about other locations in the area that might prove interesting to work. I started to think back to some recent visits into the area and remembered stumbling onto a possible location after shooting the car in the shed. I had found this location in mid-February after getting a closer look at a barn. That hadn’t worked out, so I had done my normal drive for a bit further and find a side road to explore. As I was driving down that road, I wasn’t really seeing anything, so I pulled over to get turned around since it was starting to rain on me. It was at that moment that I spotted three Pontiacs by a two-story building. They were not in an ideal setting, but I thought that I might be able to get some isolations shot of them.
I paused on the side of the road and thought about the compositional options. There was potential, but I was going to have to knock at the neighboring house to see about getting permission to get into the property. With the drizzle falling, I didn’t think that it would be a worthwhile time ask. If I did manage to get access, I would be fighting rain on my lens element, and there would be spots of water on the cars that might prove to be a distraction in the photos. I decided to save the ask for a different day and just marked my map with the location.
It was that location that came to mind as I was thinking about an alternate spot for photos in case the two locations that I had in mind didn’t pan out. Oddly enough, it only resonated in my mind because I remembered recently adding a location to the map in the area of Taylorsville. I pulled out the phone and started to go through my saved locations and found one that I didn’t recognize in the area and opened it up. Sure enough, it was labeled “Pontiacs.” The satellite didn’t really show much of the area, but the street view confirmed that this was the spot that had the three Pontiacs. It wasn’t much, but it was something that would work well if the clouds were too thick.
When Saturday morning came around, I was up before daybreak as planned. Looking at the weather, the clouds were much thicker than anticipated with fog in the area of Taylorsville. This was obviously not the right conditions for the locations that I had wanted to visit. There was even some mention of drizzle through the morning. The afternoon was supposed to clear up a bit with partly cloudy skies and some wind before s storm system moved through. The sun would be in the wrong position for either of the locations by that point of the day. It was looking like it was going to be a wash of a day, so I settled into my morning routine and tried to do some marketing.
Of course, having gotten up really early, I was finished with pretty much everything by 9am. The light was dreary outside and when I walked out, I could feel a slight mist on my skin. There was just nothing about this that gave me hope for any good photos. I would go back inside and sit in my chair and ponder watching a movie or just spending time on social media doing some marketing. That was going to make for a very long day and not one that I looked forward to. Looking ahead to Sunday, the forecast was calling for rain through most of the day with some pretty high winds. This meant that I wasn’t going to be doing much then either. The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t want to just sit for the weekend. I got to thinking about the location with the Pontiacs. It wasn’t much, but it would give me something to fill up the day at least with some new content being added to the blog.
Even if I couldn’t get permission there, I was sure to find something else that would work in the area. There is a lot of potential out there and I usually get something in the camera when I do visit. I just had to get there and pull the camera out. It was about 10:30 when I finally decided to grab my gear and head into Alexander County. Just as I had figured, the minute I pulled out of the garage my windshield was showing a light mist falling. If it stayed like this, I would be fine, but a heavy mist, or a drizzle would cause me problems. All I could do was hope.
When I started to clime the Brushy Mountains the mist got heavier, and the fog started to creep in. I had the thought that I might do better to turn around and go somewhere else. I even thought about going out to a waterfall because there were great conditions for photographing those. The problem was, I didn’t have my waterproof boots on, and really didn’t want to take the several hours ride out to Catawba Falls on a weekend this late in the day. I committed to working Alexander County and just continued on.
By the time I got to the other side of the mountain and into Taylorsville, the rain was coming down a at a rate that would make it very difficult to photograph isolations on a car. It was kind of like the last time I had been out to this location. I was starting to think that this spot was cursed, and I wasn’t meant to shoot it. Oddly enough, I wasn’t really upset because it was just three cars that had very limited compositional possibilities, so I wasn’t going to be out much in the grand scheme of things. However, the closer I got to the spot, the lighter the rain became.
When I pulled into the driveway of the neighboring house, it was barely a mist. The clouds were not looking great, but they were making for nice light at least. I got out of the truck and started walking up to the house and was greeted by a curious dog that wanted me to scratch his head and let him sniff me. Once that happened, he followed me to the front door as I knocked. I did the customary thing of waiting quietly a few steps away from the door while I listened for movement. There was no movement inside of the house, and nobody ever came to the door. As I came back out to my truck, I repeatedly said “hello” in a voice that would carry a little bit in hopes that somebody would hear me. There was no response, and even the dog had gotten bored of me and left.
I got back in the truck and started to back out of the driveway while I was looking at the cars. There also appeared to be a couple of Fords by the trees a little further into the property. I still wasn’t feeling too bad about not getting permission. I could easily come back another day, and as we have found out, I have no problem waiting to get the needed permission to access a property. I just figured that I would dive around and see what else I might be able to find in the area. I took a right out of the driveway to see what the rest of the road had to offer. As I drove past the house, I spotted a sign that gave a phone number for those who wanted ground beef. I didn’t really pay it much attention at the time, but when I saw a cattle farm a short distance down the road, I started to think that this might be the farm of the homeowner.
After checking out the rest of the road, I pulled off on the shoulder when I got back to the sign and called the number. In just a couple of rings, the call was answered. I introduced myself and asked if they were associated with the house, and more specifically, the neighboring property. He wasn’t, however, he was actually with that owner doing an Eagle Scout project. He said that he would let him know that I was wanting to speak with him and to just go ahead and pull into the driveway. I thanked him and did just that.
A few minutes later, there was a van pulling up and I could tell they were about to turn into the lot where I was parked. I got out to meet the man and found him to be quite hospitable. We chatted for a while about his love for Pontiacs and he said that he had a really nice one inside of the shop. Of course, I let him show me a Pontiac convertible that he had driven when he was in high school. He went on to tell me how he met his wife in that car, and they dated in the car. More than four decades later, he was still married to her and still had the car. It had been freshened up a while back but was largely original.
He then said that he would show me the rest of his cars, or at least what was left. There had been hundreds of cars further into the property years ago, but many had been removed over the years. In fact, he was going through another purge currently and getting rid of anything that wasn’t a Pontiac. He took me in the direction of the Fords that I had seen earlier and when we got there, this whole world of rust opened up. Things like this happen more often than not when it comes to these kinds of subjects. In fact, I had a very similar experience not too far from here when I stopped at a shop that had just a couple of cars out front. I refer to this phenomenon as the “Plus One Rule” which is something that I stole from my Police training. Essentially, it reminds us where you find one thing, you will often find another, so keep looking. This is probably the most helpful concept that a decay photographer can use to find these subjects.
Essentially, I had spotted three cars out front that would make marginal subjects, but those got me close to a couple more. After getting permission and being given a tour, I found another 30 or so cars tucked away out of sight. All of a sudden, I started to feel this excitement overwhelming me. What had started as a simple trek was ramping up really quickly. I could see a lot of potential out here, but the mist was still in the air. I knew that there was a chance of rain around the middle of the day before the clouds started to break up. Would I have enough time to shoot all of this? Had I wasted the ask on a day when I was limited in time? Had I known all of this was here, I would have planned my day accordingly. Now, I was thrust into what could be another epic trek with a ton of photos. I needed to wrap my mind around that idea, and do it quickly.
Part of my creative process is considering how I want to shoot something. This is easy when it is a single subject like the barn I had originally planned on shooting. It is still pretty simple when I am thinking about a group of three different subjects like the Pontiacs by the two-story building. I had in mind that I was going to be working with isolations for the most part and that gave me enough of an understanding to start to listen to the landscape. Now that the possibilities had opened up quite a bit, I was kind of in a state of shock as to what I was going to do. The clouds that were providing the good light for the isolations were not nearly interesting enough to become an element in the photos which meant that large, storytelling images were going to be difficult because I just can’t stand a blank sky in my photos. I could still shoot isolations, but there were several subjects that were set out from the others that would make pretty decent studies as an overall composition. My mind was racing, and this is not a good way to be when trying to be creative. I needed to slow things down and listen to the landscape.
The issue here was that I didn’t know how much time I had to work with due to the weather. The mist was still falling, and it was right at noon which meant that the expected rain chances were going to be going up very soon. I just went to the truck and grabbed my gear and started out to the new area that had just opened up because there were a lot more opportunities there than what I had seen from the road. I just didn’t know where to start. Normally, I would start walking around and taking mental notes of what stood out from the crowd. That could take a while to do with this bunch of cars. Not wanting to waste the time and potentially the ask for permission, I decided to just dive right in.
I remembered seeing that the biggest difference in the two ends of the property was that the lower side was down in a ravine which would allow more compositional options that didn’t include the sky. On the other end, the cars were on a ridge that kind of forced the sky into the photo. Remembering the cloud forecast, I knew that there would be a chance for some more interesting clouds within the next couple of hours. Those interesting clouds were going to be bringing the rain chances though. I was going to have to gamble here because the better subjects happened to be the ones a bit further up on the hill. In the hopes of getting better compositions, I might be missing a chance to get anything with them by starting lower in the valley.
This is where planning really comes into play for locations like this. It would have been quite easy to have spent four hours working these different scenes. I was thinking that I had maybe two hours if I was lucky. I just kept feeling like I had picked the wrong day to photograph this location. However, I have been experiencing some pretty good luck with the epic spots here lately when I ended up spending more time than I would have thought. Maybe I would have a repeat of that type of experience. One thing that I had working in my favor was the fact that the wind was about nonexistent, and the lighting was very consistent thanks to the overcast sky. What this meant for the photography was that I wouldn’t have to spend much time on any particular composition. The only variable that I would have to deal with would be the composition, but once I landed on that, the photo would be able to happen in just a frame or two. In short, I was looking at a very high hit rate providing I could find meaningful compositions.
It was time to find that first one and get it in the bag. I did get slightly sidetracked on the way down the hill because there were two cars sitting all by themselves right on a hump in the middle of the property. They were surrounded by barns, and I liked the idea of the scene. I completely broke my agreement with myself and tried to frame up an overall shot of these cars while minimizing the sky as much as I could. I didn’t like how that was looking, so I changed to a wider-angle approach and added a grad filter to try and bring out a little bit of texture in the sky. It looked like I was possibly onto something, but the textures were so faint, I knew that this was going to have to be a black and white photo which would allow me to work the contrasts much more than color would.
After a few attempts, I decided that was enough time wasted on that idea, and I moved into the more interesting of the two cars. This was the Galaxie 500 which happened to be missing the hood. There was something about the way that the grill had been pulled away from the radiator support that captured my interest. I also liked the brush that was growing up around it. This became the basis for my first successful shot of the day. You can see that shot in the opening of this entry and it was the first of many that I managed to capture.
Why am I just now starting to talk about the photos that appear in this blog? Well, the day was so disjointed that a direct narrative related to the photos could only be interpreted by someone with ADHD. I quite literally felt like I was bouncing around and I was giving very little thought to the compositions that started the day off. I was rushed and overly excited at all of the possibilities. I figured that the more interesting story here was just how accidental this trek was, and how something so simple as three cars that offered limited compositional possibilities can turn into something that I would consider an epic day behind the camera.
We will have plenty of time to talk about the photos, but they are just going to appear in the order that they were shot as I go through the blog entries. The narrative will take on its own tempo, so just sit back and enjoy the story. I have a feeling there are just a few of you that take the time to read the entries anyway. Most will just open the blog to see the photos and maybe skim bits of the story as it pertains to their favorite photo. My hopes are that this format might cause more to read through the day and appreciate just how special this trek became.
Before I take a quick intermission, I wanted to explain the title for this blog. At the risk of spilling the beans, this will be a three-part blog entry. Now you know what you are in for. As I’ve alluded to, the last two entries that I have done have been three-parters as well. This makes the third three-part blog in as many weeks. Even to me, this is starting to feel like the director’s cut of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Each movie is a couple of DVDs long, and it takes a full day to watch them from start to finish. It is one of those epic trilogies, and I am finding myself in just that kind of situation with my rusty subjects this month. Hopefully this is the third and final part to this rusty adventure and I can get back to more manageable treks in the future.
I’ll be back tomorrow with the next installment for you, and more photos from the day.
See you back here soon….
