Sunday, August 27, 2023
I think it must have been three years ago when I was driving down 16 into Lenoir when I spotted an old Exxon sign proudly displayed over an empty lot. The station was long since gone, and all that was left was the parking lot. That will make for an interesting photo I thought, so I pulled over and started to look at the lay of the land. Some things that I quickly noticed were the overabundance of power lines, a power pole right next to the sign, a house in the background, and not much interest in the parking lot that remained. I thought about doing an isolation of the sign, but when I started to examine that composition, things started to get really boring. The sign was obviously old, but not quite what I would consider decayed. The post had some interesting aging to it, but again, not enough to really sell the story that I was trying to convey with this particular subject.
The more I looked at it, the less interested I became in capturing an image. After probably five minutes of looking at my options, I got back in the truck and drove on to something else that I probably captured with my camera. The memory of the sign wasn’t erased from my mind though as I was still drawn to it. I just didn’t see anything worth photographing as of yet. As the years passed by, I would see this sign every time I drove into Lenoir, and I would remember being interested in it at one time. Occasionally, would pull over into that same parking lot and look at the sign once more. It never really filled all the criteria I was after for the sign. Eventually, I did let the sign go and quit really looking at it, choosing instead to focus on other compositions that might work in the area.
This was how things went for quite some time, until Toni happened to be with me going down the road on the way to the Dear World UNC Asheville shoot that we did earlier this month. I don’t remember if she pointed it out, or if I pointed it out, but the conversation went something like this. “I’ve tried to shoot that sign on a number of occasions, but there just isn’t enough substance to it to carry a photograph.” I talked about how the power lines got in the way, and all of the other issues that I have had with it. While I was examining the scene (still driving past it), the tree that was growing up alongside the post caught my eye as something new to the scene. Realizing that I was being very negative about the scene, I said that the greenery kind of helps out the composition. It did, but I wasn’t convinced that I was going to be able to make anything work with this sign since there were still a lot of power lines around it.
There wasn’t any time to try out any shots and the only camera that I had was the EOS R5, which was in a bag that was geared to people photos, and not this type of subject. I just put it in the back of my mind for another time. I did realize that it was important to get back to it before the foliage died off during the Fall which kind of put a rush on the idea. I knew that I was going to need an interesting sky for the composition because so much of the frame would be taken up by the sky. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not, but I did like the greenery growing over the sign.
A couple of weeks past, and I was starting to feel like going out again with the camera. I’ve actually been a lot busier than the blog would suggest and I have just finished up a large-scale headshot session for an investment company based in Charlotte. The final edits were completed Thursday evening after two different dates of shooting with 24 staff members photographed. I wasn’t looking for anything remotely as involved as I’ve been doing recently, I just wanted to get out and work the old DSLR again since most of what I’ve done this month has been with the mirrorless body. The initial plan was to go out with a mentorship client for a sunrise at Price Lake, but I found out that he was out of town which left me not wanting to get up that early just for me at a place where I’ve shot many times before. I was happy staying home and catching up on things in the office.
However, as I got things handled, I realized that I was going to have some time to go out, and I knew that there was the threat of some bad weather coming in during the early afternoon. That would mean a mix of heavy clouds, and some sunlight which usually makes for some interesting photographic conditions. I had a couple of hours until that was going to be taking place, which gave me some time to figure out where I might want to go. Nothing was appealing to me as I went down my list of possible areas to shoot in, but when I recalled passing this Exxon sign in Lenoir, I started to visualize an interesting photo with the conditions that I was expecting to see. It wasn’t that far of a drive, and with nothing else to do, I decided to get my bag, with the right camera and gear for capturing this sign.
All the way out there, the sun was bright, but I could see the clouds coming in from the West. I might have to wait a bit for the conditions to be right, but there was a good chance if I could get a composition, I would have good lighting. I thought about the story that I wanted to tell with the photo which is a little odd for me. Usually, I will let the story develop as I am working the composition. Since I was very familiar with the elements that I was going to be working with, I wanted to have a plan of how I wanted to mix and match those elements. After all, I wasn’t going there to just photograph an old Exxon sign. I needed a purpose behind it.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about the shift to electric vehicles and hybrids. Part of that interest is because I know that eventually, that will be the only choice, and part of it is to figure out whether or not it will be better or worse from a transportation standpoint. I’ve heard about how many aspects of life as we know it will change, and a lot of the car culture that we have now will be altered drastically. I’m not here to make a case for, or against electric vehicles, but my interest in the topic started to help me formulate the idea for the photo.
When I arrived at the sign, things were pretty much as I remembered them from the last time I drove past it with Toni. It was still just a sign, which only showed moderate age, but the neglect was much more evident with the tree growing up around it. I had a feeling that I was going to be shooting this with my long lens, so that was what I mounted to the camera. I wanted as much contrast in the sky as possible, and I wanted the glare under control on the leaves, so I mounted my Color Combo Polarizer to the filter holder and clipped that to the lens. From there, it was just a matter of finding the right spot to put the tripod.
My main concern was getting an angle that flattered the sign, included the post, but omitted the power lines and power pole. A secondary concern was getting a background in the shot for depth. Of course, I wanted to make sure that I got enough of the tree that was growing over the sign, but not so much that the sign got lost in the composition. What I ended up with originally was a very minimal composition with the sign down low and to the right. There was a bunch of negative space in the sky which I liked, but the composition seemed very off-balance with this arrangement. I only shot two frames like this before I abandoned the concept and placed the sign in the upper right of the frame. This allowed me to get the tops of the trees off in the background which I emphasized through the use of a limited depth of field. This felt much better, and it fit the story that I wanted to tell much better this way.
Here I was, looking at a fairly up to date sign for a fuel supplier that is still very much in business. However, the sign shows all the signs of neglect that tell us that this sign has been forgotten about for some time now. The growing tree that is just starting to obscure the logo tell of the time that has passed since the sign was in use. The foreboding sky gives questions about the future and adds a sense of unrest to the overall image. Essentially, the age of fossil fuels is coming to an end and the future is not all rosy and bright. Whether you agree with that take or not, I think that there are some inherent uncertainties that are illustrated here which I think everyone can agree on to some extent. Regardless, it is the story that I wanted to tell with the image.
Since the sky was changing rather rapidly, I stood there, committed to the composition and fired off a total of 44 frames over maybe 20 minutes. I paid particular attention to the times that the sunlight would shine on the sign making the clouds seem even more ominous in the background. I really thought that the best example was going to happen at the end of the series, but when I got home, I was very surprised to see that the third frame I shot was the winner. This was the first one after I changed the composition to have the sign higher in the frame with the trees in the background. The others weren’t really worse, but the sky just had the right feeling in that early shot. It was between this one, and two from the second half of the series. It really came down to the clouds and the amount of light on the trees in the background.
This was a quick trek, and even quicker when it came time to edit the image. It is kind of freeing to go out with the idea of a single photo, capture just the one, and only have one to edit and talk about. I still enjoy successful treks where I come back with a lot of great new photographs, but I like any time I can go out and come back with something new for the collection. My heart is satisfied with this subject now, which has taken about three years to actually happen. In many ways that is more important than having several new images from the day. Had Toni and I not had that conversation about the sign on the way to Asheville, I doubt that I would have realized that the last element that I needed for this composition had shown up.
The lesson here is to always keep your eyes open on your day to day drives. Things change, and what didn’t work as a photograph before, may very well work at another time.
I hope that you have enjoyed this trek and the photo that I was able to get. Look for the newest Behind the Camera to be published on September 1st. I’m going to be talking about being a seasonal photographer and why it pays to get out during parts of the year, or during conditions that you don’t normally shoot in. I try to be that well rounded photographer, and from my last two treks, I’ve gone out on a very sunny day, and a day when I ultimately got rained on. Both of these treks happened in a season that I don’t normally care for. You just never know what opportunities you are cheating yourself out of by not going out and trying.
Until next time…
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