Virginia is for Photography

Saturday, July 14, 2018

Journey's End

After spending the week working on my webinar presentation for Singh-Ray which is dealing with photographing the derelict and decaying, I was fully in the mood to capture some rust and rural scenes.  The weather was a little uncertain for the weekend, but it was looking like Saturday was going to be my better day when it came to clouds in the sky.  I had thought about trying to get a sunrise out of the day, but looking at the sunrise forecast the color was going to be non-existent.  That meant I could sleep a bit later.  The only question was, where to go on this trip?

A few years ago, I had found myself in Sparta, NC, after a tip from a fellow photographer.  There is a great little roadside yard art display with a ton of tractors, and this one really nice GMC truck.  I remember having a great time with it last time, although it was in the winter and I was standing in a good deal of slush to get the pictures.  The green trees really should change the look of the compositions here.  This was going to be my starting point for the day.  I say starting point because I always have a first picture in mind when I head out, and then I start to explore from there.  Since I don't spend a lot of time in the area of Sparta, I was looking forward to a little bit of rural exploration.

I wanted to get an early start on the day, but not quite early enough to catch a sunrise.  This meant I left the house around 5:30am, looking to arrive in the area around 7ish or so.  The trip out there was easy enough, and it looked like the clouds were going to be cooperating with me for a change.  I found the old truck with no problems and saw that it was still pretty much as I had left it several years ago.  The sun was just now starting to hit the side of the truck, so the lighting should be pretty good for what I was wanting.

I started out with my 16-35mm lens for a change.  I wanted to accentuate the cab while visually reducing the impact of the rear frame and dual wheels.  Of course, I added my Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer to really bring out the colors in the patina and increase the contrast of the scene.  One of the first shots of the day turned out to be keeper which was pretty cool.

Patina Panels

One of the aspects of this old truck that I love is the patina.  There is so much texture in the rust and the colors are amazing.  Something that I started doing a little bit the last time I was here was shooting isolations on the truck.  I have gotten a bit better at it over the years and was all set to work some more intimate patina shots today.  I decided that I needed a different tool to make that work so I swapped over to my 70-200mm lens and kept the polarizer attached to it.  At this point, I was like a sniper picking bits and pieces of the truck out as subjects.  The chrome emblems on the hood really caught my eye since the bright color really contrasted with the rust that surrounded it.  The bit of pitting in the chrome pulled it all together.  There was a vent in the cowl of the truck that added to the visual impact with the repeating horizontal lines, and I used the vertical lines of the hood, and fender to balance out the composition.

I'm telling you, this truck is fascinating to work with, and every time I have photographed it, I have been quite fortunate and gotten many good images.  There is just so much character to find, and every inch of this truck is part of the story behind it.  The textures that it offers is nothing short of amazing though, and probably my favorite aspect of the whole truck.

Final Sigh

The grill of this old truck has always caught my attention, but it was a little blah when photographed straight on.  I tried that not only this time, but the previous time.  It just seemed to lack something  in the translation and I have yet to be happy with a straight on shot of the front of this truck.  However, when I moved over to the side and started to frame up a composition from here, the grill started to make sense.  It was no longer two dimensional, it had depth and life, and was rather impressive without being overbearing.  The patina detail on the bumper even added to the composition, giving a strong vertical aspect to compliment the horizontal slats of the grill.  The greenery was a nice frame to the whole image and the one bit of dead leaves in the background helps to pull it all together.  For a simple image, there is a lot to look at here.

Strong and Gentle

While I was paying attention to the front of the truck, I really wanted to do something with the flowers that were right beside the front wheel.  I had included them in the overall shot, but they were just too perfect sitting where they were to ignore up close.  I liked the grill shot that I had just done, but the flowers would not work with that composition.  They were much too related to the wheel.  Hmm, I could work with that.  I decided to focus on the wheel with the flowers framing the rim.  The fender would frame the tire, and the image would be bounded by a bumper corner, headlight, marker light, and the chrome emblem.  This composition seemed to really flow, and it had a softer side to it thanks to the flowers.  Even though this is just a small section of the truck, the sense of power that is conveyed here is unmistakable and the colors are rather dynamic which makes this an interesting image.

Vent Age

Speaking of the chrome emblem, the sun was peeking out from behind a cloud and the truck was getting bathed in a warm glow.  The rust was absolutely on fire on the side of the truck.  I reacted quickly and got into position for another composition on the side of the hood.  This time, I was looking for a collection of lines, I wanted to reduce the composition down to the emblem, and the vent with just enough of the fender to balance out the composition.

I framed the image very tight, at about 160mm and waited for the sun to hit it just right before releasing the shutter.  When I saw the image come up on the LCD, I knew I had a winner.  Even with the contrast and saturation reduced, there was color galore and the histogram showed a perfect exposure.  This one was going to turn out really good I thought, and I was right!

I tried a few other things, and even tried shooting into the cab through the open window, but the compositions were not as strong as what I had already done.  I looked on the other side to see if I was missing anything interesting.  There just was nothing really to keep me here much longer.  With the morning sun climbing into the sky, I wanted to continue on my journey to find some more rural subjects before the light got too harsh.  I packed up my gear and got into the truck for a destination not quite known to me.

I drove around Sparta, and into Piney Grove before getting really lost.  I was heading in a Northwesterly direction knowing that eventually I would come into Virginia.  Of course, that did happen rather quickly as I was at the top portion of NC to start with.  I believe I was entering Grayson County and found that there were a lot of great potential subjects, but power lines and bad lighting were getting the best of me.  I just won't even stop if I don't see a pretty good potential picture.  I was getting deeper and deeper into Virginia and was starting to get a tad discouraged as the morning was marching on quickly.

The Red Roof

Doing this type of exploring, I have gotten used to a whole lot of nothing punctuated with a quick blast of "Oh Boy!!!"  That was just what happened as I was traveling down one of the state roads.  I saw a barn set just off of the road with no power lines.  It had this amazing red roof and the barn wood was perfectly aged.  As I was passing it by, I caught sight of a Chevy Biscayne all by itself next to the hill.  I even stopped in the middle of the road for a brief second and took it all in.  The car had some aftermarket wheels straight from the 90's on it, but other than that it looked perfect to me.  I got turned around and slowly came back.  I could get the barn from the road, but the car was really going to need some permission to go that deep in.  Looking at the properties around it, I was able to determine that the house across the street was probably the one associated with the barn.

I parked in the driveway to the barn and walked over to the house.  I picked a door that looked like a guest entry and and knocked.  I could hear sounds inside so I was pretty sure that somebody was home.  As I was looking around, I saw a dog coming out from one of the structures on the property beadlocked on me.  He didn't look fierce or upset, so I just held my hand out and spoke with him.  He came over and sniffed and then licked my hand.  At that point, I knew I was in good shape with the dog.  I rubbed his head for a minute and made friends.  He even sat down right next to me while I waited at the door.  I could still hear sounds, but the door wasn't opening.

I decided it was time to move to the next door that looked like it went to a sun room.  As I got close, I raised my hand to knock on the door as the door was opening.  The resident came out looking down at the ground.  I knew he did not know I was there, and I didn't want to scare him with my fist up in the air.  I quickly raised both hands and said "don't let me scare you."  He looked up startled but calmed quickly and we introduced ourselves.  He confirmed that the barn was his property and even volunteered about 100 acres of land for me to photograph on.

My first order of business was to work on the Biscayne at the rear of the barn.  I grabbed my gear from the truck and walked back there.  The exposure was going to be difficult because the car was in the shadows and the sky was pretty bright.  The clouds were nice though, so I was willing to work with the scene to make something great.  I went ahead and built the camera with my 24-70mm lens and added the prerequisite Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer.  Knowing that the exposure latitude was going to be too great, I added my Lee Filter Holder and slid in a Singh-Ray 3-Stop hard edge Galen Rowell ND Grad.  After the first couple of exposures I had a realization...

I have yet to do a video on the ND Grads for Singh-Ray, so I decided that this would be a fantastic time to do just that.  I pulled out my phone and set it up to shoot video.  Then I started to figure out how to make my one remaining hand be able to manipulate the filters.  I bypassed some of the steps just simply because I didn't have enough hands to be able to go through all of the steps and demonstrations, but in the end I think I got the general idea out there.

Biscayne

The resulting image turned out quite nice and really shows the patina that caught my eye in the first place.  The sky exposed well using the 3-Stop Grad.  There was just something about this car sitting there beneath the hill that captured my imagination.  The colors on the car really suited the environment it was in with the blues relating to the sky, and the green and rusty hues matching the landscape.  The chrome bits complimented the lighter parts of the clouds.  Everything just seemed to flow with this image

Deep Fins

The sky was starting to clear at this point and the sun was hitting the car pretty hard.  I really wanted to do something to highlight the wicked cool fins on the back of the car.  I moved to the rear of the car and set up close to the ground.  I opted for a pretty wide angle shot to really pull the attention to the lines in the back of the car.  The harsh sun actually helped here by showing off the shadows deep under the fin.  Without this shadow, the dramatic lines would not have been as obvious.  For this shot, I was able to remove the Grad filter since the sky wasn't as bright in comparison from this angle..

I worked around the car for a bit, but surprisingly was unable to find any isolations that I really liked.  The overall shots turned out so much better than any of the isolations that I did, so that is what I decided to keep from this shoot.

With the sun rising, and the clouds looking different, I decided to move onto other things.  I wanted to go out and shoot the barn real quick, so I grabbed my stuff and moved back out to the road.  I was able to keep my 24-70mm attached based on the distance I was shooting from and I started to fine tune the composition of the barn.  Now, according to the owner, this was a school originally before the civil war.  After that period of time, the school was moved to the current location and reassembled as a barn.  It is still in use to this day.

In the Barn

Once I finished with the barn pictures, I made my way back across the street and worked my way to a small shed over in the corner of the property. I had seen an old Ford tractor sitting in it while talking with the property owner.  This tractor was still in use, but had a certain rustic look sitting in the shed.  The lighting was not great with the back part of the tractor in the full sun and the light shining in from the rear pretty bright.  The nose of the tractor was fully in the shade, and I really liked the textures of the wood siding.  I decided to get a tight crop shot of the front of this tractor using my 24-70mm lens right at the frame of the entrance.  The Singh-Ray polarizer helped to make the red bumper pop and to control the glare on the hood of the tractor.  I tried several positions, but found that this one from about four feet off the ground worked the best out of all.  These N series tractors are always a lot of fun to photograph when I'm given the opportunity.  I was wishing for more compositions, but with the lighting, I was lucky to get the one that I did.  It was now time to move on to the next opportunity.

Having been given the overview of the property, I remembered that the owner said that the view from the top of the hill behind his house was fantastic.  Since he said that I could go check it out, I decided to put on my landscape eyes and give it a go.  I walked up to the top of the hill and checked things out.  Yes, you could see for miles and miles in two different directions.  You could make out Mount Rogers in one direction, and see into West Jefferson in the other.  It took me a few minutes to really determine how best to capture this view.

Mount Rogers

Looking at the sweeping views, I really wanted to take advantage of all there was to see.  I swapped out my lens to bring my 16-35mm into play.  I added the Color Combo Polarizer to bring out a little more contrast in the sky.  The composition needed something to anchor it, and I decided on a huge tree which dominated the landscape.  At the wide end of the lens, the tree was no longer as heavy in the scene and actually provided the perfect visual balance to the slope of the hill that I was on.  The strong diagonal helped to bring the attention to the distant mountain range and Mount Rogers in the distance.  The warm rolling hills transitioned into the Blue Ridge Mountains which blended nicely with the sky.  It was a simple landscape, but I thought it was an effective one.

My next concept was to get right beside of the tree and do something with the small rocky outcrop that was just to the right of it.  When I got over to it, I could already see a composition taking place right in front of my eyes.

The View From Here

One of the things that immediately caught my eye was a pond in the valley below.  It was just perfectly nestled at the base of the trees and helped to guide the eyes through the image.  The clouds seemed to mimic the ridges in the distance as well.  My initial thought was to shoot this as a sweeping landscape, but it lost the sense of meaning by doing that.  When I flipped the camera on the side and recomposed, it all made perfect sense.  My eyes were going exactly where I needed them to go within the frame.

A Rolling View

Just below the big tree where I was standing currently was a field with lots of hay bales scattered about.  I have always enjoyed photographing hay bales and decided that I would give these a shot or two before heading back to the truck.  Leaving the wide angle lens on, I started to put together some compositions.  I found a few bales that would give me a leading line into the scene and got in close as to really make the bale prominent in the scene.  In this picture, I was actually about 10 feet away from the first bale.  

I liked how my eyes moved from one bale to the next until the leading lines of the distant field pulled you the rest of the way in.  The dark green trees provided a great framework for the image, and the clouds again seemed to mimic the features in the landscape with the largest hanging above the largest grove of trees.

I tried this scene as a landscape shot as well, but it just didn't have the same visual impact and the eyes seemed to rove all over the image as opposed to following a course.  I looked around for some other shots as well, but I was seeing nothing else that caught my eye with the current light.  I went ahead and walked back out to the truck.  Before loading up, I went back over to the Biscayne and shot a few more images with different light.  At the time, I was thinking that these were going to turn out better, but after getting home and seeing them on the monitor, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the original ones had turned out better by far.

This pretty much wrapped up my day, and it was time to get back home since it was nearing noon.  I wanted to spend the second half of the day with Sierra since it was her birthday.  That is why it took so long to get the images processed and the blog entry done.  I didn't start it until 5am the following morning.

I had shot a total of 92 images from essentially two locations which was pretty good.  I was thinking it would be somewhere more in the area of 75 frames.  I had estimated about ten of the images would be keepers, and I managed to make a collection of 12 shots that made the cut.  It was a successful day and I was able to get my old iron, and even added a rustic scene with the barn.  I even got to do some landscape work which I usually don't get to do when I'm working on rural exploration.  

Now, it is time to put the finishing touches on the webinar presentation, and get ready for that.  It will air on Friday the 20th at 8pm.  To view it, you will need to register with Singh-Ray which is free to do.  Once you are registered, you will be able to view it live, and will have access to the archived recording as well.  I hope to see you there!

There and Back Again

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Spring at Rough Ridge

What does one do when he is left at home alone on a Saturday?  He plans a trip to the mountains to try to find some great clouds.  Toni was at work, and Sierra was at my Mom's for the weekend.  That meant that I could go and spend the day on the Blue Ridge Parkway if I so chose.  Well, with 70% cloud cover forecasted for most of the day and a couple of storms in the afternoon, it was my kind of day on the Parkway!  The only problem was, in order to get a sunrise, I was going to have to be on location by 5:30am.  Doing the math for Rough Ridge, that is about 20 minutes to hike in the dark, and about two hours drive time....carry the 1.  That means I would need to leave around 3am.  Not too many years ago, that was my bedtime on a regular night.  Now I'm looking at getting up a 2:30am just to go take pictures?  I could wait and just concentrate on the sunset, but I do like getting out there before anyone else is stirring.

Well, I did manage to get up at 2:30 somehow, and was out the door a little before 3.  The trip to the mountains went smoothly except for the fog that developed as I was climbing into the mountains.  It was so bad, I couldn't tell my turn to get on the Parkway and turned onto what developed into a one lane dirt road.  There was no way to turn around, so I had to back down to the road to get another block up.  That was fun...well not really...but I did get back on track and found the Parkway.  It was slow going through most of the 30 some miles I had to travel to get to Rough Ridge, and I was really wondering if I was going to be able to see a sunrise with all of the fog and low clouds.

I had no problems with the hike at least.  This is the second or third time I've done this hike in the dark now.  When I got up to the rock outcropping, I decided to build the camera with my 24-70mm lens and the Lee Filter Holder.  I figured that would give me enough flexibility to handle most of my compositional needs.  I went out on the lower level of the rocks and aimed roughly Southeast to get the distant mountains.  I was expecting the sun to come up behind the mountain, so I would not be dealing with the direct sunlight.  I opted for a 3-Stop ND Grad filter to control the sky, and allow the foreground to expose a bit brighter.  There was a nice pink bush and a rock outcrop that I was able to use for my foreground interest.  These lead the eye to the cloud covered distant mountains.

Above the Showers

Once the sun started to light the sky, it came up very fast.  I didn't stay in my position for more than about 10 minutes before looking for other compositions.  I was able to find one almost due South which captured the different clouds that were quickly approaching my location.  In fact, in just a few minutes, I was completely engulfed in clouds.  I packed my gear up and hiked into the woods a bit more.  When I realized that everything was covered in clouds, I reversed my track and headed back down the mountain to the truck.  I wasn't sure what I had gotten, but I knew that there was precious little color in the sky.  I was just hoping that the low clouds came through like I was hoping.  

Life on the Blue Ridge

I started back down the road in the direction I had originally come.  I was wanting to work my way back to Doughton Park where I might get to do some sunset pictures later in the day.  I was looking for interesting scenes to photograph, and I found a few, but they were gone quicker than I could react to them.  I did find this one scene in the road construction area of the Parkway.  I've photographed the bit of land many times because of the opposing diagonals that are present.  This time was not really one of my favorites though, but I was at least seeing promise in the skies for the first time since being overtaken by a cloud bank on Rough Ridge.

I didn't stick around here long though.  I was hunting something a bit more dramatic.  I wasn't sure what that was, but this scene wasn't it.  The camera was packed away, and the 24-70mm lens was stored away one more time.  The realization hit that I was using this lens more than any other once again.  I had gotten out of that habit not that long ago, but found myself back in that rut once again.

I continued North on the Parkway, until I was actually in Doughton Park.  Wow!! The idea was to end up here at the end of the day.  The sky was doing me no favors though, and I was at a complete loss as to what to photograph.  As I got into the park, I noticed a fence that I had photographed years ago when it was broken.  It has now been repaired, and is functional for the most part.

Parkway Showers

The weather was being very tricky on the Parkway, but that is really nothing new.  I set the camera up with the 16-35mm lens to really accentuate the fence in the compositions.  I opted for an intensifying polarizer to help bring out the blue in the sky...if it were to happen at least.  Finding a composition was a bit harder than I remembered here.  I guess having an intact fence doesn't really give you the strong diagonals that a broken one does.  As I was setting things up to get a bit of blue sky, I saw a cloud approaching quickly.  As it passed by, it dropped a very quick little shower in its wake.  It was kind of cool watching it rain about 200 feet in front of me while remaining nice and dry.

Rural Drive

Now the dark clouds were back in the sky above.  I decided to recompose and moved up on some little white flowers.  The fence bordered them to the left and the Parkway to the right.  The composition seemed pretty balanced to me. I just had to wait until the clouds got enough detail in them to add to the scene.  It didn't take long for that to happen.  I do enjoy photographing fences along the Parkway, but this one really seemed to give me a rough time for some reason.

After about 30-45 minutes, I decided to call it quits.  I wasn't having much luck with the sky at all.  In fact, it was starting to get completely white which means I can't do much with it.  I went ahead and packed the camera up, and ate my breakfast.  Well, it was too early when I got up to bother eating.  Now that it was nearly noon, I realized I was hungry.  After breakfast, it was back on the road to see what Alligator Back was looking like.

When I got to Alligator Back, I didn't even bother stopping because the clouds were horrible.  There wasn't going to be anything that I could do there.  I decided to move on to the main area of Doughton to see what was there.  When I arrived, I found very little that interested me so I turned around and decided to work my way back to 421 to go on home.

Tall Grass

On the way back South, I saw a scene that I have photographed a couple of times before.  I was getting sleepy, so I decided to hop out and have a go of it.  I grabbed my 24-70mm lens and a polarizer before setting up the composition.  Normally, the gate was only a small portion of the composition, but since the grass was so high, I was able to get in a little closer to it than before.  Red is one of those colors that you have to be careful with so it doesn't overpower the photograph.  A new challenge presented itself with the particular setting.  Since the grass was so long, any breeze would cause a wave to develop.  As luck would have it, the wind was starting to pick up.  I played the waiting game like a pro, and managed to get off a few shots that were tack sharp.

Mountain to Sea Trail

While waiting for the sun to some different things, I looked around the area to see what else could be offered.  I found a typical trail marker for the Mountain to Sea Trail, and could see that the trail was highlighted by the sun a little bit.  This was worth grabbing a quick shot or two.  I repositioned, and grabbed the shot before the sun went back into hiding.  It is a simple composition, but one that will undoubtedly tell a story to those who have hiked the trail.

Overgrown Red Gate

When I was done with the trail, I decided to come in a bit closer and make the gate the star of the picture.  It was positioned alternate to the mountains in the distance.  I actually really like this composition because of how those two elements interact with each other.  It turned out to be a very pleasing composition, and I was still able to catch the grass not being blown by the wind.  I had shot a bunch of frames, but I was just now starting to feel a little better about how the day was progressing.  It wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but things were starting to get a little bit better.

Bales in the Field

My next stop was right around 421 (yes, I had made it back there once again).  Ironically, this was one of the first places that I photographed when I decided to really take photography seriously.  It was around this time of year, and I recalled there being hay bales in the field.  Well, lets just take a trip down memory lane here.  There were bales in the field just like I recalled.  There was also a blue tractor that was obviously still in use which made it a less than appealing subject for me, not to mention that it was too far inside of the field to really make that much sense in a composition.

Tagged

Well, while photographing this interesting addition to the gate post, I found that the barbed wire was mostly missing from the fence in several locations.  I also noticed that there were obvious paths walked through the grass at these locations.  If everyone else jumps off a bridge, I guess I will too.  Yep, I went ahead and crossed the fence to get into the field.  I had no intentions on messing with anything, but I wanted to get some different compositions, and be able to omit the tractor.

Christmas Tree Farm

As much as I tried to omit the tractor, I found that it was in a very useful position.  It allowed me to balance out the composition when photographed at around 70mm on my 24-70mm lens.  Had I gone wider and made the hay bale bigger, the background would have shrunk visually.  An odd thing was happening at this point though.  I was starting to dig the tractor.  Maybe I was just recalling the Combine from last week, but I was willing to overlook the fact that it was still in service to be able to photograph it under the sky.

New Holland at Work

I decided to forego all of the other elements in the field and just focus on the tractor.  I got in close, and dropped low to really accentuate the use of the wider end of my lens.  I was careful to position myself in a way that covered the large white building in the background (along 421) with the arm of the tractor attachment.  This low position also gave me a great perspective on the sky, and let the trees go off dramatically to the left.  I was finally really excited about one of the pictures I was getting.  It is very ironic that the one element I wanted to avoid including became the star of the field!

Break Time

I wasn't quite ready to let this tractor get away.  I changed my position and got a great composition from the rear.  This tractor was just far too photogenic to skip past.  I'm so glad I ventured into the field and saw the qualities of this old New Holland.  I really liked the blue color which complemented the warmer tones of the hay bales, as well as a good portion of the field.  I was finally feeling pretty good about the day.  I knew that I at least had something with this tractor worth keeping.  I also knew it was something different from my norm, and that got me excited as well.

Skinned

Since I was down at 421, I decided to try an old fallen tree I had already been by a couple of times this morning.  The sky hadn't been good for it, but I had a feeling that the sky was a little bit better now.  Well, before I made it, I got caught in a rain storm.  I opted to keep driving to see if I could outrun the storm.  That wasn't the case at all.  I ended up at Price Lake with the rain pouring on me.  I decided that I had done enough driving and I sat there for a bit.  The rain eventually started to let up, and I decided to go and get some gas since I was running near empty at this point.  In fact, I figured it was time to just go on home actually.  I was tired, and I had a bunch of pictures in the camera.

After getting gas, I was headed down 421 and thought I would do that section between the old and new highways one last time.  That tree happened to be in that section, so I was hoping that the sky would work out for that one this time.  It didn't take me long to get to the tree, and I found that the sky was actually pretty good.  Well, at least in one direction anyway.

Dare to Bare in B&W

Once again, I used my 24-70mm lens so I could include a good bit of the sky as well as the tree.  For once, there was a bit of blue mixed in with the clouds.  For me, that always gets my mind thinking black and white.  While I didn't shoot the pictures with monochrome in mind, I did do a conversion in post to see how it would turn out.  I was actually quite happy with this one in black and white, and liked it better than the color version.  The white clouds had a great contrast to the dark sky, and the shadowed branches.  There was a lot of texture here to take advantage of the lack of color.  I'm pretty sure that this will find a way into my gallery as a matter of fact!

Dare to Bare

Don't get me wrong, I also like the color version, but I think that Skinned  makes a more dramatic statement in color.  Either way, I have enjoyed photographing this old tree ever since Toni had pointed it out so many years ago.  Of course, I can't photograph it without thinking of her either.  So, this was a very happy session after the rain.  Speaking of the rain, the clearing storm was making for some really interesting clouds, and I knew just the place to take advantage of them.  The only problem was , it was back at Doughton Park.  I wasn't planning on going back up there, but I supposed I could just take 21 through Trap Hill to get home.

Clearing Storm

Well, I wasn't the only one that had that idea.  When I arrived, I found a Corvette parked in front of my favorite gate to photograph.  I tried to get a shot of the gate, but the angle was just too hard to get the shot I was wanting.  It wasn't looking like he was going anywhere any time soon either.  I moved down to the area he was where there was another typical composition that I shoot at this location.  I zeroed in on the grove of trees that juts out from the main line and shot the picture.  It was ok, but nothing spectacular.  I just wasn't getting enough of the sky.  Wait a minute, I was using my 70-200mm lens with a 3 stop grad, so that made for a great combo for a panorama.

I went ahead and leveled the tripod, and did a dry run through the entire picture I planned on capturing to make sure the camera stayed level through the track.  Then I started to fire off the exposures. The resulting image is a compilation of a half dozen images shot vertically.  It is a huge file, but also a very detailed one.  Once I was done with the panorama, I played around with some other compositions, and even swapped in my 24-70mm to see if I could get the gate to work that way.  It was a no go.  I was spent, and I was tired.  It was time to get home.  

By the time I got home, I had been gone for 16 hours.  Now that I am finishing up on the computer, I have been awake for 22.5 hours.  It is long past time to go to bed!

Edit: June 27, 2017

I started to go through some of my pictures from the day to see about doing more monochrome conversions.  I had originally done a couple and only liked the one of the fallen tree.  However, with fresh eyes (and more awake eyes) I saw the potential in a couple more.

Clearing Storm in B&W

This panorama is a strange picture for me  It is brutally simple in composition, but the story is completely in the sky.  The only problem was the time of day.  The sun was bright at this point, and that caused all sorts of contrast issues.  The addition of the ND Grad helped the original capture, but the sky still wasn't quite "right".  Not wanting to do major manipulations, I pretty much left it as it was.  But with the black and white conversion, I was able to eek out some more details in the clouds, and really start to show the depth of the scene.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, and am actually considering doing it as a canvas wrap in the living room.

Rural Drive

The next one I converted was one that already started out as a moody piece.  The standout element for me on this was the spring flowers in the foreground. They were white, so while they stood out in the color picture, they didn't have quite the dramatic effect that a brighter color would have.  Also, there was no sunlight on them which diluted their presence.  With a monochrome conversion, I was able to negate those issues, and turn them into a texture element rather than relying on their color.  The sky also benefitted from the conversion as it became a little more significant with the added depth.

Touring the Countryside

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Sponsors

The weather this weekend has been less than stellar for the types of photography that I enjoy.  That has pretty much kept me inside and the camera on the shelf.  Well...that isn't exactly true.  I've been working on a little project for a client that I will release later on in the month.  Since it is a gift, I am trying to keep it a secret.  The only problem is, I'm very proud of this particular project, and I can't wait to share it with everyone.  As great as it turned out, I only tripped the shutter three times for the project.  That left me...well...wanting more.  That is where the weather came into play.  For the most part, there was nothing but blue skies to be had, which hardly gets me excited to take pictures.

By Sunday, I was really wanting to go to the mountains and do some landscapes, but the weather was nowhere near where I would have wanted it.  It wasn't worth the drive out to the mountains, so I decided to stay at home.  As the afternoon started to tick by, I noticed that the clouds were starting to move into the area.  not much, but enough.  I started going through my memory to think of places that were close by that I could hit around golden hour, just before sunset.  For some reason, this old piece of yard art came to mind in Yadkin County.

I have driven, and ridden my bike past this old blue race car numerous times.  I have even pulled over and tried to photograph it before.  It was never the right time, or the right conditions.  I'm not sure why, but I was unable to shake the vision of this old track car.  That usually means I need to go out and photograph what I'm locked on because my subconscious is telling me that something great is about to happen.  At least that is how it seems.  I didn't have much hope for this car, and in fact I was already thinking about plan B's when I got to the car and decided it wasn't a good candidate.

Sponsors in B&W

Well, after dinner, I had kind of cooled my jets on the car as the clouds were starting to fade away.  I wasn't really interested in photographing the clouds, but I wanted a bit of diffusion in the light.  Well, I had listened to the voices in my head enough to know that I had better go on out there to see what they were talking about.  I grabbed my camera and headed out to Yadkinville.  All the way there, I was trying to talk myself out of trying to photograph the car.  It was on a business property, but I had a sneaking suspicion that the owners were the house right next door.  Would they let me photograph the car or not?

When I drove past the car, the lighting actually looked really good and the sun was in the perfect position to light the car like I had always wanted.  The parking lot seemed very small, and very much like an extension of the house.  I drove by, not really wanting to face a armed homeowner this evening.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to give it a try.  I turned around, and pulled into that small parking lot.  I walked over to the house and rang the doorbell.

I waited....

I waited....

No answer.  I went back over to the garage and knocked on the door.  No answer there either.  At this point, I went back to the car with the intention of leaving.  However, I looked around, and saw that I was in the wide open.  There was even a neighbor across the street mowing.  Nobody seemed to care that I was there.  What I was wanting to photograph was right off of the road, and I was comfortable with that.

I brought the camera out slowly giving ample time for anyone to voice their displeasure at my presence.  That never came, and I was able to mount my 24-70 lens with a polarizer with no issues.  I went and set the tripod up and started to make compositions.  I started high, and worked lower, and the lower I went, the closer I went.  Still nobody was paying me a bit of attention.  I was very careful not to get too close to give anyone the indication that I might be up to no good.  After about ten frames, I decided it was time to call it a day.  I had pressed my luck long enough, and felt that I had a great picture in there somewhere.

Hmmm, only ten frames thus far.  The sun was still up, and my shutter finger was itching for more action.  I decided to continue off into the sunset in search of...well, a sunset.  I wasn't in the mountains, but this was farm land, and I was hoping to find something with a barn, or open lands that would work under the sky that was developing.  It wasn't the best sky I had ever seen, but it was developing into a decent potential for a sunset. 

John Deere Green

As I was driving along Courtney-Huntsville Rd (one of my cycling roads as well), I found an old Combine on the side of the road.  It was not an old abandoned farm implement like I would normally have been drawn to.  It was an active piece of machinery.  What I liked about this was the sky behind it, and the fact that the Combine was in it's natural setting.  What the heck!  I might as well see what I can do with this scene as the sun was quickly dropping.

I pulled over and got my camera out.  I started with a 70-200mm lens, but quickly found that I wanted to get a little bit wider, so I swapped my 24-70mm back on.  Since the compositions I was looking at were facing North, I decided that I would go ahead and add an intensifying polarizer to help with the sky.  In a couple of minutes I was back at making compositions.  This lens was working out much better.  The sky was looking really cool, and I was thinking that I could deal with the contrast difference by processing the RAW file with a little care.  I opted not to add an ND Grad since my compositions kept the combine well into the horizon.

I think what drew me to this rather simple composition was that it was full of primarily horizontal lines that repeated through the picture.  The clouds, the boom,the yellow stripe, the very shape of the combine, and the rows in the field.  They all repeated the same pattern.  It was a relaxing scene, and one that told a story.

End of the Work Day

Whenever, I tried to include the sunset to the West, the combine went too far into the shadows.  When I started to process the images, I wasn't able to bring the detail out without causing a ton of digital noise.  That was not acceptable and I chose to toss the pictures out.  However, Toni came in and took a look at what I was working on.  She liked the one with the actual setting sun included.  I explained my position, and she balked.  She liked it and wanted it in the gallery.  Well, I hate to tell her no, so I bypassed the image and didn't include it in my final cut.  Well, I didn't say no...but I didn't do it either.

As I was getting things ready to go into the blog, I remembered that I actually had taken a series of images of that scene with the intention of experimenting with HDR photography.  I went back into Lightroom, and found the three images.  I did a quick merge and looked at the final product.  I wasn't a fan.  It was washed out, and didn't really look all that great.  But I had never done this before, and knew that I would need to do a little polishing of the image.  Well, as I started to move the sliders around, I started to see a lot of potential.  I completed the process and decided that this one could work.  There was no noise in it, and the colors were pretty great.  I was wishing that the combine was something different, but beggars can't be choosers.  The picture worked, and captured the scene that Toni liked better than my first pick.  So, in a way, I did say yes after all.

It was a quick trek, but at least I got out of the house with the camera.  I also photographed two different scenes that I had never pulled a camera on before.  I was ecstatic about the old race car when I started the processing.  it turned out better than I had envisioned it.  Showing me once again, when that inner voice says "go", I had better listen to it.  I also did my first even HDR photograph, and found that I actually like the effect.  I didn't over process it, and it doesn't have that grunge look to it.  It is actually quite natural, and appears as my eyes saw it.  That is always the goal with my processing.  I want it to appear natural, the way I saw it at the time of the capture.  This fit the bill, and I was quite happy with the outcome.  in fact, I am happy with all three of the shots that I decided to keep, and the one black and white conversion turned out very good as well.

A Truck and a Tractor

May 28, 2014

Honeysuckle and Dew

There are times that I look back on things and all I can do is shake my head and wonder.  I had one of those experiences related to this trek.  It all started yesterday when I reached out to a friend of mine who has ridden in the annual Tour to Tanglewood with me in the past.  Since I was not going to be riding this year, I wanted to make sure that she was still planning on riding so I could make a donation.  While talking to her she complimented my photography and added "I think of you every time I drive out on our land we're building the house on, we have an old 59 Chevy truck and an old 58 Chevy truck."

Wait a minute.........

What's that???????

You have old trucks on your property??????

Uhhhhhhh, can I get a location and permission?

Of course, she was happy to let me know where the trucks were.  She said that one was under a tarp deep in the property and the other one was about 75 feet from a utility right of way.  I looked at things on Google Maps and figured out that I would have a pretty good chance at photographing the truck that wasn't under cover in the early morning light.  As it turned out, the conditions would be decent the very next day.

I was familiar with the area as I used to ride my bike on the road I was heading to several times a month.  I couldn't place the exact location I was going to, but knew that I had passed it many times on the bike, and quite a few more times driving (most of which looking for subjects to photograph).  I didn't know how far I was going to have to go off of the main road to get to the truck, but I had a good idea where to look, and the morning lighting was nearly perfect!  It was going to be a good day!

I got close to the area and as I passed through looking for a place to park my truck I saw the blue Chevy sitting in the tree line, visible from the road!  How in the world had I missed this?  In fact I was just out here a few days ago looking for barns.  There was a nice gravel construction entrance leading right to the truck so parking was not an issue at all.  I got out and built up my camera.  Since I have become rather fond of the wide angle shots with these old vehicles, I decided to leave my walkaround 24-70mm lens attached and added a polarizer to control any glare on the truck.

When I first started shooting, the light was a little splotchy because of the trees at my back, but it was nice and warm and the truck couldn't have been positioned more perfectly to catch the morning light.  I made use of the shadows at first and composed the shot above to give a visual balance between the light grille and the dark trees.  These white grills are always difficult to photograph when the sun is shining on them, but with the shadows falling on the grill, it all worked out perfectly.

Baby Blue

While the sun was doing some odd things through the trees, I decided to work on some up close and intimate shots.  I'm always a big fan of the light blue that so many cars in the 50's were painted.  It looks so nice when paired with the inevitable surface rust that appears 60 years later.  I wanted to capture just that color combination along with the intact badging on this Apache.  The bent front bumper was a visual bonus that helps to define the shot.

Sweating it Out

I moved around to the front of the truck since the chrome hood emblem was in such good shape.  I framed up a shot that captured that as well as the interesting patterns of rust and morning dew.  I used the inner headlights to frame the shot, and included the entire cab as well.  Originally I wasn't really happy that the truck was missing the windshield, but I don't think that this particular shot would have worked out nearly as well with the curved glass in place.  It was a nice treat to see the interior in such clarity.  The title here came from the appearance of the dew on the hood mainly.  When I paired that with the knowledge that this was a parts truck, I could see the truck actually being worried about what was going to happen to it next.  Coupled with the sweat that was pouring off of my forehead in the high humidity of the morning, it all just came together and made perfect sense.

Fading Heartbeat

While I was working on the detail shot of the hood, I started to see some potential  for a full on, squared up, front view shot.  I backed up and tried it that way, but there wasn't the feeling that I was hoping for at all.  I decided to flip the camera over into portrait mode and recompose the shot.  This was what I was looking for!  This shot has a completely different feeling to it compared to the close in shot.  Here, you can appreciate the straight body panels, and clean lines.  It is relatively complete in this shot, and there is more of a sense of potential here.  Obviously, this is far from an operable vehicle, but that Heartbeat of America still Pulses.

Eclipsed by Progress

I'm not sure what happened here.  I usually would never consider a shot like this.  I hate power lines, I hate contrails, and the lighting is a little harsh from this angle.  Despite all of that, I did set the camera up and worked out a composition that not only included the power lines, but embraced them.  There were multiple contrails in the sky that were brought out even more with the use of the polarizer.  When I look at my typical formulas for my shots, I would have never released the shutter, and certainly would have never let it pass by 3 different culling runs through the pictures.  However, there was just something about this view that resonated with me, and I wanted to work the negative into a finished print.

As I was working the photo, I realized what had hit me about this picture and why I was putting so much importance into it.  The two things that I don't particularly care for in a picture were representing modern technology, and progress.  The truck obviously represented a simpler time in life which was where the juxtaposition comes in.  With the lighting, it all came together.  Everything new was in full light, and easy to see, while the majority of the truck had fallen into the shadows.  The only thing that was left fully visible was the well worn face of this American Icon.

After deciding that the lighting was getting a bit too harsh to work with on the truck I decided to go deeper back into the property to check out the other truck that was supposed to be under a tarp.  This was the truck that was going to be restored, and had a deep meaning to the owner.  I was quite excited about the possibility of shooting this truck some day and wanted to get a sneak peak.  As I walked down the long construction driveway I found the house that was getting built, but couldn't find any more old trucks.  Well, its not often that I get free reign to just walk around and explore, so I took advantage of it and kept on going beyond the house.  I found, not a truck, but an old silver Ford tractor.  It was the right era, and in the right state for me photographically, but the color did nothing at all for me.  Just beyond the tractor, I could see some things in the wood line, and based on the shape, one of those items was the missing red truck.  It was completely covered so I wasn't able to get that sneak peak I was hoping for which was a little disappointing.  However, the sky was looking rather pretty over the trees, and I did have that old tractor sitting there with weeds growing up through the mechanicals.  I decided it was worth another look.

But Not Forgotten

It was positioned in such a way that the rear and right flank were bathed in the early morning sun, but not the front.  I tried to make a composition from the well lit corner, but it was boring, and just lacked the visual drama that I thought the image needed to offset the silver paint.  I continued to walk around and saw that the light wasn't so harsh that the grill was not visible, just shaded.  I figured I would do a grab shot just so I could say I tried.  I started to frame it and decided that this one really needed a portrait orientation so I flipped the camera and dialed in the polarizer to reduce the glare off of the hood.  As I was setting things up, I noticed the plastic bottle over the exhaust stack.  Obviously, this tractor was being used as a drying rack for dishes now....

Nope, that bottle was there to keep the rain out of the exhaust and engine.  My first thought was to remove it for the picture (and return it afterwards, of course).  I even started to walk that way, but the little voice inside of my head that prompts me to photograph things as I find them without any manipulations started to scream at me.  I was torn because this was not trash that I could remove guilt free, this was actually a part of the scene as dictated by the owner of the tractor.  It also showed in intention to fire this old tractor up again someday...maybe soon.  All of a sudden, the scene made sense to me, and this became a very important piece.  The weeds and rust told one story, but that simple plastic bottle told another one entirely.  The tractor was neglected, and left out in the elements, but it wasn't entirely forgotten either.  That bottle was the hinge pin of the story behind this picture that led me to the emotion it evoked.  The bottle was important, and it was going to stay right where it was!

Ironically, the harsh light also provided a bit of visual tension to the image that added some much needed drama to a color that had very little punch.  It was still a grab shot, but when I saw it on the monitor when I got home, my pulse quickened, and I found myself getting very excited over what I was seeing.  To me, this was a very powerful image, and after all the ink was applied to the proof paper, this turned out to be my favorite from the day!  And it wasn't even the reason I drove out here today.

When I was finished with the tractor, I figured that it was time to call it a day.  I walked back out to my truck and started to put my camera up.  I made one last look at the Chevy before I pulled the camera off of the tripod though.  What I saw was, even though the sun was well up in the sky now, the Chevy was very well lit and the quality of the light appeared to just as good as it was earlier.  Having had some difficulty getting a close in wide angle shot due to my own shadow in the frame, I thought I might have better luck now that the sun was higher, so I went back and gave it another try.

Memory Maker

I was able to get to rather wide setting on my lens without getting myself in the frame this time.  The light was still very warm, but I played with the white balance settings a little bit to add what would be the equivalent of a warming filter.  The colors started to pop at that point, and I could tell that I made the right choice about coming back to do some more work on this truck.  I fired off a few frames so I was sure and got the proper exposure since I was working with that white grill in direct sunlight.

Just Off the Beaten Path

After having a bit of good luck with high contrast scenes, I decided to switch things up a little bit.  I moved to the right rear of the truck and kept the wide angle view on my lens.  I was almost shooting into the sun, but I knew that the Canon 5DM3 could resolve quite a bit of exposure latitude when pushed.  I was going to push it with this picture.  I only took one frame and exposed the histogram all the way to the right without clipping the highlights except for the extreme highlights.  This left the shadows exposed a little bit better, and since I was shooting RAW, I was going to be able to pull some more detail out of the shadow areas in post processing.  This turned into a very dramatic image with the bed length being exaggerated visually.  The truck almost leaps off of the page heading to the driveway in the distance.

All in all, I shot 60 frames in about an hour and a half worth of work.  After culling them down, I was surprised to have a total of eight images that I think were significant from the morning, and stood on their own.  Of course, I am still just tickled about finding that old tractor, and that I had the foresight to try and shoot it when my first response was lackluster at best.  Even a trained photographic eye can miss things at first sight.  fortunately, my mind was thinking beyond what my eyes were seeing with several of these shots.

Now, how in the world have I missed this location for so long???  I really want to know!