A stock barn taken in early May, Pittsylvania County, VA.. (Click on image for larger photo).
Dogwood flowers in our yard, western Kentucky. (Click on image for larger photo).
Spring is here, which means it’s time to dust off the camera bag and head outdoors. I take pictures year round, but winter seems to be my slow period, as drab skies, bone-chilling cold, and a bland, leafless landscape, don’t translate well to knock-your-socks-off type photos. Spring on the other hand not only offers warm temperatures, longer days and an incentive to head to the outdoors, but a palate of colorful budding trees, flowers and shrubs, and skies that offer a variety, from clear and cloudless. to white and puffy, to dark and stormy.
Irises make a perfect foreground for Cook’s Mill, Greenville, Monroe County, WV on a spring day. (Click on image for larger photo).
Another springtime shot at Cook’s Mill, (Click on image for larger photo).
The subject you choose, of course, will largely be determined by what is available. Just because you have a wonderful picture of an old barn taken in the fall, with the vivid colors of the season, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth a revisit in the spring.
Flowers and budding trees and shrubs are a friend to the photographer, as they offer endless options. Spring plants can make for a background, foreground, or subject itself. Many photographers like to focus on closeups and macros of flowers, buzzing bees and insects, budding leaves, and the like.
McClung’s Mill on a spring day, Zenith, Monroe County, WV. (Click on image for larger photo).
My current location in the mountains of southern West Virginia, near the Virginia line, gives me a wide variety of options. I’m blessed with old, historic structures, in various stages of repair and disrepair, from the restored to the barely standing. There are old farmhouses surrounded by fields of bailed hay, and country churches that have served their communities for generations. Morning or evening skies over the mountains can offer a touch of color to enhance any subject needing a nudge in that direction. The occasional thunderstorm offers a chance for menacing skies, or a lightning strike, for a change of pace.
Hay bales and a red barn on a farm, Greenville, Monroe County, WV. (Click on image for larger photo).
My gas tank is full, camera batteries are charged, and I have an area circled on the road map. It’s time for a Springtime road trip along West Virginia’s less-traveled roads.
This 1952 Chevy pickup is the Kittles Hardware truck and is usually parked in front of the store in Union, WV on Saturdays. (Click on image for larger photo).
Old cars and trucks can be found just about anywhere, and often don’t require a trek off the beaten path. Others are hid in undergrowth where they were parked or dragged after they were no longer considered a viable means of travel. Old junkyards, inside barns, and around abandoned farms are all prime locations. The most obvious place for a quick photo fix is a car show. There, one can find classic cars that look as good as the day they hit the showroom. The owners will proudly tell you all about them, and let you shoot pictures freely.
Model A Fords at a car show in Benton, KY. (Click on image for larger photo).
An old truck sits rusting beside a garage in Greenbrier County, WV. (Click on image for larger photo).
I like those found rusting in a field or old farm. These are often found on the back roads that I love to drive. There’s certainly not as many as there used to be. Many have been snatched up by collectors, while others have made their way to the recycler.
For me, the same rules apply for car photos as they do to old homes, churches, and the like. I like even lighting and cloudy days. I carry a couple of full-frame camera bodies, with zoom lenses ranging from 17mm to 300mm. This pretty well covers most automotive type photography that I expect I might be doing.
Top left to right: Hood ornament on an old Ford F-600; Volkswagen Beetles in a field; Fire trucks at a salvage yard; Working trucks on a cattle farm; Jeep graveyard, all Monroe County, WV. (Click on image for larger photo).
Old cars and trucks offer a lot of options: wide shots, close-ups, instrument clusters, engines and parts. Many car enthusiasts will know nuances of specific models and may want to focus on them. Some photographers choose to shoot automobiles almost exclusively, and become very good at it. I enjoy shooting them all. I think my favorites are those that are being driven on a regular basis.
My old Land Rover Discovery that I still own. (Click on image for larger photo).
I’ve owned a couple of old trucks and cars over the years that I wish I had taken pictures of, or better yet, still owned. Today, I make sure that I have a picture of the cars that I’m driving. They may never be classics, but at least I have pictures to show when someone in the future asks what my gas-guzzling SUV looked like.
An old home in Summers County, WV. The shot was taken from my truck. (Click on image for larger photo).
Many back road photos are impossible to plan ahead, as they are found subjects at a point in time. Often, we won’t be back to the location, at least in the immediate future, so we have to make the best of the situation, or not get the shot.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS – I like cloudy days, with somewhat even lighting. That evens the chances that any given subject won’t be harshly lit by the sun, have deep shadows, or be back lit to an excessive degree. Also, clouds make a pleasant background, as opposed to stark blue skies. Early morning and evening light is also generally pleasing.
An old farm in Monroe County, WV. (Click on image for larger photo).
EQUIPMENT – Know your camera and how to operate it. I shoot everything in RAW format. Shooting in RAW gives a photographer the option to closely control aspects of exposure, shadow, highlights, sharpness, color, saturation, clarity, and other aspects of a photo before converting it to a more usable, final format. When you shoot in jpeg mode, these decisions are largely made for you by the camera, A jpeg image straight out of the camera may look just fine, but you have limited options when editing, if changes are needed.
A Monroe County, WV barn. Another image shot from my truck. (Click on image for larger photo).
I have lenses that range from super wide to telephoto. I always carry at least two full-frame camera bodies, one with a 17-35mm zoom, the other with a 28-300mm zoom with image stabilization. These are adequate for 90 plus percent of all the photos that I shoot. I do have other lenses and camera bodies, but they don’t see as much use.
A tripod comes in handy at times, especially if shooting at low ISOs with a telephoto lens, even with image stabilization. I sometimes use a monopod, which is more convenient than a tripod, but not as stable. Some photographers brace themselves against a solid object, or rest the camera on a fence post, wall, or other object found around them. Back Road photos need to be sharp, so find a method of stabilization that works for you. In the worst case scenario, you can usually raise the camera ISO by a couple of stops to get a faster shutter speed without severely compromising an image.
Cook’s Mill, Monroe County, WV. (Click on image for larger photo).
COMPOSITION – I see lots of photos of old homes, barns, churches, and the like, that are closely cropped to fill the frame. I would much rather see a photo of a subject in it’s environment. Maybe the winding road to a house, mountains in the background, cattle in the field, and aged fence posts that may have mark a property boundary. They tell the story. Close ups of archectural elements and interiors can make for interesting photos, too.
I shouldn’t have to say it, but if you don’t have permission to be on a property, get it before entering. Many of my images are made from the open window of my truck, along a public road, with little to no traffic.
An old home site, Monroe County, WV. I stopped the truck, got out and stabilized the camera with a monopod. (Click on image for larger photo).
PHOTO EDITING – Know your editing software – You can take the best back road photo in the world, but if you don’t know how to edit it to take advantage of its RAW properties, you are likely to end up with an average, or uninteresting image that anyone could have taken. I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. That’s my choice, as I’m proficient enough with them to get the type of completed images that I want. There are numerous other photo editors out there, and its a personal choice.
A good photo can be ruined by power lines going across a frame in front of a subject. I often remove these distractions in Photoshop. What I shoot is not supposed to be an exact documentation of the subject, and I’m not shooting news photos, so I don’t have a problem with these modifications. After all, it is art.
Abandoned church, Olympia, Bath County, KY. I got out of the truck and walked around to get the best angle on this one. (Click on image for larger photo).
SHARING – Once an image is finalized, it is best shared with others. Social media offers many platforms, including Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, or even one’s own web site. Images can be printed and shared the old fashioned way, too. Every photographer should see their own work printed, rather than just on the screen of a phone, tablet, or computer. Bigger is better for wall art, I think.
